'I used to be but now I am....'

...an experimental poem inspired by the exercises of Charles Bernstein and Bernadette Mayer*

I used to be paper but now I am water

I used to be bone but now I am flesh

I used to secrete blue but now I spark red

I used to hoard air but now I fill rooms

I used to be idea but now I am ink

I used to smash idols but now I grasp tight

I used to be certain but now I don’t know

I used to be blackout but now I go through

This poem was inspired by Prompt 23 from 66 Experiments by Charles Bernstein which was in turn inspired by Bernadette Mayer’s 1970s compilation. If you are inspired by one of the 66 prompts yourself I’d love for you to share your writing below…

Photo credit: David Horgan. (Relevance to poem? When writing I channel ‘Lady Captain’. Some of my prose here, some of mine and G.Kim’s Haiku here.)