IMPROMPTU #3: The Russian Nesting Doll Exercise
Today's prompt comes from this book, but I discovered it via Rachel McKibbens' blog. She calls it the "Russian Nesting Doll Exercise, only the things don't have to get smaller." It's a poem where you open something to reveal something else.
Here's the example from Rachel's exercise:
I opened You fat bitch and out fell his teeth.
I opened his teeth and inside was a door.
I opened the door and inside was his bed.
I opened the bed and inside was a small boy.
I opened the boy and inside was a pool of sharks.
I opened the sharks and inside was silence.
I opened the silence and inside was a window.
I opened the window and inside were a row of sleeping pills.
I opened the sleeping pills and inside was his mother.
I opened the mother and inside was a dream.
I used this exercise to write a poem recently, but in mine, I changed the word "opened" in each following line to a more descriptive verb, so that might be something you want to play with. (For example: I opened the forest and out came a memory, I questioned the memory and out came a witch. I followed the witch and out came a sister...etc.)