Improv of "You, Doctor Martin"

In this piece I picked out "shibboleth" which is a word or phrase that distinguishes a group of people from other groups. This is found in the book of Judges in the Bible, where someone pronounced a word incorrectly in a setting where the other tribe wasn't liked, and was stoned to death. On Thursday night last week, my campus minister said that "YOLO" was pretty much specific to this generation and was "carpe diem for idiots." It got me thinking about that and how this phrase can separate generations...

YOLO. The shibboleth of today.
Those who are idiots speak 
of this and jump off buildings,
or think too much and never 
leave their room (Thank you Andy Samberg,)
But, those who realize
you don't only live once,
will live twice.

Improv of "The Harlem Dancer"

The part that stuck out most to me was the word "swarthy" which means dark skinned or dark hued.

Swarthy babies dance
grinning eye crinkle to eye crinkle.
Dressed in kente cloth, they puddle
jump along the green Ghanaian plain.
Thunder louder than
God's laughter claps overhead.

Improv of "The Day Lady Died"

I liked the word "Quandariness," which means perplexed or in a dilemma.

Walking the streets
in quandariness.
buildings look the same
all brown and tan, black shingled, red 
doors. Where's a landmark? Something to
stick out and show me home.
Like a bat with broken echolocation,
I'm lost.

Improv of "Japan"

I really liked the "you are the---, I am the ----" format that Collins uses in one of his lines.

You are the stop sign,
I am the car blowing past you.
Leaving you spinning in my wake.
Confused, in awe at what energy
and determination I have- not paying 
attention to your roses or love songs.
They are as important as an antenna.

Improv of "Translations"

When I read this piece, what stuck out to me was the word "Fetid," meaning smelling extremely unpleasant. So...

Finals week we laughed
more than we studied.
Fetid hair stringing in our eyes.
When Starbucks trenta iced coffees bring you together,
something simple like hygiene, 
won't tear you apart.

Draft 3...FOOOOOOOOOD

The third draft (yes I skipped the second one, I'll post that one later!) was about a food. I can't remember what we were reading when we decided to write about an encounter with food...I think it was Sydney Bolding's piece "Curry." But it was decided that we would write about a food. Just any food or spice that came to mind...so here we go...

"Sprouts
make everything better"

my roommate claims
as she tucks a handful between
two slices of Wonder bread and Walmart turkey.
I sidelong my egg whites,
prodding them with my fork-
adamant that all the sprouty
green pods could not
change half hearted
folded egg patties into
Mrs. Donna's plated magic.

Draft 1...based on an encounter with wilderness

This is a draft focusing on when we read William Stafford's "Traveling Through the Dark." What the whole point was...write a piece about when you had an encounter with wilderness. The element we focused on was creating a location...so here we go:

Four feet dangling inches off the ground-
I slipped.
The yellow seat whipped back, smack in her face.
Both sprawled on the wood chips of Lornie's Park.

A furry mound caught my five year old eyes,
as I crawled furiously towards whatever lay
atop the wood beamed boundaries.

I squinted towards the tops of oak trees,
barely finding the leaves through the glare,
and back down to the creature at my knees.

A tufty tail still flicked back and forth,
instinctively I reached for the movement, but
shouts from my mother
echoed.

Brushing off my legs, I galloped back
to where my sister wailed,
glancing back only once, ensuring that squirrel
would still be there
tomorrow.