Writing prompt #33: REPETITION & REFRAIN
Hi Everyone,
I’m revisiting Natasha Tretheway’s poem “Incident” (please see Monday’s post, if you haven’t already) because I believe there’s much to learn from her exquisite use of repetition and refrain. I’ve included the printed poem below.
Please note how the drama of this terrible event has taken the form of ritual, an annual retelling of the story and its salient details. How the “we” represents a particular family but also the larger “we” of the traumatized. How the phrase “nothing really happened” manages to underscore the enormity of what actually happened, again and again.
Incident
We tell the story every year—
how we peered from the windows, shades drawn—
though nothing really happened,
the charred grass now green again.
We peered from the windows, shades drawn,
at the cross trussed like a Christmas tree,
the charred grass still green. Then
we darkened our rooms, lit the hurricane lamps.
At the cross trussed like a Christmas tree,
a few men gathered, white as angels in their gowns.
We darkened our rooms and lit hurricane lamps,
the wicks trembling in their fonts of oil.
It seemed the angels had gathered, white men in their gowns.
When they were done, they left quietly. No one came.
The wicks trembled all night in their fonts of oil;
by morning the flames had all dimmed.
When they were done, the men left quietly. No one came.
Nothing really happened.
By morning all the flames had dimmed.
We tell the story every year.
YOUR PROMPT: Choose an event in your characters’ lives—or your own if you’re writing memoir—that begs retelling. Create a ritual for the retelling. Who was there? What was at stake? Give us the crucial details, perhaps the disputes over what happened.
Please feel free to share excerpts of the results—or even your experience tackling this prompt.
Abrazos,
Cristina
