Poetry Pals - Week 17 - Timed Poetry, On Beauty

Restricting time to think and write on a specific subject after reading a specific poem for inspiration.

Hello poetry people,

This week over at

Poetry Pals

we have been looking at writing to a time limit. We had the wonderful

LeeAnn Pickrell

as our guest writer. She gave us a wonderful insight into her writing process. She a bit of a punctuation geek/nerd (geeks and nerds are the most amazing people), as an editor needs to be, but I’m afraid she may be a little frustrated with me as I use punctuation quite flexibly and break a lot of the rules. (I blame dyslexia and a wayward personality that likes to twist the rules into unworkable knots.)

So the prompt is to read the Kevin Young poem “Egrets” or any other poem that speaks … about beauty. Make a list of a few things you find beautiful, maybe four or

five. Pick one thing from the list and free write for about 5 minutes and then spend the next 10 minutes shaping it into the beginnings of a poem. I find that timing prompts helps me just write without overthinking it too much.

I started thinking about things that are beautiful and noted down those that to me are the most fulfilling, those that makes me smile inwardly. I did consider many things but noted mainly those that were of nature. It’s definitely nature that soothes my soul.

Beautiful things The feel of moss Cracked tree bark Unfurling ferns Swirling wind atop heather moors, skylarks whistling above Rin laughing at 80s films Ocean waves thalassophile

Then it was time to spend just 5 mins free writing about just one of the above. I was taken by the word thalassophile, in me it ‘felt’ like the sea. And that intrigued me. I’d not come across it until recently (or maybe I had and I’d forgotten- I’m good at that) and loved its sound. So a 5 min mind dump ensued, some of it is okay, some not. And then I needed to workout which parts, phrases, I like enough to work on. (Bolded below)

thalassophile -I can hear the waves in the word the ss of the dragging of the sand grains rolling over themselves, many colours colliding. The ridges the waves make, patterned sand ground ridges under my feet, felt even through shoes. Hard, ungiving, unlike the coiled sand poo of razor shells, soft and chaotic design. Wind whipping the salt from the top of the waves to settle on my skin and hair, tasting the salt on my lips chapped from the wind. Sun reflecting off the wave tips, sparking in pools, carbs, seaweed, toe curling cold pools, lichen, baby fish. Marram grass on unstable dunes sand trailing behind and filling footprints. Waves reaching up and pulling back along the sea edge. Children’s laughter. Splashing of water, feel of sand in hands, gritty, rough, minute, rubbed between finger tips, caressed into palm creases.

Then 10 mins to start drafting a poem based on some of what is written above. This doesn’t end with a finished poem though. I got a reasonable start I feel. I did do it on the iPad and I sort of wish I’d written it by hand to track the changes, but I was too lazy to get up and find pen and paper, a recurrent theme in my life. Ah well.

Thalassophile - draft

dragging grains sweep the shore 
rolling on the waters edge
sparkle topped waves ridge the sand 
gridded impressions litter underfoot
wind whips salt into the breeze
sand grinds between flesh, creasing
into lined flesh, brown, yellow, clear 
grains gritty, rough, rubbed between 
briny finger and thumb
lips cracked with tasty salt
toe curling cold pools shallow 
harbour sea creatures gently

So I needed to spend time longer with this. I was enjoying the subject and some of the imagery but it needed more. Oo, this was tough and I made a good few different versions, one was very short - too short, one beat about the bush and waffled on for far too long, one was too icky-sicky, one got barely passed the first two lines.

Beach pictures

Thalassophile 

surf-dragged grains sweep the shore, 
roll on crumpled waters edge. 

sparkle-topped waves ridge sand 
gridded impressions litter the beach

wind-whipped surf crazes tasty lips
dank salt-breeze hair crunches, crackles

gritty sand finds flesh creases into lined skin,  
rough grains rubbed between briny digits

tickling marram grass fortifies trickling dunes, 
unstable terrain erasing sunken footprints 

bladderwrack pops slimily underfoot, 
sending spicy sea-scent soaring 

toe curling cold shallow pools suck breath
harbour tide-waiting stranded creatures

share this wonder sit, listen, see, feel
gentle harmony, peace, beauty

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