March 2024 - Workshop Shit!
Personification of Time
Modern physicists say that time is just another dimension of space, relative to our motion and location in relation to the objects around us. But time still dominates our everyday life, even when we turn the clock back or forward an hour to accommodate some archaic idea of adjusting our schedule to the appearance or disappearance of the sun, and demonstrating the relativity of our conventional clock time.
Looking at Shakespeare’s Sonnet #19 (see text below), we see his image of time as a destructive, wicked old man with an antique pen that not only takes away the ordinary pleasures of life but also steals the very substance or essence of things – removing claws from the lion, teeth from the tiger, and ending the resurrecting power of the phoenix. Against this “devouring” entity, Shakespeare offers his own poetry – the ability to make art – as the one thing that is unassailable even from this odiously evil figure.
Let’s take some time to create a few images of time personified. What would time look like, sound like, smell like, etc.? What would time say or do?
First, we’ll brainstorm some aspects of Time using our collective imagination to come up with sensual imagery for this person called Time. You can make your own list or use the one developed in the online workshop (see tables below) or do some combination.
Then try to start a conversation with Time. You can take Shakespeare’s route and talk to Time as an entity to be schooled or reformed, taking Time to task for problems we all struggle to deal with. Or you can take the opposite tack and thank Time for all the things made possible by Time. Or you can set up a dialog with Time and let Time respond to your questions, compliments or jibes. Or you can enter into the personification and talk to us as Time, giving us the monolog of Time in response to such poor mortal creatures as ourselves.
Prompt Poem:
Brainstorming for Prompt:
Prompt Steps:
1) Read over Shakespeare’s Sonnet #19, paying particular attention to the character of Time. What does Shakespeare’s version of Time do or say in the poem?
2) Now conjure-up your own image of Time personified. What does it look like? What does it sound like? Etc.
3) Brainstorm some physical characteristics for the Character of Time, as well as some actions. Using tables like the ones shown above are a great way to organize your thoughts.
4) Take fifteen minutes to do a free write inspired by the images you came up with. You do not need to follow Shakespeare’s example of writing a sonnet: any and all forms are fair game. Focus on using the time to create a first draft, and don’t worry if it’s incomplete. There is always time to tweak things later.
5) Once you’re happy with the piece you’ve written, feel free to share it in the comments section below.
Prompt Responses:
Andrew’s Response:
I sat with Time across a concrete desk:
His skinny fingers clutched a frantic pen;
In corners, shadows moaned as day turned dusk;
His deadly eyes read centuries of pain.
The loudest legal silence filled the room,
While glaciers formed and melted every stroke
Of that unyielding pen. Lost spirits roamed
From kingdoms he’d crossed-out with lightening strikes.
He sighed, and turned one page … one mountain fell;
He sneezed, and continents were torn apart.
He starts another list: “How do you feel,”
He asks, not looking up, while flooding some port.
The answer’s lost to ancient history:
Entombed with Pharaohs … wrapped in mystery.
Rikhav’s Response
Path to the Present and Future (Blitz Poem)
Old man in a tweed suit
Old wooden bench by a walking path
Path cobbled with glass pebbles
Path woven through rolling hills
Hills dotted with patches of wildflowers
Hills founded on granite stone
Stone molded by echoes of eternity
Stone shaped by memories of time
Time sits on an old bench
Time wonders who will wander by the bench
Bench riddled with knots
Bench worn smooth by eons of wind and rain and sun
Sun unrelentingly beating down
Sun transforming firm taut skin to leather
Leather confines wrap loosely around an aging exterior
Leather fills the tweed suit with purpose
Purpose contradicts eternity with immediacy
Purpose asks if not when why not now
Now the old man shifts to regain his comfort
Now the wrapped caramels rustle in his pocket
Pocket collecting the lint from fabric woven on the loom of the fates
Pocket housing cold hands hiding from the winds of change
Change comes and sits down beside the old man
Change silently exchanges a nod of greeting
Greeting between old acquaintances
Greeting each other with simple cordial waves
Waves roll gently against the sands of a nearby shore
Waves caress the rippling edge with wet and warmth
Warmth tumbles forth from the pitiless sky
Warmth permeates and perforating the crisp and callous wind
Wind beating at the weathered exterior of the old man
Wind swirling the dry cracked mud at the foot of the solemnly seated
Seated restlessly on the wooden bench is Change
Seated beside Change is the unwavering Time
Time retrieves a caramel and offers it to Change
Time smiles as Change slowly unwraps the sticky sweet
Sweet nostalgia blossoms on Change’s tongue
Sweet memories of iterations long past
Past recollections bubble to the surface
Past permutation rising like methane from an inky surface
Surface tension is all that is holding this tenuous peace
Surface calm does not belie the turmoil beneath
Beneath the placid exterior Change seethes
Beneath the veil lies a tumultuous nature
Nature implies evolution
Nature implies a future
Future implies momentum
Future implies hope
Hope
Momentum