Empty Hands -- Car Poem #1

Every semester I do this activity with my Writers' Craft class. We write descriptive paragraphs in prose about our earliest memories of a car, our current car, and our dream mode of transportation. (Sometimes we do beds--works just as well, if not better). Then we print 'em off, chop 'em ruthlessly into fragments, and reassemble the fragments into poems that have to match randomly chosen titles.

It's a great way to surprise yourself: when the poem is done, I often say "I can't believe those are my words--I would never have said that." But there it is.

We sometimes write not to express what we know, but to discover what we do not yet know. I like this one, because it has a sense of openness, a sense of joy and optimism. If this is the me that I do not yet know, I think he's moving in the direction of even greater happiness.