Luck, Chance, Reversal of Fortune
Objects you can hold in your hand and a Vagabond Voices writing prompt…
Panning for Gold…
Tiny heavy chunks of
rock, catch the light
gold, fool’s gold hard
to tell she held the pan, imagined
sloshing over the side, mud
sifting away and only
heavy things being
left. So simple. The fading
light, the shifting, passing pleasure —
innocence. For the longest time,
they didn’t even think
to go down to the singing
river. Maybe the heavy shiny
things are best left
under the
dust.
What would luck look like if you held it in your hands?
A reversal of fortune, the object you noticed on the street, on the seat of the bus abandoned, the shiny thing under the leaf you somehow spotted…
What do luck, chance, reversal of fortune look like in the countries you’ve lived in…or dreamed of living in…or the places you’ve left behind?
This is my challenge to you — go and find that object and turn it into something…
A poem, a story, a collage, a reflection, a photo…a memory etched in your journal.
The poem I shared is a ‘found poem’ that I pulled and teased from a story I’m working on. It has a symbol, perhaps not of luck, but of shifting fates. In the form of an object I have actually held in my hand. An object that brings back history and place in my mind. But that is also a deeply personal symbol for me. Something that takes me back.
I got this inspiration from a great book.
Our writing group has been reading the novel, Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee. It’s an incredible story that spans generations and countries. And I loved the Pachinko parlor as a symbol of luck…but also change of fortune, unexpected events. The desire to go on. From the novel:
“There could only be a few winners and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones.”
I decided to challenge our writing community to find some physical representation of changing fortunes and bring it into a tiny poem, or larger story…or a doodle.
I enjoyed this process so much — the physicality of it and seeing what other writers brought into their stories. The way a symbol from your life can bring on so much emotion… And just the process of reading, living a novel in my own mind and taking a cue from a great writer.
Now I extend the challenge to you.
Take as many steps away from the original example as you can.
Go back to your places, your life.
Find your own story.
And bring it back here.
Join a community of writers wandering this planet…
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© 2021 Trisha Traughber, Thanks for reading.
