One of my favorite creative writing exercises – not even just an exercise, but a process that can lead to a finished piece – is to chose five sentences at random from five books that I pick from my bookshelves. I then take those five sentences and make a poem from them. Some of the sentences I might use nearly in their entirety. Some of the sentences might inspire only one particular word choice. I’ve done it a few times in the last several years and thought I would share the results from when I chose to do it today. The poem in today’s post comes from the following five sentences:

“No social life to speak of – but moments, now and then, unexpected and unlooked for, of solitary joy.” From Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein

“Right in the middest of that Paradise, there stood a stately Mount.” From The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser

“But I don’t know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive.” From The Color Purple, by Alice Walker

“Then you must think of a new meaning for your life.” From Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed.” From Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen.

The idea is something similar to improvisation or the literary equivalent of a musical variation, perhaps. It’s something I have really loved doing. But that’s enough of a prologue. Below is the poem I wrote based on the sentences above.

The lightning struck once.
The world shook.
The lightning struck twice.
The world was illuminated.
It was beautiful, at first.
The flames crept
then danced
then leapt
then flew.
The world was eliminated.
Only the flames lived.
A bird flew over my shoulder.
I said what shall we do,
he said look.
In the middle of that Inferno,
there stood a stately Mount.
Brown, rocky, and tired —
prouder than the flames
which I struggled against.
The bird said come,
I said how,
he said win.
I climbed the Mountain with him.
The flames flew
then leapt
then danced
then crept.
At the top, a moment of solitary joy.
I saw green.
I said did I win?
The flames leapt.
I said then I can’t
I don’t know how.
The bird flew.
Then you must think of a new meaning
for your life.