SHOE CHALLENGE 1 - OCT. 4

CHALLENGE 1:

WRITE 10 SENTENCES ABOUT A SHOE. IT CAN BE THE SHOE YOU ARE WEARING OR YOUR SHOE IN YOUR CLOSET. IT CAN BE YOUR FATHER'S SHOE OR YOUR TEACHER'S SHOE. IT DOESN'T MATTER. IT CAN BE ABOUT YOUR LEFT SHOE OR RIGHT SHOE. BUT YOU MUST BE ABLE TO SEE YOUR SHOE. YOU SHOULD CHALLENGE YOURSELF TO USE CREATIVE, ACTIVE, AND DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE. FEEL FREE TO USE PERSONIFICATION OR SYMBOLISM. OPEN YOURSELF TO A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF YOUR SHOE.

My Shoes by Charles Simic

Shoes, secret face of my inner life:
Two gaping toothless mouths,
Two partly decomposed animal skins
Smelling of mice-nests.


My brother and sister who died at birth
Continuing their existence in you,
Guiding my life
Toward their incomprehensible innocence.


What use are books to me
When in you it is possible to read
The Gospel of my life on earth
And still beyond, of things to come?


I want to proclaim the religion
I have devised for your perfect humility
And the strange church I am building
With you as the altar.


Ascetic and maternal, you endure:
Kin to oxen, to Saints, to condemned men,
With your mute patience, forming
The only true likeness of myself.