One way of writing a poem is simply to write what you see around you. It may seem like an 'unpoetic' idea, but it can give you some really interesting results.

Look around you now. Write down the first five things you notice about the space you are in. I'll do it too and we'll try and write a first draft of a poem in the next ten minutes.

These are my five things:

1. Warm sunlight is coming in

2. The street outside is quiet

3. The earth in the flower pots is dry

4. There are some candles which have burnt all the way down

5. A bicycle is leaned against the gate.


Now those are the most neutral facts I could see. They are obvious things that I see in front of me and I was trying to write down the first five things I came to.

But there’s no such thing as noticing in a neutral way. If we look at those five statements in more detail, I’m sure we’ll find some clues to my recent life and how I’m feeling right now.

If you think about it, there are a million things I could have noticed. Why are those the ones that stood out?

Perhaps if we think about it some more, we’ll find an emotional response to those things that was behind them leaping out at me?

Let’s see…

1. Warm sunlight is coming in

I’ve had a late start to the day. We’re having an Indian summer in England, as it’s suddenly got hot again. But the heat is that lazy heat from a lower sun in the sky and it is reminding me that summer is coming to an end. It is also reminding me that I am half-inside and haven’t been out to enjoy the sun today and I feel a bit guilty about that.

2. The street outside is quiet

There’s a building site opposite. The street is quiet because it is the weekend. Cars pass only in one direction because it’s a one-way street. It’s the weekend… I should probably be at a pub by the river with some friends. More guilt about the ailing summer?

3. The earth in the flower pots is dry.

My housemate is better at watering them than I am. I haven’t been watering them. Maybe I should do it now? The plants are a symbol of the care he’s taken over the house and perhaps my failure to look after it on a daily basis in the way that I feel I should.

4. There are some candles which have burnt all the way down.

We put out candles last night to make the space look nice as we were having a few people over. It was a late night, which is the main reason I haven’t made the most of today’s sun yet. It also, in contrast to the flowerpots, makes me realise I do enjoy making things look nice for people – I’m better at special occasions and more neglectful of the day to day needs.

5. A bicycle is leaned against the gate.

A friend of mine went back home and left his bike with me in London. He custom made the bike and it’s a pretty nice one. Unfortunately I haven’t got round to using it yet, and I’m starting to feel like I might never. I have to take it up the road to get the brakes adjusted and I just haven’t done it yet. I feel like I should do this and the bicycle leaning there is making me feel bad that I haven’t.


So… apart from finding out that I’m obviously feeling very guilty about lots of things at the moment (interesting! I hadn’t realised this) what does that little exercise show us?

Well for one thing, the size of things in your perception of a room has very little to do with their actual size, and much more to do with their emotional effect. You can imagine that someone who never learnt to control their emotions might actually see all these things I’ve described as bigger than they are.

It’s like a pimple on your own face. It always feels bigger than it is, because you are one hundred percent focused on it.

What else? Well, I think any of those five things might make an interesting subject for a poem, once I’ve had a look behind them and worked out why they were standing out to me so much. Or you could do what I’m going to do and make a poem out of the five things you’ve noticed, because what you notice is a window to what you’re feeling.


Important Notice

The guilty sunlight of an unspent summer
Colours in the pints of people in the pub elsewhere
I sit here not watering my life while they sit there
But last night – that was some consolation
A party full of strangers whose names
Like the memory of candles
Lit up the early hours with their games
And then burnt out.

A morning bicycle leans up against the gate.
As long as I don’t use it there’s no need to fix the brakes.