No-one knows exactly where Inspiration comes from. It can arise from another person’s words; a deep emotional experience; listening to music; admiring a painting; a walk in Nature … the list is endless. I have often found inspiration from reading something written by someone else – that took my mind down hitherto unexplored roads. I often found it after reading a poem; and after reading one translated from the Sanskrit, this was the result:
ON READING ‘BLACK MARIGOLDS’ (*translated from the Sanskrit)
I hear the mysterious tinkle of temple bells
As I walk through spicy bazaars
Where merchants buy and sell silver.
Swarthy skin sweats
And almond eyes peer
As my hands touch turquoise silk.
How musically the cadences rise
And fall, silent, like dewdrops.
Words of love, lust and longing
Purified by their beauty.
Like King Solomon’s “Song of Songs”
These images too, seduce the senses.
The poem ends too soon
And I am still.
I have never seen a black marigold,
Yet suddenly it appears before me
And its perfume, tantalising,
Lingers on the breathless air.
So, try this exercise. Read a poem that you love, close your eyes and think about it. What makes it magical? What special feeling do you have after reading it? While it is still fresh in your mind, take a pen and paper, and just see what develops. You may be surprised!
Happy writing! You can contact me free with any writing problem, and I will try to help you. My latest novel “Searching for Sarah” is available direct from me at discount – e-mail”: dwaysman@gmail.com
From Dvora's Desk 
Hello Devora, I follow and enjoy your blog. I started writing a novel based on a true story I was told by an elderly women about her childhood. After the opening chapters, when the main character is already struggling, I came to a halt. It has occurred to me that I can’t go on because I need to put my characters through hard and tragic times and crisis’s in order to make the plot interesting and I am too fond of them to cause them harm and loss. Any suggestions?
It is easy to become emotionally involved with your characters, and it’s good that you feel their pain – that means you have created them realistically & your readers will also empathise with them. Think about how you want them to succeed in the end, and how it will be possible for them to do so and then give them the opportunities for this to happen. Work towards that goal and you’ll reach the climax you want – but make sure it’s believable. (The plural of crisis is crises!) Good luck Dvora
Hi Dvora,
This is mine …
Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
W. B. Yeats – 1865-1939
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
Thank you for the exercise.
Love, Carrie