The Circle Prompt #5: TIME TRAVEL

In “Writing as Healing (Part )” I analyze Sharon Old’s narrative poem “I Go Back to 1937.” This prompt is inspired by that poem.

PROMPT:

This prompt is from The Poet’s Companion edited by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux.

“Take out an old family photo and address the people in it or have them speak. Write about what’s not in the frame. What happened before or after this picture was taken? What does the writer know now that the people in the photograph did not know then? Or try comparing two photographs — one past, one present. Consider what happened in the time between the two.”

CHALLENGE:

Add at least one fantastic element to your poem or flash piece. Sharon Olds’ transforms an ordinary gateway into a portal with descriptions such as “the wrought-iron gate still open behind her/its sword-tips aglow in the May air…” She also adds a fantastic element with: “red tiles glinting like bent/plates of blood behind his head..” Technically she’s describing ordinary “red tiles.” But every time I read this I literally see “plates of blood” suspended in the air behind the father’s head. So, you can connect your fantastical imagery to “real” imagery or just create it on its own.