Kristin Berger's poem posted today here on this blog--which you should go and read now!--starts with the sentence "Love is truth." Throughout the poem, she defines love as a variety of things, and contrasts it to fear. It is a beautiful, uplifting poem, and it is the basis of this week's prompt.
I would like you to do a few things that Berger does. Define a positive intangible--such as love, hope, or generosity--multiple ways in your piece. You can start with another tangible, (Love is truth.) but be sure to immediately back it up with tangible images/examples.
Feel free to go all over the place! Be tangential. Besides the definitions, also contrast your main topic to other things, both tangible, intangible, and tangential. Write a long poem, a lengthy short story, or a journal piece that goes on and on.
These are what I call "kitchen sink poems." I write them once in a while--I keep with my topic while wandering off to make weird comparisons, throwing in everything but the kitchen sink.
Berger actually has the kitchen sink in her poem, which I love! Can you also manage to get a typical household object into your piece as well?
Visual artists, this prompt means your challenge is to create something that embodies a positive intangible in different and varied ways. Can you also manage to get a dog or cat into your piece as well?
For both--if you can get Abraham Lincoln in your piece, even better! He does not appear in Berger's poem, but he is the one, in his first inaugural address, who called upon Americans to remember and embrace the better angels of our nature.
Focus on the better angels in your experience and have fun!
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