What happens when you pour balsamic vinegar over extra-virgin olive oil? The oil rests on top of the vinegar in the cruet, but if you shake the contents, you create a delicious salad dressing.

Prompt
For your poem this week, try combining two elements that don’t seem to go together at first glance. Here’s the process:
• Think of a happy memory, a moment that brings you joy. Write five to ten lines about that moment and then put the poem away.
• Write about a moment or time of distress, sadness or anger. Once again, write five to ten lines.
• Get out the first poem and combine it with the second by alternating lines.

Collaboration
Try alternating verses with a partner, each of you taking turns writing about opposing or differing emotions. Or one person could write about a joyous occasion, the other about a gloomier time. If you’d like to work with someone this week, you can leave a comment to this post. Remember, the time to link your poem starts Monday.

Other elements to combine
• Warmth and cold
• Fear and courage
• Beauty and ugliness
• Humor and seriousness

Patricia Lee Lewis, poet and workshop leader, introduced me to this type of poem, and she in turn learned about the process in an experimental writing workshop she attended by Carolyn Forché.

~Christine.