Thursday Thirteen #4: Writers' Workshop

The first poem that I posted here was written based on an exercise that we did in a writing class that involved handling a series of objects with our eyes closed in order to experience the details more individually through the sense of touch rather than taking it all in as a single picture. I thought that it would be interesting to find thirteen things that I would put in my box to bring to class if I taught a writers' workshop, and what might be discerned through touching them.




1. This was my first thought: the milkweed pod. There's such and endless catalog of things going on there--rough walls, silky strands ending in hard seeds, the hinge on which it opens, the flight that initiates when the strands detach.




2. I thought this violin was an great combination of lines and curves. It would be fun to receive this blindfolded and discover the sound unexpectedly rather than knowing it would be there when you plucked a string. (That, and it made me think of mom huebert, who usually drops by!)




3. Would a flower still feel like a flower if the velvet sloped down from the spines rather than up around them?





4. Could a dry winter leaf fool us into thinking that it was a thin piece of parchment for a moment? What took place beneath the tree that would appear on a page of its history?





5. After another hundred years, would a section of this window sill be so light and porous that it felt more like cork than wood?




6. Would man-made beads feel like God-made seeds if you couldn't see the colors, particularly if they weren't all round? What was in the mind of either creator when they were made?





7. Does down feel more like feather or like fur?






8. Wet feathers might seem more like moss. What path does a feather take to find itself in a river with fins and moss?




9. Men have learned to weave spiders' webs. Would any part feel like the original? What do men catch in their webs?




10. Would there be enough variations in the height of the features to piece together the details of Thomas Kincade's wharf in your mind before seeing it, or would it be a surprise?





11. Is the soapstone bear just a very bold wax casting? It would be interesting to see how much difference the theme of the shape made in discerning its nature.




12. Most of us had a doll or bedtime toy when we were very young. Could an old Coke bottle wrapped in a blanket stir up a memory before we reached the top and realized what we actually held?




13. Okay--before complete hysteria sets in, I want to acknowledge that I know that the elephant would definitely NOT fit in the box.

It does remind me of a story about touching what can't be seen. Some blind men were given an object to identify using only their sense of touch. One thought that he had a rope in his hand, when in fact it was the elephant's tail. Another was convinced that he was hugging a tree, when in fact it was the elephants leg. Each misdiagnosed their target. From them, we learn to take a little extra time to look beyond appearances to see the full picture, even with our eyes wide open.