Freely Written Nonsense (A Poem)

By Joyce Jacobo

[Author’s Note: I learned about freewriting during my community college years. It has proven to be a helpful creative technique ever since then.]

Whenever ideas

refuse

to budge

from deep

within

my mind

sometimes                I take a deep breath

     and write nonsense on all the ways

            they resist the temptation to flow

                 …like autumn leaves drawn along by the current

                      present in a forest stream on a bright       cool morning

                                  to have the frame

                                      freeze them

                                         and even

                                         the wind

                                               in

                                            place

                                …or maybe like

                                    a dragon curled up

                           asleep in his cave on some mountaintop

                     disturbed by a brave (or reckless) young girl

                 who only wants to know if          by some odd chance

             he happened to be awake when her great-grandfather

                 frequented those very mountain ranges to visit

                      a dear friend of his by the name of Scales—

                               only to freeze in absolute shock

                                    when the dragon replies

                                       her great-grandfather

                                             always cheated

                                               at checkers

                        or…

                              maybe…

                                   if the ideas persist

                                       in their shapeless dormancy

                                          within the general chaos of a mind

                                              boggled by possibilities but weighed down often

                                                      thanks to stressful realities 

                              I shrug my shoulders

                                     and leave for a joyous time elsewhere

                                          until curiosity

                                               starts to draw them out

                                                    into the open

                                                       …like small fairies

                                                           unable to resist the temptation

                                                               to pop into unexpected

                                                                       or peculiar forms

                                                                              that I welcome

                                                                                        onto a page

                                            As creativity explored

                                                  and developed

                                                      through playful nonsense