67. Childhood Shoes

 

Prompt No. 67 – Describe a pair of your childhood shoes, what memories do they evoke?

 This prompt has a similar root to the reflection task we did a couple of weeks ago, but instead of creating a character from a reflection of us now, we’re building ideas from the seed of the person we were in our childhood, which is more interesting, creatively, because a seed may develop into many different new ideas.

Starter

For the starter task we need to find these childhood shoes. If your parents are the sentimental type, then they may have kept your first little booties, some people even have them coated in copper as an ornament. You might need to dig through the baby photos. Or you can try to remember your first pair of shoes.

Close your eyes for a few minutes and try to recall any early sensations you can remember in your feet - use the simple meditation I've included in the video.

As soon as you open your eyes, write down everything you can remember about wearing your first pair of shoes. You don’t need complete sentences, just thoughts, sensations and impressions.

Idea Developer

So, picking out sensory memories through mildly-focussed meditation is a useful technique. It should only take a couple of minutes to spark a sensory memory that you can take and build on. These are the impressions I’ve picked up.

Cold lino on bare feet, flexing toes.

Dodging away from grabbing hands.

Caught and crying

Thick socks pulled on

Scratchy.

Weight on my feet.

Tight around my ankles.

Stomp, stomp, stomp.

Noisy Velcro

Push and squeeze, kicking heel to heel to lever them off.

Socks pulled from the toes and flung away.

With this meditation I have been able to recall a little scene with the physical sensations from when I was around 3, I think. Whether this is entirely a memory or partly reconstructed from family tales and experience with other children I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. Creative writing comes from different sources, both internal and external.

So, to develop this idea I want you to do the same thing with your favourite shoes now, - or a pair you imagine in your future. Describe the sensations of finding the right fitting, or of wearing them. Do they feel the same as the ones you remember? Have your opinions changed? Keep thinking more about movement and sensations, and stick with your feet as much as you can. I have included a selection of sensory words below to help you.

Take 10 minutes.

Abrasive, Bendable, Biting, Blistered, Brittle, Bulky, Caress, Clammy, Clean, Cottony, Crisp, Cuddly, Cushioned, Damp, Dull, Elastic, Filthy, Fleecy, Flexible, Flimsy, Floppy, Fluffy, Fragile, Furry, Fuzzy, Heavy, Hot, Humid, Icy, Lacy, Leathery, Light, Limp, Lumpy, Mucky, Muddy, Pinching, Plastic, Pliable, Pointed, Rough, Rub, Rubbery, Ruffled, Rugged, Satiny, Silky, Slick, Slippery, Sloppy, Soft, Spongy, Springy, Squashy, Stiff, Stubby, Tender, Tickly, Tight, Tingly, Tough, Velvety, Warm, Woollen, Woolly, Yielding.

Prompt No. 67 – Describe a pair of your childhood shoes, what memories do they evoke?

By now you’ve got 2 very rough impressions of shoes and now we’re going to expand on these ideas to create a poem, this kind of specific sensory writing works really well as an evocative poem.

This poem doesn’t need a particular structure or rhyme, unless you want to take it as a challenge. This is what’s called free verse – no structure, no rhyme or rhythm, but you still should use interesting and emotive language. Write two stanzas, or verses, that reflect each other to create a contrast between the shoes of childhood and the shoes of adulthood.

 Aim for 2 stanzas of about 10-15 lines each, and take some time to really craft and choose your words. Take 10-15 minutes.

 

REFLECTION

 I did/did not find the mini-meditation useful.

I think that the best part of my poem is… because…

Something I struggled with was… so next time I will…

 Un-structured sensory poems are quite interesting because the freedom of free verse means that you can create your own structure and connect things in a way that makes particular sense to you. There is no right or wrong in this kind of poem, but it all comes down to a feeling - do you feel that you've really created the sensory image you were imagining... can you add more? I am not quite happy with my poem right now, I feel that there is more to say... what do you think?

My Work - First Shoes, My Shoes

Cold lino on bare feet, flexing toes.

Laughing and dodging away from grabbing hands,

Caught and crying, worm-wriggling.

Thick socks pulled on

Scratchy.

Too hot.

Weight on my feet,

Dragging down each step,

Tight around my ankles, won’t shake off.

Stomp, stomp, stomp.

Noisy Velcro, peels off one hook at a time.

Push and squeeze, kicking heel to heel to lever off.

Sudden freedom

Socks pulled from the toes and flung away like doves.

Cold lino on bare feet, flexing

 

Kick away an everyday trainer

Perch and pull on sensible socks

Point toes like a ballerina and slide

Into cold, stiff leather, that doesn’t quite give.

Lean forwards, lean down, mash toes into the point

Heel ridge grips the ankle.

No.

Push and squeeze, kicking heel to heel to lever off.

Flex in freedom, then point for the next

Tight fit, but not too tight

Room to flex the toes

Stand and march an awkward aisle’s length

Boot to trainer, trainer to boot

Turn on the heel and flex

Feel the leather give. Yes.

 

Extension Task

We've built our poem without a particular structure, now try and create a rhyme scheme to give it a different feel... what does the rhyme scheme do? how does it change the emotion or imagery? Which version do you prefer and why?

Terminology Check

Look through the sensory words list above. Are there any words you don't understand? Look them up and describe them in your own words. 

Do you know the meaning of these words - Evoke, Emotive and Sentimental?