At the last Poetry Lab workshop, we were given the exercise to write a poem using our nondominant hand. What would our other hand have to say? How would writing with my left hand (since I am right handed) change how and what I write?
Obviously I wrote much more slowly and wrote less—as did everyone in the group. Because I wrote so slowly, I revised more in my head as I was writing, and threads I had intended to follow were changed mid-word into new directions. Ambidextrous people obviously have an advantage here, although I would be curious if they notice a difference in what they wrote too.
So let’s use the same Poetry Lab prompt (thank you, Danielle Mitchell) and write a poem using the line “I tried to tell you” as the first line or as a ghost line. Use your other hand. What does it want to tell you?
As you can see, this is a VERY rough draft of a poem. I am not sure my left hand told me anything new or contrary to what my right hand would say more quickly and more legibly. I would love to know if you feel that writing with your other hand changed your writing and if so, how.