Creative Field Trips for Writing Lulls

I try to collect words and images, in case they end up being useful and perhaps making some future poem better. Often, these are the words and phrases that just seem to find me at unexpected/inconvenient times. But I also like to go out hunting for miscellaneous debris, every now and then. Field trips to grocery stores, museums, parks, and city streets can be productive writing retreats. You never know what you might notice if you're noticing.

It's a good idea to take a camera. It helps get you in the mindset of looking for images worth remembering and requires considerations of composition and perspective.

Here is a glimpse of yesterday's Thrift Store excursion:

 

Speaking of Thrift Store art: I love these "adding monsters to thrift store paintings" images:

But back to writing: where are some of your favorite places to hunt for literary materials?

May The Blog Be With You

I haven't posted in awhile, because my momentum was iced by a couple of factors.
First- I removed the "Google Comments" update, because I didn't like that it wouldn't allow anonymous posts (from folks without google accounts). I hated the idea of anything discouraging comments. However, it deleted some of the recent comments that people left, when I disabled that feature. I hope nobody thought I personally deleted their comments, because I certainly appreciated them.

Second- Google Reader was discontinued. I know many people used that service to keep up on the blogs they followed, so I'm not sure if many people even notice these blogs anymore.
But I like being able to make lengthier in depth posts here, so I am back.

As a token of thanks for noticing my humble blog, I am giving you this glimpse of Shakespeare's Star Wars (which is apparently a real thing).

As for my own writing adventures, I have some big things in the works that I hope to post about soon.

In the meantime, I have a "rejection poem" up in the debut issue of The New (guest edited by Matt Mason), along with Michael Mlekoday, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, Anis Mojgani, and other writers worth checking out.

My poem "Sincerest Form of Rejection" can be found here.
Although I am having a little fun with my stockpile of rejection slips, I have to admit that I am one of those writers who likes cold generic form responses. It's easier to NOT take those personally, so they've never bothered me. It's the ones where the editor went out of their way to scribble one extra jab, that sting a little.