For the past several years, I’ve run a writers support group that ends (almost) every meeting with a “write to the prompt” exercise. Some days we take too much time with the discussion, some days everyone has to leave early, but usually we try to get in it. There are those who refuse to participate, claiming they get nothing out of the exercise or that they’ve already done enough writing this week, thank you very much. That’s not the point, of course. Writing to a prompt forces you to write about a subject that you did not choose. Many writing instructors use prompt writing as a regular feature of their instruction, and there are dozens if not hundreds of books containing prompts if thinking one up is too taxing.
In last week’s meeting, my friend Diane came up with this prompt: super blue blood moon
I haven’t written poetry regularly since high school, but the phrase scratched something inside me, and this is what came out.
Writing to prompts is definitely worth it.
A shadow long across the lake
A heart that’s broken by its fate
A tidal pull of savage songs
A nightly whisper in the fog
Of all that’s known to mice and men
Is taught and learned and known again
As we reach into the past
To see what’s in the shadow cast
A moon so full, so blue, so much
The universe’s secrets clutch
Within her hand and to her mouth
To stop the truth from pouring out.
No comments:
Post a Comment