Writing prompts – they occupy a slightly sado-masochistic place in my writing life. They can be agonising to engage with, but can be so very helpful too. Like a good stretch when you first wake up, they can function as a way of loosening up the imagination and writing muscles, and sometimes a wee gem emerges unexpectedly too.
I came across Vox Poetica a little while back and started to follow them on social media – who wouldn’t love their mission of bringing poetry into the everyday?! They run an occasional series of writing prompts and I recently responded along with several others. I called my own poem “Blue Music” but click on this link here and you will be able to check out the original prompt and the other very varied responses. The idea for my own response came from someone commenting about having synaesthesia, and going on a little research journey to consider what it may be like to have senses interacting in a way different to my own, and using a bit of poetic licence to play with those thoughts.
I see blue
you hear low, swaying melody
and together
we move
slow dancing
in cool night air
Stars light the way
but we close our eyes
against their silver
and our bodies
they move so slow
together
Blue music
slow dancing
under starlight
© Vicky Allen 2018