When we talk of saving the planet, which still sounds to me like a bad line in a B movie —but yeah I guess that’s where we’re at— I think we tend to forget two thirds of the surface of this blue, green, golden planet are ocean. That makes this discovery all the more fascinating.
Scientists discover gigantic ocean 700 km beneath the Earth’s surface
My first thought was what lives down there? Life is nothing if not tenacious. Since we don’t know I figure you can take it anywhere. Use this consideration or the headline or the article itself, as a writing prompt and free write. Go deep.
Rules of the Freewrite after Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones
Set a timer for ten or fifteen minutes, stick to whichever you choose and just write.
Keep your hand moving, don’t stop or cross out
Don’t worry about spelling or grammar.
Don’t think, just write
Go for the Jugular.
Follow the words, just see what comes.
When you have finished consider what you have just made. Is it is enough as an exercise or does it feel it needs development? Does it welcome a form?
If you feel drawn to it rework your draft. Play with your words, have fun, find a form of words that satisfies you.
Below is the face of the Shigir Idol, it is considered to be the world’s oldest wooden sculpture, older than the Great Pyramids of Giza. It’s on display at the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore in Russia.
It is named after the Shigir peat bog where it was found in the Ural Mountains in Russia in 1890. It was estimated the idol was made about 11,500 years ago, as reported here in the journal Antiquity in 2018. Now it’s believed it may be even older. Possibly as old as 12 100 years old.
The people who created it would have before the Quaternary extinction event 10,000 years ago, when ice age species such as woolly rhinos went extinct. By comparison Stonehenge is about 5000 year old and the Great Pyramid of Giza 4500 years old.
Use the image as a prompt. Freewrite from the point of view of the Shigir Idol. Consider things like what he/she/they have witnessed, what the idol makes of the world today or what thought of its makers. Since so little is really known you can take this whoever you like.
Set a timer for ten or fifteen minutes, stick to whichever you choose and freewrite from the point of view of the idol.
Rules of the freewrite after Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones
Keep your hand moving, don’t stop or cross out
Don’t worry about spelling or grammar.
Don’t think, just write
Go for the Jugular.
Follow the words, just see what comes.
When you have finished consider what you have just made. Is it is enough as an exercise or does it feel it needs development? Does it welcome a form?
If you feel drawn to it rework your draft. Play with your words until you find a form of words that satisfies you.
Play with this one; use the image as a prompt, or the name, what a name! Write from the point of view of the orchid. Set a timer for ten or fifteen minutes; whichever you feel comfortable with and freewrite in poetry or prose, whatever comes, see where it takes you. Have fun.
Rules of the freewrite after Natalie Goldberg, from Writing Down the Bones. Keep your hand moving, don’t stop or cross out, don’t self censor, go for the jugular, don’t worry about spelling or grammar. Don’t think, just write, follow the words, just see what comes.
Once you have a rough draft consider what you have just made. Is it just for fun or does it feel it desires development? Does it welcome a form? You may wish to refer to the notes below or research the subject further. Maybe take the writing in a different direction or choose a different point of view.
The Paphiopedilum fairrieanum, also known as the Crown Wand Orchid, is an epiphyte (a plant that grows on another plant (non parasitically. It is from the Indian Himalayas and Bhutan at elevations of 1300 to 2200 metres. It is also found on limestone cliffs in the oak forest near water and on grassy slopes.
It is an area subject to seasonal monsoons. The wet season is very wet with heavy rains. When the dry monsoon comes the region still receives light rains and heavy dews as the temperatures drop every night.
In 2015 this orchid was recorded on The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of threatened species. The IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.
A caveat to the suggestions in this exercise. It’s an exercise that asks you to go deep and writing can release painful feelings and energy in the process, if you can stay with those feelings, without attaching or avoiding, they will pass through and the process becomes also one of healing.
We are in a triggering time where issues about women, the earth, our future can lead to discomfort so go easy with this exercise. Take a break anytime if necessary.
Engage your self care if necessary and/or the support of trusted others if the writing brings up feelings you find too difficult. Also allow yourself to experience joy of being and becoming
***
Get a pen and paper ready, glance at the image below then respond to the following questions. Write one or two words for each, a couple of sentences or more. There are no wrong answers. Take no more than five minutes for each question, set a timer.
Where did your journey begin?
Where is it taking you?
What is your ground of being?
Take a break, walk around. How do you feel? Perhaps make a note of that if you like. Then if you want go back to your notes. Look at what you’ve made.
Do you want to develop it? If so you can, add, delete, combine, cut and paste, revise, play with it. Give yourself another 15 minutes. Come back to it a few days later if you want and repeat this.
Matka stick sculpture by Olga Ziemska
“Cleveland-based sculptor Olga Ziemska works with natural materials like wood and bamboo to create mysteriously figurative installations for her series titled Stillness in motion: The Matka Series.
“Matka” means “mother” in Polish and essentially defines the figure that Ziemska recreates. Through this mold of a maternally inclined female, the artist symbolizes a place of origin, further hinting at “our first physical environment—the womb.”
“The artist says, “Through the repetition of the human form, the subtle characteristics of each environment will emerge naturally and visually. This body of work is ultimately a celebration of the diversity of place and also a homage to the similarities that underlie all things at their core.””
From Haunting Figure of a Woman Made with Wood and Bamboo by Pinar Noorata on April 13, 2013
If you want to take this further consider what is your relationship to the earth? When was the last time you walked in bare feet or touched the earth? Or what is your relationship to your mother? When did you last speak to her, touch her? And write about that.
Choose a word from the dictionary at random then freewrite for five minutes. Take a break. Stretch or walk around then come back to what you have written. Underline the strongest words or expressions. Delete any unnecessary words – for instance do you need “and, but, yet, so,” keep them if used emphatically.
Extract the strongest words and expressions and create a new piece. How many lines do you have? If it’s three you have your poem, check again delete any unnecessary words. Consider if the image(s) created.
If not continue to extract again the strongest words and expressions until you have three lines that express one idea. Check again delete any unnecessary words. Consider if the words left behind sing together.
An example
The three line poem is called a tercet, the term can also refer to poems with three line stanzas.
The classic three line poem is the haiku. It’s a Japanese form traditionally with three lines with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. Though modern examples introduce variations. This is hotly contested but that’s another post.
Often focusing on images from nature, and usually makes reference to a season. It emphasises simplicity, intensity, and directness of expression. In addition the haiku tends to focus on a brief moment in time, juxtaposing two images, and creating a sudden sense of enlightenment.
An example
From Matsuo Bashō, the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan.
This is a great one to play with! Bounce off that image or the headline, or make “skitter off the sea bottom” your first line. If you like write from the point of view of an isopod, what a great word!
Set a timer for fifteen minutes and freewrite and see where it takes you. Once you have a draft, consider what you have just made. Is it for just for fun? Or does it feel it desires development, does it welcome a form?
Rules of the freewrite after Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones
Keep your hand moving, don’t stop or cross out
Don’t worry about spelling or grammar.
Don’t think, just write
Go for the Jugular.
Follow the words, just see what comes.
Massive ‘Darth Vader’ sea bug pulled from waters near Indonesia
“Buglike marine creatures that skitter across the sea bottom can grow to be as big as puppies, and a newly described species is one of the largest ever seen.
These crustaceans are known as isopods; the order Isopoda includes around 10,000 species that live in diverse habitats on land and in the ocean, and they can range in size from just a few millimeters to nearly 20 inches (500 mm) long. Of the ocean-dwelling isopods, the genus Bathynomus contains the biggest species; the newfound isopod, which turned up in the Indian Ocean in 2018, is among the largest of the Bathynomus species ever seen in the wild.
Named Bathynomus raksasa (“rakasa” is the Indonesian word for “giant”), the sizable sea bug measures about 13 inches (330 mm) in length, on average. It is the first new giant isopod species to be described in more than a decade, and is the first of these isopod behemoths to be found in waters near Indonesia, scientists reported in a new study.”
Anterior view of Bathynomus raksasa, a new species of giant isopod.
This is a simple exercise just to get the pen moving or to break through a block. I often use step one as a warm up in workshops but it can be taken further.
Step one
Without thinking too much pick a colour, place, game, fruit, an animal and write a sentence or two that includes some or all of the five elements, take no more than five minutes.
Step two
Take a phrase from one of your sentences and bounce off that or take it in another direction and write for 10 minutes.
Step three
Read back what you have written and cross out any words that don’t seem to add interest, tension or delight take no more than five minutes.
Consider what you have created, you have just pulled a rabbit out of a hat! It might be a draft of something, or the beginning of a draft. Or it can just be the workout you do before a run. Keep it either way, you may not know yet what it could become.
Play with this one; use the headline or image as a prompt. Set a timer for ten, fifteen or twenty minutes and freewrite and see where it takes you. Then consider what you have just made. Is it for just for fun, or does it feel it needs development, does it welcome a form?
Rules of the freewrite after Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones
Play with this one; use the headline, “Mass influx of flamingos turn Navi Mumbai into a pink playground”or use the video as a prompt, that sound!
As lockdowns and restrictions on movement have taken place across the world it seems nature has returned to the dwellings of humans in some interesting and surprising ways such as this.
Set a timer for ten or fifteen minutes and freewrite and see where it takes you. Then I consider what you have just made. Is it for just for fun, or does it feel it needs development, does it welcome a form?
Rules of the freewrite after Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones
Play with this one; use the headline or image as a prompt and freewrite for twenty minutes and see where it takes you. Then consider what you have just made. Is it for just for fun, or does it feel it needs development, does it welcome a form?
Rules of the freewrite after Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones
Keep your hand moving, don’t stop or cross out
Don’t worry about spelling or grammar.
Don’t think, just write
Go for the Jugular.
Follow the words, just see what comes.
Take it further if you like; what does Pete make of the climate emergency?
Seeds and Fuses 