15 minutes – timed writing on the following:
In ten lines or less, write about your own addiction. You may prefer to write standalone lines or group some of them together like stanzas in the way Wright does. If you’re addicted to sugar, rather than say, “I am addicted to sugar,” let Sugar narrate. Let your addiction assume its own identity. Let the addiction feel separate from you. You are not your addiction. Let yourself feel that. Draw a WICKET from your Word Well to help you get started.
One word wicket from my word well – which,today, is my mother.
BEAUTIFUL
1 – she who denied herself the word – stood naked renouncing her stomach – stood naked one breast less – stood naked through it all – oh, the irony oh the learned misadventure – oh, the strength in all the naked
2 – everyone else around me is – i can see it plain as paper – their beauty ripe rich real – elevated heart rate at his mouth at her neck all the lips wet with beauty
3 – we talk about fat – two children and a mother – i say as a collective human beings tell stories about what beauty is – depending on where you look – on who you ask – on how you feel – ‘fat’ is good or not – let’s think about it as healthy or unhealthy – as taking care of your body and spirit – let our weight reflect our self-care – our happiness, joy, longevity
4 – i used to never look in the mirror
5 – i wish my neck was longer my arms were more defined my …. stop. just stop it.
6 – has life-changing sounds – an infant’s first gasp of air her first scream at the world – laughter – tears – a body as it hits water – rain on the roof – breathing breathing breathing
7 – beauty only visits briefly – it’s like she’s afraid to show me her…peace
8 – whitman’s ‘leaves of grass’
9 – the soul
10 – music and poetry and art – beauty’s languages revealed
Beauty as an addiction is a vast world these lines have attempted to navigate.
VANESSA SHIELDS, writer 