The Surrealist Game

[Dee]

This is a fun game from the 'Unseen Poetry and the Creative Porcess' course on FutureLearn.

On four small pieces of paper write

1. A concrete noun = name of something that can be touched or expericed through our five senses ("mosquito")

2. The definition for the concrete noun ("an annoying pest that sucks you're blood")

3. An abstract noun = an idea, a concept ("marriage")

4. The definition of the abstract noun ("sharing your life with the person you love with a promise of forever")

Repeat the above, creating a pool of concrete and abstract words and their definitions. Mix up the words, mix up the definitions. Then turn them upside down and start creating random new pairs of words and their definitions.

This is when I ended up with:

"Marriage - an annoying little pest that sucks your blood"



I thought it could be fun to create a big pool of words/definitions here, so we could play with one another's words/definitions as well.

These can work brilliantly as metaphor-creators, and provide inspiration for lines, even full poems.

[Dee]

CONCRETE/ABSTRACT NOUNS:

Feral Cat

Candle

Mosquito

Book

River

Drum

***

Music

Religion

Mindfulness

Marriage

Dream

Death

[Dee]

DEFINITIONS:

a small animal that ranges freely avoiding humans


lights up a space with a living flame


an annoying little pest that sucks your blood


a bunch of words bound together


flowing water


a vessel for rhythms


sounds arranged to please


believing in god


being fully immersed in the moment


sharing your life with a person you love with a promise of forever


visions that aren’t real


what comes after life

[Dee]

These were the best combination I've gotten when I played with the above:

Feral cats - visions that aren’t real
Candle - what comes after life
Drums - believing in god
Music - flowing water

Arranging it more like a poem, it has become:

visions prowl
like feral cats
in the candlelight
hissing about
what comes after this life
so play your drum now
like it's your religion
music is flowing water
soothing your heart

[Lori]

Ooh!! Very fun and it spawned such a wonderful poem. Writing prompts can be so surprising. Love it! Creating a collective word pool here is a stellar idea.

[Dee]

This game is the next exercise in the 'How to Grow Your Own Poem' book, so you might want to give it a go, Ladies? It's a lot of fun, but even more fun doing it together, if we could come up with a joint pool of words/definitions here together!

So I'm going to provide here a 8 words, can someone please provide definitions and suggest 8 new words?

If we play a few rounds of this, we will have a nice bank of words and definitions for all of us to play with?

[Dee]

Please provide definitions for the following 8 words, then post 8 new words for someone else to define. 4 concrete and 4 abstract:

Concrete:

Cake

Shelf

Cat

Seed

Abstract:

Insomnia

Peace

Silence

Dance

[Moonchime]

Definitions:

Concrete:

Cake - a guilty pleasure that fills you with Joy

Shelf - a support for things of use or beauty

Cat - a cunning hedonist in a cuddly disguise

Seed - a container for hope

Abstract:

Insomnia - the mind's inability to let the body rest

Peace - freedom from the self

Silence - an absence of disturbance

Dance - a telling through movement

[Moonchime]

Concrete nouns:

Window

Cloud

Phone

Mirror

Abstract nouns:

Humour

Fear

Truth

Danger

[Dee]

Concrete nouns:

Window - an opening to a different world

Cloud - floating fluffy vapour creatures

Phone - a noisy little device constantly badgering for your attention

Mirror - a provider of harsh truths

Abstract nouns:

Humour - a blanket of laughter to wrap yourself in

Fear - heart beating in your throat

Truth - an elusive reality

Danger - a critical situation that makes your skin crawl

[Dee]

You could define these words in so many ways - couldn’t you?

That might make an interesting challenge too. To write several definitions? Going from technical to more and more poetic? Focusing on certain aspects? We could certainly try.

I really enjoyed reading your definitions, Mz K.

Could you elaborate on

“Peace - freedom from the self”

please?

And perhaps we should try to do our own words as well?

[Moonchime]

Could you elaborate on

“Peace - freedom from the self”

please?

And perhaps we should try to do our own words as well?

I thought you might react to that one.

Obviously as you say there are many ways of defining so many of these words - particularly the abstract ones. With my peace definition I was coming from the view of worrying about the self - am I good enough?/have I done the right thing?/what do people think?/where did I go wrong?/should I? I shouldn't have/everything would be better if ... etc. etc. Self recrimination and over analysing resulting in losing oneself in inner turmoil - after all you can't escape your own mind except perhaps through immersing yourself in something else hence mindfulness/meditation. I'm not suggesting ignoring /fulfilling who you are meant to be or ignoring your needs, quite the reverse, just giving yourself space to rest outside of yourself.
I suppose it is a basic tenet of many philosophies and religions - although they tackle it in slightly different ways but for good mental health I think you need to be able to take yourself lightly and accept who you are, knowing your value as a human being.
Easier said than done I know, but in your acceptance you are freed, at which point I think there is peace.