He could not abide the woman
And her squawking, huge and urgent need, for long.
Quietly he took off, left.
So what?
Inner blankness all he wanted.
Sensation of quiescence,
Blanket of relief.
Olive Kitteridge (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Trifecta Challenge : This weekend it’s another word game – seeing what can be done with a particular word bank. From the 33rd page of
Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, scour the page, choose 33 words and reshape them into a piece of your own.
This is so much harder than it looks. And that was a great book, by the way. Happy Weekend.
Draug419
February 23, 2013 at 12:01 pm
I think I feel this way when faced with an annoying customer at work…lol
grandmalin
February 24, 2013 at 10:13 am
haha – same here. Especially the squawking ones.
braith an' lithe
February 23, 2013 at 12:11 pm
ooh, that sounds like a very tricky challenge! well done for pulling it off!
grandmalin
February 24, 2013 at 10:15 am
Thanks – I’ve had practice with kids fridge magnet words. lol
braith an' lithe
February 24, 2013 at 11:33 am
colonialist
February 23, 2013 at 2:49 pm
Impressed! The only thing which spoils it for me is wondering if you could have found a better word in the place of ‘long’.
grandmalin
February 23, 2013 at 3:00 pm
Hmm. Added a coma, so that it doesn’t look like it means ‘her need for long” but his not being able to abide her for long. Thanks – I think that makes it better.
colonialist
February 24, 2013 at 1:09 am
Just that one comma makes SUCH a difference to the clarity!
Suzanne
February 23, 2013 at 4:19 pm
This is wonderful! Great use of the prompt – love the idea of the squawking woman!
deanabo
February 23, 2013 at 5:09 pm
I really like what you did with these words.
kz
February 23, 2013 at 9:40 pm
i like what you did with this ^^ squawking, huge and urgent need – like this line a lot ^^
trophos
February 23, 2013 at 10:43 pm
lovelovelove! Kenneth Goldsmith, a creative writing professor at the University of Pennsylvania, teaches a class called ‘Uncreative Writing’ in which students are required to plagiarize every assignment, all semester. Some of the assignments are like this, repurposing another’s words to a new context. I like in particular how clearly it illustrates the interactive and dialogic nature of creativity
Jonathan Lethem has a great essay on this very thing – ‘The Ecstasy of Influence’ – http://harpers.org/archive/2007/02/the-ecstasy-of-influence/
grandmalin
February 24, 2013 at 10:53 am
Thank you trophos – what an excellent essay! We tend to get all caught up in being original when in fact none of us has ever had an original thought in our heads. All we can hope for is to be creative with everything that has influenced us. I’d like to do a post plagiarizing the entire article! lol And I’d be first in line signing up for that uncreative writing course.
Tom MacInnes (@cobourgcobbie)
February 24, 2013 at 6:22 pm
I love your opening two lines a lot! Well done! Thank you for creating such good work.
dailyshorts
February 24, 2013 at 7:50 pm
I really like what you did with the challenge. The 2nd and 6th lines are my favorite. I have a coworker whose a squaker (i.e. complainer) and I, too, have to turn around and leave when she comes around. Bad juju.
P.S. Thanks for stopping by my blog and liking ‘Valley of Lilies’.
kymminbarcelona
February 25, 2013 at 5:17 am
Very elegantly done!