Sunday Morning: a sketch
pillows play on the daybed
housecat swishes her tail
radio paints music chocolate-dark delicious as my espresso
the Swedish horse with the broken leg assesses my mental state
the coffee cup outlines the circle of its base onto the table
my sandals inscribe lines on my feet, a loose sundress erases my figure
my journal sketches my thoughts, lines, lines, line
I fade from the scene
I am just inscribed lines
the gel pen observes the work like a skinny foreman,
rigid, impatient at the pace
dear old patient threadbare linen napkin blots up the drips of minty water
life is messy, observes the old Swedish horse
my gel pen climbs down into
the deep hole with me
helps me dig
while Yo-Yo’s cello deckles the morning sunshine
________
Musical interlude: Yo-yo plays Elgar’s Cello Concerto
————
Notes: this is from a Natalie Goldberg prompt in her wonderful book, Writing Down the Bones;
1. write 10 nouns as a list. (I wrote ten things I could see/hear in the room)
2. write ten active verbs (she suggests thinking of verb relating to an occupation; I used “artist” as the verb-source)—sketches, inscribes, erases, observes, blots, outlines, paints, plays, swishes, deckles…
3. combine the nouns with the verbs and see what emerges
Have fun, see what happens. Why not?
eeo 
I love this! So funny… I just read “Writing Down the Bones,” and made a mental note to go back to that exercise! I love what you did with it, though I never would have guessed that these word choices were originally “unrelated.” Especially love “a loose sundress erases my figure,” though there are many lines I love!
I know! I so often see (or even recommend!) a prompt, but don’t get around to doing. Lately I’ve been doing at LEAST one per week and it’s always a good thing. Some of my favorite pieces/poems have come from prompts, I don’t know why I ‘forget’ to use them more! Thanks for commenting and reading 🙂
I just did this prompt, I have never done prompts on my own, but yours inspired me to. this was fun. I made a crazy scene, reminds me of the poem about the fight with the gingham cat and calico cat (?) , I can’t remember who wrote it or how it goes, have to look it up, that will be fun.
Oh, that is so great to hear, Jane—glad you had fun with it. And now I have to look up the gingham cat and the calico cat, because that chimed a bell from my childhood, too…