Poetry Exercise Forum The first exercise

Chance card.

1. Close your eyes, pick a book from a bookshelf, open it at random, copy a line or phrase.
2. Paraphrase the line in a half-dozen ways and pick the one you like best as your start line.
3. Write a 5-line stanza of similar length to the first line.
4. Write a couple more 5-line stanzas, using that same line length. In the second stanza, include something that addresses the opposite of the chosen line. In the last stanza, reconsider what you put in the first stanza in view of what you put in the second stanza.

Have at it.

I won't start a contest until more members have joined.