Verb Ate Him

Consider the lyrics below. It's a song I wrote during a writing exercise where verbs were forbidden, about the day I visited the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art and watched a video of David Beckham sleeping. It's not the world's greatest song, but hopefully it will give you a sense of what can be achieved (mostly) without verbs.

Write for 10 minutes without a verb, beginning with "Rain on my face...". Don't get too hung up if the odd verb pops out – "is" and "are" are particularly difficult to avoid :)

David Asleep

Buskers down on Circular Quay
Coffee in the air, sunlight on the Manly ferry
A cafe, soup thick with roasted chestnuts
Two courses for just thirty nine bucks.

Far above this literal world
On the fourth floor of the museum
Impossibly fair, those lips, that hair
Just he and I
David asleep.

Fashionably unshaven
I would that mouth a kiss
Lick of lip and turn of head
Grow in me this silent need

So unfair, such lush perfection
Orb of eye safe beneath that shining skin
A perfect nose, this silent child
Mangoes ripening on the wind

Golden chain upon his skin
I am (damn! a verb!) hunger
I am every woman
If those eyes be open, death for me
Too much, that look
David asleep.

Copyright Jane Cornes May 2006