This is Just to Say
by William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Today’s exercise may not make us all famous poets, but I have no doubt it will get our creativity flowing. Noticing the unnoticed has a way of doing that.
Here is the exercise, straight from the Working with Your Attention course (I hope they don’t mind; it was too good to pass up):
The poet and doctor William Carlos Williams used to carry a notepad around with him in which he listed “Things I noticed today that I’ve missed until today.” Notice 12 things today that you never noticed before –- whether in your kitchen, at your office, on your street , in your car… This simple exercise can help us to wake up, to draw attention away from our mental preoccupations and to be in the world as if for the first time.
I’ll post my list of unnoticed things at the end of the day, and I invite you to do the same. Don’t forget to notice smells, sounds, textures, etc. in addition to sights. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
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I really enjoyed this exercise. Here’s some of what I noticed for the first time:
Dust kicked up by construction workers that caught the sunlight behind the shadow of a fence so it looked like sun streaming through the woods on a foggy morning. Chain and a combination lock (neither of which was rusty) securing a gate along a pathway I often pass. A little balcony on a house I often pass. A beehive up in a tree near my house. The shadow of my hand on my sketchbook as I wrote.
I was feeling a bit sick today but I did manage to notice that Kevin constantly sings. He hums and sings while he plays. I never really thought about it before. It’s so cute.