OctPoWriMo Day 10 Touch

Hi. I'm Maria. Nice to meet you. This is my first time writing a prompt for OctPoWriMo.

Can I touch you? 

 

No matter how you feel about being touched, I'm not physically able to touch you, however, my words might, my ideas might, poetry will. 

I remember the first time someone asked if they could kiss me, it would have been my first “real” kiss, but the question stole my idea of the passion of it. I got mad and said NO even though I wanted it. Why would that kiss have been different? What in that touching of lips would have been different without the surprise of the movie ideal slow-move? Why does a kiss even have meaning that is different than touching of fingers, or hips, or toes?

Litt!e Mix – Touch (Official Video)

I have absolutely no connection or rights to this video. It's just on youtube.

I was going to avoid this video that kept coming up when I looked up Touch, but watching it, I laughed out loud twice: the first time I saw the “flesh-colored” vinyl bodice over her pink sweatshirt and then when she danced in it trying to be sexy. Okay, I laughed a lot more than that. As a costumer this is the funniest video I've seen in a long time. I thought I'd include it because the few words in the song have a lot to do with how we think about touch.

Prompt: A small touch can mean so much. But was it intended? What is touching you right now? What are you touching?

What's great about that video is the visuals contradict the message. Those dancer's are as interested in touching floors and walls as people, but it does project the idea that touch is about sensuality and wanting to be touched—I would say—desperately.

Word prompts

I usually think of texture as adjectives, but today I want touch to be active. What happens when we use texture words as verbs? Objects bump, welt, smooth. And what do textures do to you? They can melt, dry, chill, prick, grate, knot, soften.

Poetry type: Clarity Pyramid


Remember, our prompts are only suggestions, you can find your inspiration wherever your muse leads you. Please visit the other participants, share the hashtag, #OctPoWriMo on social media, and share your link in the comments below. Let us know how this journey into poetry is going for you and if this is your first year or if you have been with us from the beginning.

 

Maria L. Berg enjoys brisk swims in the Pacific Northwest. Her short fiction has appeared in Five on the Fifth, America's Emerging Writers Anthology and most recently in Writer Shed Stories. She writes and photo-illustrates Gator McBumpypants picture books and plays many instruments. You can find her poetry at experiencewriting.com.