read write prompt #70: in your face

by Carolee Sherwood

There’s poetry in your face. It sounds like a pick-up line, right? Imagine someone grabbing the stool next to you at the bar and saying it to you: “There’s poetry in your face.” You’d let the smooth-talker buy you a drink, right?

It’s not really my business how the date goes or if it lasts into the night or even if you don’t make it home until the next morning (unless, of course, you want to wrap it into your writing for the week), but no matter what, once you return from your date with the stranger, write a poem about your face.

There’s poetry in its features: eyes, lips, jaw, nose, chin, eye brows, cheek bones, lashes, freckles, moles, wrinkles. Zoom in close and focus on a single detail or study your face as a whole. Note its shape, its color, its energy. How do you feel about your face? What does it say about you? What part do you like? What part do you hate? What feature has been passed down to you through generations in your family?

Look in the mirror and write a self portrait of this moment. Sort through old pictures and write about how your face has changed through the years. Think about what your face does. Do you make eye contact on the street? Do you blush when complimented? Do your expressions give your thoughts away?

Write about your own face. Write about someone else’s face. Brainstorm face clichés and write about one of them in a fresh way. Here are a few: Face the facts. Face off. Cut off the nose to spite the face. Rub your face in it. Two-faced. Blue in the face. Egg on your face.

And then come back on Thursday to come face to face with your fellow poets and Get Your Poem On (post links to your new poems).