I lost trust in the process of this poetry playtime. So today I set out to make it work again. I read Elisabeth Ellington’s post using metaphor dice in a different way. She set up her rule of play: “I had to use one of each color (concept, adjective, object), and the dice I used had to touch each other. ” I looked at her picture of her box.
I decided to take mirror, silent, and teacher, but use mirror as the object rather than teacher and wrote “The mirror is my silent teacher.” With the use of a few paint chips, the words flowed again. I need to be more open to the process of creativity. It does work on occasion.
The mirror is my
silentnoisy teacherbabbling on
about this line
and that
showing off
dark spots
and yet
reminding me
that grandma loved
hydrangeas.
She tended her garden
like I tend my face.
Time teaches me
spirit rock lessons–
some hard as stone
some soft as
hearth.home— Margaret Simon, (draft) 2019
I did some editing on this, but now I realize that babbling is not silent. Perhaps I need to change silent to noisy? And then hearth is really hard, not soft, so maybe home works better. I wonder how true to the words I am given do I need to be. Word choice is a challenge set forth by every poem. What do you think?
Reflections on the Teche 
I’m so pleased you found your way today. I agree, some days the rules were forcing me to play in a way that didn’t feel right. I’m leaving my heart and mind open. A spirit rock lesson, perhaps? Until tomorrow, my playmate. 🙂
Interesting to hear your process as you found your poem. I appreciated to the opportunity to hear about your revisions as well. Your poem contained many surprises. My favorite surprise came at the end:
Time teaches me
spirit rock lessons–
some hard as stone
some soft as hearth. home
I love it! And your process reminds me of just what I was reminding my students today–scratching out and changing words IS part of writing poetry. (My notebook is filled with scribbles as I search for the “just right” words.
Wow, Margaret. I adore that leap from the mirror to your grandma. Just wise and beautiful, this whole poem. xx
I love this! I think I want to start mixing my play–as you do here with metaphor dice and paint chips. Thanks for more inspiration!