I really am terrible at posting regularly, but I will get better.
This post is another exercise from the Random House Guide to Basic Writing. First, you record an experience/observation, concentrating on what you see, not how you feel:
“We are home.
There are people visiting.
I am playing hide and seek.
I hide in the kitchen cupboard, under the sink.
I am falling down the drain.
I am screaming.
No one is coming.
I am falling deeper.
It is getting darker.
I scream louder.
No one comes.
Darkness engulfs me.
I scream louder.
My mothers tender touch awakens me.”
You have surely guessed that this is a dream. In fact, as you will see in the next step, which is to ask questions about each observation, it was a recurring dream early in my life:
“We are home. This is the only memory I have of this apartment to this day. I was about three years old and we lived there less than a year (I think). This was during the year and a half that I lived near my family, moving back to another province, where my family was not near. This is likely why I pictured visitors; likely family, who gave me enough attention that I could believe we would be playing hide and seek. As it was an apartment, there were likely not many hiding spots, so the kitchen cupboard is as good a spot as any other. A fear of the dark was not one of my many, I was generally more afraid of my parents leaving me places or losing me, than of the dark, so no-one coming to save me from my peril would have been terrifying. My mother awakening me would seem to solve the problem, however this was a recurring nightmare at that time.”
I don’t find this really improved it, so having left it for a few weeks, here is my next draft:
“We are home.
There are people visiting.
I am playing hide and seek.
Not we.
Hiding in the kitchen cupboard under the sink,
I fall down the drain, screaming.
No one comes;
I fall deeper.
It gets darker.
I scream more loudly.
Still, no one comes.
Darkness engulfs me as I scream even louder.
My fear dissipates as my mothers tender touch awakens me.”
I feel my third attempt brings me closer to where I want this to be. The second one feels more like an explanation of what turned out to be a poem. Also, this is a first: I have never written a poem by accident. I have always wanted to write poetry, however when writing poems for school, I felt unmotivated. Dismotivated? Something along those lines. Anyways, with my other writing commitments, poetry took a back door …step? Whatever the expression is. Anyways, I think I could really develop this piece into something I could be proud of if I spent more time on it. In fact, I find this is a great exercise, it just did not work for the story I chose.
Ghanaian fact of the day: Check out the story of Fred Deegbe, who quit his banking career after successfully starting Heel the World, a chic shoe company based in Accra. Okay, so fact was not the best word, but still it seems like a pretty interesting company and I can even think of one friend who could do well there; he already makes and fixes shoes for his friends!
Obibini Bruni 