So many of you sent me e-mails asking about my quasi-oulipo writing constraints that I thought I would post a few more that I have tried recently.
1. Tie a rope from your left foot to a door handle. Under the door place a pad of paper and at the bottom of the door tape a pen so that when the door moves, the pen will mark on the pad. Swing your foot wildly for two minutes so that the pen marks on the paper. Take that piece of paper and set fire to it. While watching it burn, write a poem about wildflowers.
2. Write a poem where the first line is 5 words long, the second is 8 words long, the third is 4 words long, the fourth is 6 words long, the fifth is 7 words long, and the sixth is 3 words long.
3. Take your favorite notebook into a train or bus station. Write what you feel while you are sitting in a chair among the waiting passengers. Take what you have written and send it to Amtrak or Greyhound with a nice note asking them to rewrite the piece so that it could be sent to your ailing mother as a birthday card. Next, write a poem about the Spanish Civil War.
1. Tie a rope from your left foot to a door handle. Under the door place a pad of paper and at the bottom of the door tape a pen so that when the door moves, the pen will mark on the pad. Swing your foot wildly for two minutes so that the pen marks on the paper. Take that piece of paper and set fire to it. While watching it burn, write a poem about wildflowers.
2. Write a poem where the first line is 5 words long, the second is 8 words long, the third is 4 words long, the fourth is 6 words long, the fifth is 7 words long, and the sixth is 3 words long.
3. Take your favorite notebook into a train or bus station. Write what you feel while you are sitting in a chair among the waiting passengers. Take what you have written and send it to Amtrak or Greyhound with a nice note asking them to rewrite the piece so that it could be sent to your ailing mother as a birthday card. Next, write a poem about the Spanish Civil War.
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