Three Little Words

By Ashley Lister

I remember picking the theme of showers for this slot in the middle of last year. I was thinking of the phrase ‘April Showers.’ I had an image of the opening scenes of Bambi in my mind’s eye because of that haunting / hateful tune that repeats the refrain ‘Drip Drip Drop Little April Showers…’ ad infinitum and ad nauseum.

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, there’s a link to the song here. However, be warned that it’s one of those tunes that will stick to the inside of your skull and can only be removed with alcohol and determined scrubbing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSE35kXcW88

When I was picking themes, I thought it would be apposite. At the time I thought, ‘It will be April and it will probably be raining.’ I figured it would make for an interesting week of contributions. And whilst everyone else has managed to say something sage and poignant this week, I’m personally drawing a blank. There’s nothing original I can think to say on this week’s topic.

Perhaps it’s because I’m one of the contributing poets who’ve taken up Lara’s NaPoWriMo challenge over at http://napowrimoblackpool.blogspot.co.uk/ The idea here is to write one poem each day. That concept sounded simple enough when I jumped on the bandwagon and said I’d try to write alongside the talented folk who are also contributing. But a poem a day is quite a demanding discipline and, to quote Natalie Imbruglia in Torn, “my inspiration has run dry…”

Which is possibly the most tenuous link to the word showers I could think of as I ask readers of this blog to ‘shower me’ with ideas.

In the comments boxes below (which we keep trying to make more and more accessible) please list three little words that could be used for inspiration: ideally a NOUN and two adjectives work well for this type of exercise. (i.e. WALL, pink, broken or NIGHT, silver, old).

The idea behind this is based on a gestalt theory of psychology, where the orderly processes of logical thinking try to make sense from randomness – order from chaos.

Underlying theories aside, it can be a lot of fun. We’re jamming words together that have no right to be in the same sentence. And there will be a poet somewhere reading these three little words and savouring a light bulb moment as they try to find order in the chaos of the random.

I’m hoping to use this as a resource over the remainder of this NaPoWriMo month so I look forward to reading your thoughts.