Invention : Other Games

There are many other games not featured in this book. Often they were created for specific events and had no general application. These two examples are given to show how any of the games described previously, or any other game, can be adapted to provide a starting point for poetry.

Invention : Moon Over Water
Although Moon Over Water was created round the symbols of moon and water simply to fit in with a wider mixed-media and performance event, the particular combination did lead to dream-like poems. It has subsequently been used at several workshops, usually held outdoors or in tents, to assist some countryside or ecological theme.

It is essentially a version of Fishing for Words, except that the words were specifically selected to spark resonances.

The original version used a spinning moon to determine which cards a player used to build the poem. It could be played by any random method of picking cards with the words on them or through discussion leading to a word-list.
As in Aboard the Pentameter, the provision of some evocative words allows an image to develop and stimulate ideas, whether or not such words form part of the finished work.

Invention : Good Guys

For bonfire night, poems about good guys - not for burning!
Draw an outline of a guy on a sheet of paper and fold as in the old game of Consequences.
Each folded section should show a different part of the body and a related question.
Example questions:

What is he wearing on his head?
What is he holding in his hand?

When all the questions are answered, unfolding the sheet section by section, there is a word picture of the good guy which can be reshaped into a poem.

For further information on this sort of game click on games listed under INVENTION in the INDEX side bar.