July Reverb11: What new thing will you try this month?

There's an old exercise that English teachers often use with young writers where students rip out words from magazines and paste them together to create found poetry. I've been thinking about this idea - the process of ripping out words and planting them to form new thoughts, new stories - and I've found myself doing a bit of the same, spotting words I like at the mall, at the grocery store, wherever, and then typing them into my phone to "save" them for later.  They are usually words I would never normally use in my writing: lease, avid, even Jesus. I've been saving them and then planting them into my writing, like seeds in a garden. 

I've also had a few former students recently ask me for writing exercises. I love that their time with me in an actual classroom setting wasn't enough, that they're hungry for more. And I want to give them ideas, possibilities, and encouragement, but it takes a lot of effort to email each student with new prompts.  This got me thinking.

I loved the Reverb10 challenge. I work well with assignments, and apparently, so do other people. So I'm going to try something new. I'll post various prompts - challenges, if you want to think about them that way - to encourage you to write.  With each prompt, I will post photographs of different words I've collected around town - I'm calling them Seed Words - to get you writing. 

Here's how it'll work:

1. I'll post the prompt.  It will include 5-10 Seed Words.

2. You write, incorporating each of the Seed Words into your writing.  
It can be poetry, fiction, flash fiction, nonfiction a blog post, anything. 
It could even be one pretty little sentence.  
It should attempt to include each of the Seed Words in some context that doesn't necessarily relate to the chosen theme. 

3. You can post your response, if you'd like.  How?  
Post it on your blog and then include a link to your page in the comments section below the prompt.  I want to read it! 
Or you can post it as a comment on my page.  You can also tweet a link to your response with the hashtag #seedwords.

That's it, I think!  Just a way to get you writing.  A way to get me writing.  A way to get to know you through your writing.  

I'm going to post the prompt and then wait a week before I post my own response, to give you time to let the words simmer in your own brain before you read mine. 

And one last one, for bonus points - a trilingual selection of Seed Words!