| Write an Abecedarian Poem about the experience of running. Maybe one about all of the annoying things that happen on a run. Or one about the different ways that runners run. |
Before the Race |
| Record a poem while running. Use the voice memo app on your iPhone to record your thoughts about the run as they come to you. Pay particular attention to the sounds you hear or the thoughts you are having as you have them, no matter how mundane they are. |
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| Take notes for a lyrical essay while running. Stop every 10 minutes and speak a few lines into the iPhone. |
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| Write a list of what you know about running. |
Did you Know? |
| Describe the motion of running in just a few sentences/lines. Write it over and over again until you’re satisfied or don’t have any more time. Make a poem out of it, like “A Gray Day, 8 Versions.” |
The Runner’s High |
| Focus on surfaces, textures and the sense of touch during a run (“various ground surfaces you run on, plus your shoe soles, your skin, your clothes”). Compose a list with as much detail as possible. |
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| Research the etymology of “run.” Make a list of all the different expressions/ways that run/running are used. |
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| Compose a cento or an erasure, taken from online articles/blog posts about training. |
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| Create a concrete poem inspired by running, in some form. |
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| Write about the day you decided to run a marathon. Provide as much detail as possible. |
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| In an account of my first big injury, I wrote “it sucked.” Expand on that. So many feelings crammed into those two words! Fear, frustration, anger, resolution and more. Push at these emotions. |
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| Say more about this: “The solution: lots of ibuprofen (9 pills a day), lots of ice (3 xs @20 minutes a day) and physical therapy for about 6 weeks. No running, barely any walking. I was able to swim and bike some.” Maybe write a list of what I know about running injuries? |
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| Write some more questions and answers in response to this: Will the bone spur go away? |
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| Write a poem about something encountered on the run, inspired by Wallace Stevens’ Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. |
13 Ways of Looking at a Tree While Running |
| Create a running route story. Make a poem or creative prose out of one of your standard running routes |
Ford Loop |
| Do 10 observations of the actual world during the run. Do not use any metaphor. Do this for a week. |
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| Write 25 or more different versions of the same event: breathing (while running, walking, living) |
On Breathing, 25 Versions |
| Write something explaining what this means: “Our first questions about the value of a book, of a human being, or a musical composition are: Can they walk? Can they dance?” (Nietzsche from Gros, 18). |
How Does Your Writing Move? |