5 words

by karen swaffield

words from karen

I teamed up with Naomi through the Corn Exchange Newbury and our journey has been both interesting and insightful.  I have always been interested in creativity and The Arts but at first was a bit confused as to where our five conversations were taking us!  However I thought ‘let’s give it a go’ and pleased I did. 

We began by talking around histories and life philosophies and I shared my own as it was uppermost in my mind because of a personal trauma.  This philosophy is that laid down in Desiderata, and particularly current for me is “As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons” and “With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world”. It’s well worth reading more by clicking here.

It has been a particularly interesting project for me because my usual modus operandi is to have a reasonable clear idea of what the end product might be and the steps that might be encountered along the way. 

CREATE YOUR OWN POEMS

Karen and Naomi created a poem by choosing five keywords that had recurred throughout their conversations and were words that meant something to them.

These words were: 

Openness | Secrets | Consequence | Prejudice | Truth

They imagined the words in different ways, thinking about what colours, shapes and movements they associated with the word. These different ways of imagining the words inspired them to create a piece of writing.

Here is how you can write your own piece:

1. Choose a word that is important to you. It might be your favourite word or it might be a value or emotion that you connect with. For example, Karen and Naomi chose the word Truth.

2. Now brainstorm everything you associate when you think of that word. What do you visualise, what thoughts come to mind?

3. Think of how your word relates to the senses. Fill in the following statements:

My chosen word:

Smells like ……………….
Looks like ………………
Tastes like ……………….
Feels like ……………….
Looks like ………………

Be as specific or as abstract as you like!

For example, Naomi and Karen came up with:

Truth smells like fresh laundry

Truth is shiny, reflective

4. Give your word shape, colour and movement by filling in the following statements:

My chosen word is the colour ………………. 
If my chosen word was an animal it would be ………………. 
My chosen word can be found……...……...

Naomi and Karen came up with:

Truth is the colour blue, red and white. 
If Truth was an animal it would be a little bird.
Truth can be found in nature, in flowers and in lovely people.
If you think of more ways to imagine your words, write them down!

5. Now it’s time to get writing!

Use the answers to your statements to create a new piece of writing.

See Naomi and Karen’s example below:

Karen and Naomi came up with:

Truth

is the colour of blue and red and white
it is shiny, reflective
it can be found in nature in flowers
it can be found in lovely people
they were it on their breast, heart
it feels like a warm glow
it breathes like the arrival of spring

is the colour of blue and white china
smells like fresh laundry
it is soft and smooth like fur
you can hold it in your hand (but it’s a bit bouncy!)
if it was an animal it would be a little bird.
It moves like a bubble and sometimes floats

And Karen turned it into:

Truth

Now truth be the answer
‘shines bluesome and bright.
Found in nature and flowers
Or good folks‘ delight?

Soft, smooth like a bird
with a clean laundry smell
and with friendship and love
that is hard to dispel.