pink in the sun
at the base of a rotting oak:
lion’s mane
NOTES
This haiku was sparked by the creative prompt “umbrella”, which made me think of rain, which made me think of mushrooms, which made me think of lion’s mane mushrooms.
I offer this as an example of the fact that I often don’t use creative prompts literally.
When I first learned theatrical improv, we always received a suggestion from the audience. I generally chose to ask for “any word at all”.
What I’d learned from my Chicago-trained improv teachers, Tina Jackson and Dan Grimm at Bexar Stage in San Antonio, Texas, was that a suggestion from the audience is just that — a suggestion. From the suggestion we could go from A to C, as I did when I went from (A) umbrella to (B) rain to (C) mushrooms.
(To be fair, I don’t need to stop at C. I could keep going to (D) champignons to (E) pizza to (F) Germany to (G) David Bowie, and so on, until my creative intuition, or what Liz Allen might call “The Bony Finger” told me to stop.)
The point of a prompt in improv, at least the way I use it, is to send my mind to new places that are in the moment, ensuring myself that I’m not coming into a scene with something I’ve pre-concocted.
That’s how I continue to use creative prompts, and I think it serves me and my art well.