Write About Life's Discards

During my morning run by the sea, a discard by a trash receptacle teased my curiosity. I returned to take its photograph, intrigued by experiences that had etched into the wood.

What types of books or letters had rested there?  How many items did it support: unpaid bills, receipts, sandwiches, drinks that satisfied or overwhelmed?  Did it sit by a window?

What happened to the light bulb and shade?  How many conversations did it overhear?  Did others' pledges and pains circulate its length?  Which conversations needed taking back? What else remains broken where it lived?

How did it lose its light?

Creative Write:  Have you discarded something recently?  Does the photograph reveal a relationship to what you have thrown away?

What would you write about the loneliness of an abandoned lamp table?  Where will it travel next?

Sounds of Familiar

We live within a symphony of sounds in our homes.

Pops, creaks and bangs abound.

Rap. Rup. Rip.

Doors slam. Keys jingle to unlock them. The squeal of a garage door announces an arrival of family and friends.

Pets patter, scratch, tweet, meow or arff.

We become accustomed to pipes that gurgle. Water ticks from roof tops. Dribble. drip. drip. tap. tap. tap.

The grind of a garbage disposal accosts as a dryer rumbles in the background, jostling clothing.

Scrapings and screechings circulate throughout the day. Walls shake from furnaces turning on and off. Floors squeak. Wind shimmies windows. As clocks tick in metronome time, echoes bounce from walls.

A rhythm percolates.

Cacophony trumpets a sense of identity and ownership. Sounds bond us to our home. Often a feeling of security results from the familiar. 

Creative Write:  Map the geography of sounds in your current living space. Travel back in time and do the same for a childhood home, from a living space at school or a favorite location.

Add behaviors to the sounds. Who walked in, slammed a door or closed a drawer to avoid an awakening?

What sizzled on the stove? Did a boiling pot gurgle like a friend's anger?

Who arrived with a tinny ringing of the doorbell and feet scuffing on the door mat to make the heart race?

Who turned the music on?

What did a message on the answering machine reveal after the beep?  Whose feet shuffle and scurry on the stairs.



What permeates the silence?

Paint the Day

Play and bounce words that shimmer and shine.

Notice colors, forms and texture as you pass through the day.

Compare shapes and sizes that shout beige, aubergine, or tangerine.

Sherbert your words. Let purple shampoo the page with champagne icing.

Trample leaves for crimson. Melt doubts with a raspberry gaze.


Find dappled hues in a fog-flanneled sky.
Notice blueberry moments 
from the corner of your eye.

Bubble for O's in yellows and greens.
Greet a fellow in feathers 
and watch how he preens.