The daily practice of freeing your imagination
Follow @imaginativestorm on Instagram for a daily writing prompt. It can be anything from the blue at the heart of a flame, to “overrated,” to “what will you find when you reach the horizon,” to this prompt, inspired by my cat. Every morning he hides in my bathtub and I say, “Where’s Bukayo?” a few times, and he jumps out at me.
Think of it like a yoga practice: you stretch the fibers of your imagination, and you stretch the willingness of your rational mind to let whatever jumps out, jump out. Or, think of it like a gratitude practice: you notice things in the world and in your memory that you might otherwise have overlooked or forgotten. Don’t you love that phrase below, remembered and appreciated by Sylvie Greil: “the delicacy of their necks”?
Publish what you write to our prompt on the Imaginative Storm Circle platform—where you will also find a large archive of visual and audio writing prompts. We’ve been holding our Writing Prompt of the Week gathering on Zoom for nearly two years now, and all the prompts are there and also on our YouTube channel. Join us live on Zoom one Saturday, noon ET! It’s free.
Daily prompt: What jumps out at you
— Sylvie Greil
It isn’t so much what jumps out at me,
but what does not.
To notice, I’d have to be present,
and I’m elsewhere.
I’m always in the past.
Always the same things.
That stroll at the twelve stations of the cross,
when I walked behind them,
contemplating the delicacy of their necks.
Cold winter mornings with wet socks and moon boots.
The purple sunsets at the old house.
Milan, when he still laughed with abandon.
When he still laughed. Period.
I’m trying to be here.
I sat in the sun this morning by the pool.
And the summer toys left behind really popped,
as did the cloudless blue sky.
And Seda’s new dark hair.
What pops out at me back inside is unpleasant:
Miyuki’s cat claws and mustache hairs on the rug.
Fat dust bunnies under the couch.
A stain on the ceiling
I want to see the beauty.
The five sunflowers I bought,
The small yellow ceramic espresso cup.
I need rose-colored lenses.
I misplaced mine.
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