Evan Nicholls
“Picturing it Thusly”
Running full speed with a cooler full of hearts. Wearing a vest bomb over a Hawaiian shirt. Picturing it thusly in your mind's eye. How you could have been doing life with justice. A pig named Justice releasing a little fart.
This is a previously unreleased poem by Evan Nicholls. You can find his latest book (Easy Tiger with Future Tense Books) and more of his publications (and collages) right here.
Writing prompt: “Running full speed with / a cooler full of hearts.” !!! What an opening for a poem. Write a ten line poem made up of five couplets. Like Nicholls’ wonderful poem, began with a strong visual action shot. Is someone running or jumping or flying or dying? What are they doing? What are they holding? What are they wearing? From there, see where your imagination takes you. You might find yourself fully describing and building out a scene. You might find yourself pivoting and giving an animal a name. You might find yourself. You might.
If you write something based on this prompt, please share it by commenting directly here or posting on socials and tagging myself (neonpajamas on all platforms) and/or Evan Nicholls (evancollage on Instagram). It’s a great day to create something new. Good luck!
While this Substack will always be free, I’d be remiss to not mention my new poetry press. Piżama Press. We launched in 2025 and our two latest releases are out now! Split / Game of Little Deaths by Réka Nyitrai and John’s Table by Lesle Lewis. Both are unique collections of (prose) poems and unlike anything else you’ll read this year. You’d be really helping a small indie press and these wonderful poets by ordering one (or both) of these books, as well as spreading the word (social media, Goodreads, local library, local bookseller). And, if you haven’t done so already, please check out last year’s inaugural release, Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi’s Disintegration Made Plain and Easy, which continues to reach new readers eager to find something strange and surreal, different and original. After all, Piżama’s mantra is “The weirder, the better.” See you next Sunday!
Oh I love this poem. I wrote a response and a very short commentary on Evan's poem here: https://garybarwin.substack.com/p/neon-pajamas-justice-and-the-pig
Swimming full speed, i keep my hearts in a cooler. All three of them, in the deep water dark. I shift while shaping, the ground of shadows and grain. I become my surroundings, at least that is what I let you see.