National Limerick day (May 12):

Trees in the breeze,

Pines on the brink of freeze.

Critters burrow,

The dying plants make furrows,

But the cold doesn’t seize.

National lost sock day (May 9):

Drawers pulled out, laundry basket scoured, all corners of the house checked; no sock found. How is this possible? I have looked everywhere in this house, top to bottom, and nothing. All I am left with is this one green sock decorated with trees and string lights. It would have been perfect for my work Christmas party, but I can only find the one sock. I guess I’ll have to make a quick stop at the dollar store before the party to get a new pair of Christmas socks. That means I have to leave right now, since the only dollar store open on Christmas eve is 10 minutes out of my way.

I slip on my red kitten heels, grab my keys, and run out the door. It is a brisk evening in the small town of Comox. The wind tangles my soft curls slightly; the slush caused by the wet snow splash up my ankles. I make it to my car, and immediately get in, twist the key and blast the heat. I connect my phone to the Bluetooth, start my Holiday Hits playlist and pull out of my driveway.

The drive to the dollar store is quiet. Only the soft music playing and the occasional swipe of the windshield wipers make any sound. I quietly hum to Walking in a Winter Wonderland as I pull into the parking lot of the dollar store. I park the car and rush into the store. There is only me and one sole worker in the store, Last Christmas plays from the store speakers. I quickly go to the aisle with the Christmas socks and find a nice pair of socks that are white with Santa and his sleigh of reindeer, perfect! I grab them and walk right up to the till to pay. The transaction goes through and I am the door.

I make it to my staff party just in time. I put my new Christmas socks on and head in. By the end of the night, I am exhausted. I say goodbye to my friends and boss, and head out. I get home at 11:30, a bit late for me, but I’ll survive the one late night. But I am really looking forward to crawling into bed. I get into my pjs, brush my teeth and cozy into bed. As I am settling into sleep, my dog, Ranger, comes to my bed to say goodnight and fall asleep beside me. As he approaches, I see a green sock hanging from his mouth. My missing Christmas sock! Of course, Ranger stole it.

First Lines (May 6):

I am a bowl, chipped at the rim.

Still kept but hardly used.

The signs of wear show my age,

Scratches from the metal utensils,

My once bright colours dulled,

And of course, the chip on my rim,

Caused from years of mistreatment.

Carelessly tossed into the dishwasher,

Being placed on the counter too forcefully,

The hard utensils constantly banging my edges.

Slowly weakening my structure,

Till one day, I cracked,

My old frame couldn’t take it anymore.

It was only a small chip on the rim,

But the small imperfection has rendered me a discard.

Summary

For this week of daily creates, we were asked to focus on the format of text. Text is one of the most common and simple ways to document a person’s thinking. It can be used in all areas of life, taught to us all throughout school and incorporated into our day to day, needing the skill to work and communicate. To start of the first week of Daily Creates, I chose three of the writing prompts: National Limerick Day, National Lost Sock Day, and First Lines.

For Limerick Day and First Lines, I was asked to write a poem. It has been several years since I have had to write a proper poem, so it was interesting to go back to that style of thinking and writing. I had to google what a limerick poem was because I had completely forgotten. I discovered that a limerick poem is a five-line poem that follows the rhyming pattern AABBA. I had the freedom to choose the topic for this poem, so as I was sitting in my living room trying to decide what to write about, I was looking out the window, watching the branches of the trees behind my house sway slightly, which became the first line of my poem. I decided on this topic before I knew the structure of a limerick poem, so I sat there thinking of different ways I could take this poem. When I discovered the limitations to my poem, it made me brainstorm new ideas to connect my topic into a proper limerick poem. In the moment, I was struggling to come up with words that rhymed well, so I searched online to provide me some ideas that would go well with what I had. Overall, I had a lot of fun making this poem and having the opportunity to explore this kind of creativity again. Limerick poems are short and follow a simple pattern, but it takes thoughtful time to create something that flows.

The First Lines poem, I had a bit more freedom for the format of my poem, but I was given a list of prompts I had to choose from. For me, this made the process of writing a poem faster and easier. I wasn’t constrained to a certain rhyming pattern, I could write down whatever came to mind, and I had some inspiration on what to write about. One of my biggest struggles with creative writing is coming up with a good topic to write about. I chose the prompt “I am a bowl, chipped at the rim” and I found lots of ideas coming to mind. The sentence could be seen as something random, but I found a lot of meaning behind the simplicity and was able to continue with the metaphor easily. I found the freedom of this creative writing super fun, the storytelling behind a chipped bowl had me thoughtfully analyzing ways to share the perspective of a chipped bowl.

The prompt of National Lost Sock Day gave me the choice to write a poem or a short story, so I decided to switch it up from the poems and write a story instead. I started the story with describing a sock, and I figured a distinct pattern would be useful for the purpose of this story. I decided on the colour green for the sock and immediately thought of Christmas, so that became the theme of my story. I thought it would be funny to find the sock at the end of the day when the character wouldn’t need it anymore (Murphy’s Law!). I also needed a reason for the sock to go missing and I immediately thought of how my dog always likes to carry a shoe or a sock in his mouth, especially when he gets excited, like greeting people at the door. Since I had my idea set, I began typing and really tried to include some small details to add to the storytelling of this short story. The process of writing the story took me a bit, trying to connect all the details to the conclusion that I had decided on.

I found this Daily Creates exercise engaging to explore. It had me working on my storytelling and creative thinking. I haven’t had to use this creative way of thinking and storytelling since high school, so it was fun to try it again. Text is a simple media, but it is so accessible to people and is fundamental in our day to day lives. Writing and text are great skills to continuously practice.