The Library

Assignment: Describe the smells in one of these places: a church, a hospital waiting room, a public bathroom, a library. (In 3-4 paragraphs or 1 poem.) Response: Early in the morning Enter the old building Walls of stone and mortar The lobby smells like a damp cave Moving into the library itself The odors of […]

Epigraph Poem

Assignment: Write a poem using one of the following quotes as an epigraph at the start of the poem: “The World is Change; life is opinion” – Democritus “Worlds are altered rather than destroyed”- Democritus “What we call the beginning is often the end”-T. S. Eliot “Love takes up where knowledge leaves off”-St. Thomas Aquinas […]

Complex Activity

Assignment: Write a conversation between two people who know each other very well. Have them involved in a complex activity, but they should not talk about the activity. Show how two people might think they know each other but really don’t and at times don’t listen to one another. Response: Before reading this piece: [Please […]

Relationship via the Kitchen

Assignment: Write a scene with two people in a kitchen. Describe the cookery, the food being prepared, and SHOW (not tell) us how all of this helps us to understand their relationship. Response:      The kitchen smells of garlic and tomato, the smell penetrates the air and is the first thing noticed upon entering the house. […]

Everyday Actions

Assignment: Try to observe one of the following everyday actions and describe it in as much sensory detail as possible in two-three paragraphs or more: A person peeling, unwrapping, mixing, or in some other way preparing food and then eating it; a person pumping gas from drive-up to drive-off; a person dressing for an athletic […]

Story Exercise

Assignment: Write a story in which someone is snooping around in his or her ex-boyfriend/girlfriend’s apartment. The ex- comes home with his/her best friend and the person has to hide in the closet. Describe what he/she finds there and what happens. Response: [June 16, 2007]      Susan woke up to the sun coming through her bedroom […]

Best Time of The Day

Assignment: Describe the best time of the day. Response:      The best time of the day is the night. The night is deep and dark, mysterious and quiet. I like the night. During the night I am the only person around, but yet I am not alone. In the night I am not disturbed by anyone […]

Exiting The Core

Assignment: Journal Free Writing – A piece describing the detachment of a writer from his creative place as a result of a natural closing event in his life. In this circumstance, it would be the ending of an academic semester. Response:      “Silence, Silence you beasts!” the writer cries out. Weeks ago the writer entered the […]

Sexual Frustration

Assignment: Journal Free Writing Response: Waking in the middle of the night The room is dark I am awake and I am sweating My breathing is heavy My thoughts are fuzzy Thoughts that have been tossed around in a hurricane I can’t get back to sleep The thoughts are spinning My body will not allow […]

The Database

Assignment: Journal Free Writing Response: The database Composed of similar information Complimentary structures make it possible The tables are fortified The records are consistent Keys provide fast access to the array Transition between the technical and the logical All tables must interact with grace Relationships form The server makes a cache Queries are used for […]