Weekly Writer’s Quote: Exercising my writer’s imagination in Las Vegas

"Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young." W. Somerset Maugham

I exercise my imagination everyday. Each morning I look out my kitchen window into the backyard. From that window, I can see several oleander bushes. In the morning, those bushes cast shadows across the yard, sometimes the shadows are dark and deep, but at other times, they are pale and shallow.

The deepness of the shadows depends on the weather. The deepness of the shadows depends on whether or not there are clouds. I look into the shadows for ideas. I know there are story or poem ideas in the shadows if I can find them.

Look at the shadows

Watch them move when the wind blows

Light and darkness shift

I also exercise my imagination when I go out the front door each morning to pick up the newspaper. I stand for a moment and listen to the songs of birds or the neighbors’ dogs barking. Sometimes I am fortunate enough to see one of the neighbors’ cats as it stalks something in the grass or plays with a friendly dog.

The cat stalks a bug

Something moving in the grass

Plays chase with a dog