I have a number of students who write poems from their completed collages as a means of getting more deeply into the essence of the images, placement and stories within. I'd just started up with the latest online 21-Day Journaling with Collage course, when I thought, hey! that might be fun to try that technique out as a class exercise. So I assigned everyone the task of coming up with a 5-7-5 haiku from the collage, "Boxing Muhammad."
I've always liked the idea of containers in creative exercises, be it the size of a canvas, the colors for a painting, the amount of time allotted for a piece of free-writing, or the "rule" of only using National Geographics in collage, such as I do. I feel that having certain containers help us maximize our creativity, and can be a fun challenge to see what we've got inside of us.
And so, I assigned haiku for one morning's journaling exercise, having students create a haiku, and then choose a line from the poem, using it as a writing prompt. As always, I was delighted with how different students were drawn to quite different images. As well as surprised at how looking at a piece through someone else's eyes can bring new images, and stories to light.
For instance, Kay saw the large round object in the corner, something I'd never even really noticed before, as at "talisman" and she wrote:
And so, I assigned haiku for one morning's journaling exercise, having students create a haiku, and then choose a line from the poem, using it as a writing prompt. As always, I was delighted with how different students were drawn to quite different images. As well as surprised at how looking at a piece through someone else's eyes can bring new images, and stories to light.
For instance, Kay saw the large round object in the corner, something I'd never even really noticed before, as at "talisman" and she wrote:
 | "Floating Talisman Suspended before the sun Amazing cool strong" She then followed on with a writing using the words: amazing, cool, strong. |
Dakota's eyes carried her to the ship, and she wrote, adding her own personal touch:
"Anchored against rocks
ready for the open sea
my baby and me"
But one of my favorite things that can happen is when somebody else's interpretation completely changes your own view of something you see. I love it when the story changes! Which mine did when I read Michelle's haiku. It was the Leaping Lady who initially leapt out for me in the collage, and I wrote:
"Against the golden
murmur of whispered prayers, she
dares herself to leap"
"Anchored against rocks
ready for the open sea
my baby and me"
But one of my favorite things that can happen is when somebody else's interpretation completely changes your own view of something you see. I love it when the story changes! Which mine did when I read Michelle's haiku. It was the Leaping Lady who initially leapt out for me in the collage, and I wrote:
"Against the golden
murmur of whispered prayers, she
dares herself to leap"
But taking the same image, Michelle wrote:
"Balancing myself
On the punching bag
That life has created"
Wow! That changed everything for me. What WAS the leaping lady doing? WAS she leaping? WAS she balancing? Was she caught in some sort of fumbling freefall? (I've been in a few of those myself!) (Kinda, sorta am right now, truth be told.) But the very question begged another haiku, and I responded with:
"Perhaps not a leap
but a balance against the
ever changing tides"
Now, I can go back and use those haikus as a journaling prompt to go even deeper. Deeper into things, like say, the difference between balancing and leaping. Or of how balance can be an integral part of a leap, that very first step, like when a diver steadies him/herself on the high board before taking the plunge. Which leads me to the question: How am I steadying myself for/before the Leaps to Come?
See? How something as simple and fun as a haiku can open up internal conversations? And they don't ALWAYS have to be "serious" either! Take for instance the haiku I came up with for my most recent collage, "Chicken!" My eye was carried to that little boy, and pondering what must be going through his head, and I wrote:
"Holy crap! he cried
Would you take a look at that?
Mom! Here comes dinner!"
"Balancing myself
On the punching bag
That life has created"
Wow! That changed everything for me. What WAS the leaping lady doing? WAS she leaping? WAS she balancing? Was she caught in some sort of fumbling freefall? (I've been in a few of those myself!) (Kinda, sorta am right now, truth be told.) But the very question begged another haiku, and I responded with:
"Perhaps not a leap
but a balance against the
ever changing tides"
Now, I can go back and use those haikus as a journaling prompt to go even deeper. Deeper into things, like say, the difference between balancing and leaping. Or of how balance can be an integral part of a leap, that very first step, like when a diver steadies him/herself on the high board before taking the plunge. Which leads me to the question: How am I steadying myself for/before the Leaps to Come?
See? How something as simple and fun as a haiku can open up internal conversations? And they don't ALWAYS have to be "serious" either! Take for instance the haiku I came up with for my most recent collage, "Chicken!" My eye was carried to that little boy, and pondering what must be going through his head, and I wrote:
"Holy crap! he cried
Would you take a look at that?
Mom! Here comes dinner!"
(I'm thinking of naming that haiku - Providence. Maybe the collage as well! )
So what haikus can you create from these collages?
What haikus can you create from your OWN?
And what deep and revealing writings are yearning to be birthed from those innocent little 5-7-5 count poems?
I hope you'll explore those questions in your own work.
If you'd like to explore these and MORE fun ways to "work" your collage, be sure to sign up for the next 21-Day Journaling with Collage Course that begins July 1st. Can't wait that long? I also offer 7-Day Journaling from YOUR Collage courses that span the days that work for YOU. I'd love to see you, and work with you, in either or BOTH courses.
And if you have any questions, I'm just an email away. Feel free to contact me and we'll talk Creativity and collage, collage, collage ...
Til then!
In Love and Light -
Dante
So what haikus can you create from these collages?
What haikus can you create from your OWN?
And what deep and revealing writings are yearning to be birthed from those innocent little 5-7-5 count poems?
I hope you'll explore those questions in your own work.
If you'd like to explore these and MORE fun ways to "work" your collage, be sure to sign up for the next 21-Day Journaling with Collage Course that begins July 1st. Can't wait that long? I also offer 7-Day Journaling from YOUR Collage courses that span the days that work for YOU. I'd love to see you, and work with you, in either or BOTH courses.
And if you have any questions, I'm just an email away. Feel free to contact me and we'll talk Creativity and collage, collage, collage ...
Til then!
In Love and Light -
Dante
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