Winter Story
Prose poem…Creative Reading Prompt
You have only to look out the porthole of this bedroom. Now that the moon is full and high and the frost is forming on the inside. We have danced our cabaret and sent sheets and feathers drifting within our snowglobe. The cold light shines inside — and out. Used to the poorest rations, I don’t let the sustenance of your lips escape. You have only to look out the porthole at the wind-beaten wood returning to snow as if sinking into the sea. Then you will know: frosted or not, we are warm inside.
Have you done any Creative Reading lately?
This prose poem came from a Creative Reading prompt that I enjoy using.
Creative Reading is simply when you read a great book, story, poem, or article and then do the natural thing: meet the writer halfway. Begin a story of your own. This particular technique is something I call a “Word Story.” It’s easy:
- Read something beautiful.
2. Grab a few words that you find intriguing (because you wouldn’t have used them yourself, because they paint a picture in your mind…because you’re reading in a language you didn’t grow up speaking and you want to make these words part of your stories too).
3. Write something that is a story of its own — use your new words.
4. Tell us what you were reading and where you found your inspiration.
The book that inspired this story:
Our Vagabond Book of the Month is Woman at 1000 Degrees by Hallgrimur Helgason. And my words all come from one chapter deep in the novel. Here they are:
bedroom
porthole
wooden
cabaret
rations
wind-beaten
What are you reading now? And is there a word story in there?
Let me know in the comments.
Write your own words story and tag me in.
Or write your own word story and publish it here. In any language you read and write in…or in several.
If you’d like to get invitations to all our free, live events, keep abreast of all the great books we read and get exclusive writing prompts, you sign up for the Vagabond Newsletter here.
And to write alongside your fellow Vagabonds, just get in touch, tell me something about yourself and the story you’d like to tell.
Thanks for reading!
© Trisha Traughber 2022.
