Saturday, February 26, 2011

At the Improv

"Improvisation is haphazard." -Leo Ornstein

'Jazz Improvisation' by Vahram

Indeed, it is.

Today's theme is improvisation.  You know - like extemporaneous speech, making it up as you go, etc.  Haphazard, but fun.

Writer's Island posted the word 'improvise' as today's prompt, and that was my improvisational jumping off point, so to speak.  SiS/Few Miles posted a wonderful picture prompt, which continues the theme here, and finally, Poetry Tow Truck posted a really cool 'beginning and end' prompt in which writers were asked to choose a poem, take the first two lines, list the first line vertically (word by word) on the left margin and then the second line vertically to parallel the first on the right margin - and then write a poem using the two words in each column as the first and last words in each line of a new poem.  (You'll see what I mean shortly.)

Interestingly enough, because of the nature of that last prompt, I did not write in poetic form of any sort for the last poem, but rather, it's a free verse kind of poem (gasp!) since I was (yep, you got it!) improvising.


Improvise

"Don’t play what’s there; play what’s not there." ~Miles Davis

Create on the fly,
banish your inner critic
and see what happens.

###


I leapt in the air
improvising flight, like birds
in a sunrise song.

###
Improvisation 10 by Wassily Kandinsky
Improvision

You think, I don’t really know my lines. Not well enough, anyway.  A
'watch time' guard is glaring at you. You feel a bit ghostly
yourself, but you figure
I will just improvise and carry on.
Watch the crowd.  Their reaction is what counts. The…
the…the crowd seems to like you!  It’s an applause garden!
Watcher-dude is also clapping.  Emotion reverberates off each wall,
too.

Take a bow.

###

Where the third poem came from:

By the Round Pond by Wendy Cope, from her book If I Don’t Know
                                         
You watch yourself.  You watch the watcher too –
A ghostly figure on the garden wall.

You
a
watch
ghostly
yourself
figure
you       
on
watch
the
the       
garden
watcher
wall
too



12 comments:

  1. These are brilliant. What a great idea. Your jazzy fish looks just like a Picasso fish, which we used to reckon was made from designs for three different fish cut up and re-assembled in a different order.

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  2. An excellent job all round. Thoroughly enjoyed them.

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  3. OMG ... you improvised brilliantly and with such flair. Such fun!!

    http://beccagivens.wordpress.com/2011/02/26/blossoming-love/

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  4. Glad you liked the prompt! What a clever response.

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  5. RJ, I love these and I agree the
    response to Donna's prompt is
    brilliant. Have a great day!

    Pamela

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  6. Nice collection in this post. Enjoyed the images as well. Never thought of Kandinksy as improvising but it fits, doesn't it?

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  7. Brilliant One.. Loved it.. Please visit this page, the grand Celebrations starts here

    Someone is Special

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  8. I really enjoyed these, especially the flight improvisation and image. The two lines from Wendy Cope, arranged vertically, are a stimulus and poem in their own right (I read these first, being somewhat perverse, then the rest of your post from the beginning, after which it all made far too much sense!).
    Thanks.

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  9. Very creative work here! I enjoyed these poems.

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  10. RJ, great work all around. I'm new to Poetry Tow Truck and love what you did there - I am about to post on 'Improvise' but wanted to leave a note... Lovin' it! Amy

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  11. Nice work this weekend, RJ. You were busy!
    here's my take on the Writer’s island prompt:

    http://www.kimnelsonwrites.com/2011/02/28/ize-are-on-you/

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