COMING TO OUR SENSES
 
Do you ever wish you could shut out the many sensory distractions that tempt you away from writing strong poems?
 
The truth is that much of our creative inspiration comes from harnessing and remembering our sensory experiences.
 
This month, the AVBOB Poetry Project reached out to Giles Griffin and Linda Kaoma from the Life Righting Collective, an exciting not-for-profit organisation that runs affordable in-person and online courses, providing a safe, inclusive platform for anyone who wants to discover personal meaning, self-understanding and self-discovery in writing about their life experiences. We asked them to identify some of the creative writing exercises they found most useful to get aspiring poets writing about their sensory experiences, which include focusing on the preparation and eating of food.
 
Here are the mouth-watering exercises they shared.
 
Exercise 1: Five senses exercise (edible memoirs version)
 

• Read some examples, e.g. Edith Eger from The Choice (the carrot scene) and/or Joyce Carol Oates from The Lost Landscape (the 1950s food treat list – this might be called food mysteries).

 

• Exercise: Quick visualisation. Close your eyes and choose a favourite food (anything: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, umami) – just one dish or foodstuff; maybe it’s a fruit or a vegetable or a particular dish. Imagine it freshly created, straight from the garden if it is crisp, cold and fresh; aromatic from the oven if it is cooked and hot. Take stock of all the senses it arouses. Write for two to three minutes on each of those five senses.

 
This is a free write, let the associations run away with you, do not edit ... Tell us what lingers on your tongue and tastebuds. 
 
Exercise 2: Repetition to get the lyrical and rhythmical quality of language 
 
Lyrical means that it is song like, there is a recognisable beat, there is a melody, there is a tune.
 

• Read some examples, e.g. ‘One Art’ by Elizabeth Bishop or ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ by Dylan Thomas.

 

• Exercise: Choose one sentence from a free write done before (such as Exercise 1 above) – a section or phrase that you’ve identified as interesting or surprising to be your repetition sentence/refrain/chorus and then free write the verses in between.

 

• Exercise: Take/read/absorb ‘One Art’ or ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ and write your very own repeat-format villanelle using them as your guide.

 
Exercise 3: Write a character – a creative writing mentor or a cook 
 

• Read some examples, e.g. ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning, Enobarbus’s description of Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra (Act 2, Sc ii) by William Shakespeare, or ‘My Father’s Blazer’ by Phelelani Makhanya. 

 

• Exercise: We may have touched on a person who moved you to create, write or cook before. They’re often a grandmother, sometimes a grandfather, maybe a lover or a friend. Perhaps you’ve been mentored through a more formal process – on a course by a teacher.

 
Find the one who inspired you, whom you wish to remember. Visualise again, reel back to a memory of when they were teaching you or you were simply watching them cook. Conjure the scene again, the senses and the emotions this time; how you feel in this space, this classroom, this kitchen, maybe at a table, or at a fire, wherever it is …
 
In the next few days, write a poem in which you remember and describe the sensual delight you take in your favourite dish.
 
The annual AVBOB Poetry Competition opens for submissions on 1 August 2024, with fabulous cash prizes on offer for the winners. Visit www.avbobpoetry.co.za today and familiarise yourself with the competition rules.