Hello poets, writers, artists, and other thinkers,

Welcome to the first #FreeformFriday Prompt! This is not meant to compete with the other prompt, simply to add another angle.

The prompt words this week are: GRITTY, CALM, BLUE (you can choose any 2 or 3)

Set your words free Friday could be an alternative name for this challenge. Every artistic form, new and old, was born of experimentation. Creative exploration is valuable and can even birth new artistic movements. Whilst I will always love using forms from Haiku to Sonnets, Nonets to Zanzes and I’m inspired daily by poets who focus on and teach such beautiful traditions with amazing results, it can be equally rewarding to find new rhythms and modes of expression. This is where we explore the art of freeform, and combined forms, dancing words to different rhythms to see what we discover. Friday feels like a good day to let loose and get creative currents flowing.  I hope you’ll join me.

The guidelines for this prompt are simple:

1. Every Friday at 8am GMT I will send out the prompt. This will be 3 words just under the top image. At least one word will be sensory, e.g. a touch-sensation, hue, or scent. How you use these words is completely up to you. You don’t have to use all three. They are only the spark to get you started! You must be the author.
2. Create! It does not have to rhyme and should not entirely conform to the set structure of any one particular poetry type but it can combine recognized forms.
3. Post your work on your own blog and then send me a pingback. If you’re new to the pingback thing, here’s the great, simple guide by Hugh I was pointed towards.
4. Please read and show support for some of your fellow contributor’s work. This is also about building community. The following week I will post the round-up, linking your work back to your blog (unless you ask me not too.)
5. Obviously, no hate speech of any kind – but you wouldn’t do that anyway – and nothing too racy.

If you’re new to freeform or combined forms or simply want to try new techniques here are some ideas to get you started. You could include any of the following:

• Something with a rhythm all its own e.g. Yes And or The Rhythm  
• Two or more forms combined in one poem e.g. a conversation with scent
• A riff on a traditional form – such as rebellious syllables or an apt insertion of prose
• A report that calls out for an injection of poetry e.g. Creatively Conserving Energy
• Redacted poetry or prose (where parts of an earlier text are left out, revealing another poem, story or observation. Please reference any original source material)
• A letter (embrace the purple prose)
• Art incorporating text other than a haiku (Haiku & art is a traditional form) e.g. Ink or Word Tree (see below)
• Basically, anything that stretches convention a wee bit. Go on, write in the margins!

Sometimes, it can also help to write in a stream of consciousness; without editing yourself or your words at first, before later teasing out shapes, hidden rhythms and meanings. I will give support and comments whenever I can as I hope people will for one another (including myself). There will be no one winner, just another opportunity to share and co-learn. I hope you enjoy creating. I look forward to reading your work.