June 3, 2014.  Prompt #34

 

Last month in Boulder, artist Gary Hirsh of Bot Joy painted an interactive mural at the northeast corner of Arapahoe and  13th Street, near the Farmer’s Market.  The mural poses several introspective questions of its viewers. You can find out more about the mural here and at #botstories.

For today and tomorrow’s prompt, we’ll work with two of the “bot prompts.”  Feel free to draw your own bot to complement your writing!

 

Instructions

1. For five minutes, free write about joy. Include whatever associations, people, places, activities—general or specific, arise.
2. Next, for fifteen minutes, focus in on a time when you were filled with joy. Include the both large and small details of the setting, who you were with, what was happening around you and inside you. Include sensory details. Did the joy last for days, hours, or just a moment? Had you worked to create it or had it unexpectedly emerged?

Further Writing

• Write about a time when you experienced unexpected or fleeting joy.
• Write about daily small joys that you try to cultivate in your life.

Variations for Writing Groups

1. As suggested above, write about a time you experienced unexpected or fleeting joy. Re-reading what you have written, circle twelve to fifteen of your strongest or most surprising words and phrases. Re-write them all on a new piece of paper to create a poem or prose poem.
2. Using a story, essay, or poem you are currently writing or revising, work in a moment of profound joy. How does this enrich the work?