Hi All! So, you might be wondering what kind of a bad joke is this… but yeah, I was searching through some local happenings and found a Creative Writing course in town which runs for 10 weeks, 2 hours every Wednesday evening 7-9pm. I signed up just to get myself out and about to meet people…

By the time I had finished work yesterday, I popped home for a bite and a cuppa and thought, dayum, I am wrecked and I think I’d rather stay home, chill and be my usual houseplant-self. But Man dragged me out the door saying how I was going to write a bestseller one of those days so that he can become a kept man. Now- that is a joke of course! 🙂

As always, I arrive early to any of my ‘appointments’ with the idea of getting the best, ‘out of the way’ seat in the room. The table I chose filled up first! Old and young, men and women alike and I thought- look at me with my magnetic aura! 🙂 hahaha… wonderful lot of people, though! Next Wednesday can’t come quick enough!

So, the first session was really fun! We did some impromptu writing, read a couple of poems, thought about the technical aspects (e.g. find the words that create an image in your mind; what words are the most important on each line and why, how the poems are structured, etc) and (psycho)analysed the bejeebus out of those 2 poems. It was really interesting to hear people’s different takes and how they understand and translate the possible hidden meanings and ideas. I found the whole atmosphere charged with creative energy, really encouraging and friendly so it was easier to pipe up and give my own 2 cents.

Anyway, with a bit of Twitter-encouragement from my friend Stark from Random Rotten Melon Reads, I thought- you know what, it would be fun to share some of the stuff I write during those sessions. Now, I won’t promise that I will keep this feature up for the next 10 weeks because I can be a flake like that and I honestly admit it. But I will attempt it…

Our first task was to choose a prompt from a list and write from the object’s point of view for a few minutes, whatever came to mind, about what would be around us, what we see, what we think as that object…

The prompt that spoke to me immediately from the whole list was:

A loose button on an old overcoat

And here’s what I came up with:

I know I won’t be able to hold on much longer. I am hanging by a thread that is not even a part of me yet remains an essential.

My world, that I am desperately holding on to, hangs in a narrow hallway, damp and dark. I feel the brush of elbows and breeze of outside air twice a day; wearing down that last string that keeps me from falling off.

It has been three thousand, six hundred and something days since I was last mended by the caring, soft and wrinkly hands. Those old and soft hands no longer occupy this house, no other pair of hands cares for me.

Sometimes a younger pair of hands, hands that shake, push me through the fleece hole as everything that I am a part of is draped over her shoulders. Those rare times, I see the outside again. These young hands shake so much and they smell of cigarettes that I doubt they will ever care for me.

I do not know when the thread will let me go. I do not know when will be the last time I will be of use.

I do not claim to know what I am doing, I do not claim to feel like I have this all under control, I do not claim to have a degree or anything of the sorts in the language of English so my apologies for any glaring stylistic/grammatical mistakes… ahem

What does this prompt ‘A loose button on an old overcoat’ bring to your mind?

Please feel free join in with me and share your own story in the comments 🙂