Days like today – writing with friends.

Writing is mostly a solitary activity. Friends get together and write – but they don’t usually mesh their writing. However… my dear, incredibly creative, & inspirational friend, Sharon Vincz Andrews – artist and writer of Middle Grade fiction & poetry – and I have been writing together for years!

We write merged poetry & here’s how we do it! (w/examples! )

Usually we start by tossing back & forth a list of non-related words. She’ll say “bread” and I’ll say “asphalt.” Here’s part of a list…

common banana
actor cheese (although there are cheesie actors! lol!)
pounds canoe
table accordian
fence underwear
hammer cloud

Then we choose who gets the odd lines and the even lines (we write 8-line poems) – this alternates from poem to poem. Sometimes we’ll use our unrelated words and sometimes we won’t. To do so is really challenging & can be pretty funny at times!

The one thing we DO NOT DO is pick out a theme or even an idea for a poem. We write our lines completely independent of each other! (no talking allowed!)

When our lines are done. We merge them and see what we’ve got.

Here are a couple of examples…

1. You could have left space for me.

2. Her bling, a single shiny jewel in one ear,

3. A passing thought in the current of ‘now’

4. Ads circled in yellow decorated the classifieds.

5. Emails, notes, typed, written – scream silence.

6. New town, new streets, same life.

7. I’m the third bicycle on the left.

8. Maybe a half-cafe latte barrista for awhile…

1. Cross against the traffic & headlights flare.

2. Give me a 5-speed transmission any day.

3. Dark city streets look like another town.

4. The muscle boys don’t know ‘real’ muscle cars.

5. I brace for the familiar smell of the lobby.

6. An ounce of nostalgia can drown the most buoyant heart.

7. He catches my hand as we race to the balcony.

8. Give me today’s whatever – yesterday’s gone.

This exchange of words and ideas is always inspirational to me! And, I have found that it pretty much works with anyone who’s willing to give it a shot. It’s amazing how we can blend seemingly unrelated thoughts into poetry!

If you write with a friend – you might enjoy trying out this “priming the pump” exercise sometime. If you do – I’d love to hear about it!