11 January 2014

My first writing session

Write a persona poem from the perspective of a dance, singing or instrument teacher about a student.

I am sitting at Maria's table with Maria, Helen and Helen. We're having a writing session. Above is my prompt.

I want to follow the rules, but I know that my immediate response would be a cliche, and I think that's often my problem with writing. And so I want to twist it somehow, weirden it a little. Make it not the nostalgic bittersweet thing that I first jumped to, that everyone could jump to, but something else. Something surprising and slippery. But there's the difficulty - how to turn it over, how to see it new? Perhaps the teacher is other than I expect, perhaps she is younger, not older, than the student. Perhaps she is not jealous of her student, or proud of them - him, her? Perhaps it's not about their relationship at all. Is it dance, is it music? What kind?
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And then the time ran out and I never did write that poem....

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