To a parent, from elsewhere
Be someone else · 20 minutes · Published
Read this first
MOTHER, today there comes back to mind the vermilion mark [1] at the parting of your hair, the __sari__ [2] which you used to wear, with its wide red border, and those wonderful eyes of yours, full of depth and peace. They came at the start of my life's journey, like the first streak of dawn, giving me golden provision to carry me on my way.
Rabindranath Tagore, The Home and the World (1916). Translated by Surendranath Tagore, 1919. Project Gutenberg #7166
The prompt
Write a page addressed to a parent, from a life and a country not your own, beginning with two things they wore that the speaker can still see. Stay inside that speaker's customs and words; do not explain them to the reader. The memory should be a provision for a journey, not a loss.
Set a timer for 20 minutes.
Short version · 10 minutes
In ten minutes, write the address to the parent: two worn things, and what they gave for the road.
The move
Be someone else. Write from a voice, a time or a situation not your own.
Tags: voice and point of view.
In a group
A way to run it with a writing group:
Only what works. Anyone reads who wants to. In this format, responses name only what works in the first draft, and every text is treated as fiction.
Where the page goes next
Scrin is a home where pages grow into books: you keep writing, from an untitled line to a chapter, and Scrin keeps the rest.