If you wish to attend the read around (t’s free, fun, a great way to share, and reading a poem is optional). Note: If you registered already, you do not need to register again, simply use the link sent to you in your confirmation email. Register Here:

Next Read-Around is 5/9/2024 at 5:00 PM PST

How It Works:

  1. Read the poem 

  2. Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you

  3. Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…

  4. Use the selection of prompts below

  5. Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…

  6. Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes

My Thoughts

Not long ago, I shared a poem by Danna Faulds, Be The Energy, which culminated in the challenge: dare to be your own illumination. That line captivated the poet enough that she used it in more than one poem. For instance, she begins the poem, Limitless, by attributing that line to the sun. She then follows with various exemples of the same theme spoken from wren, stream, oak, stars, and ants.  As poets, we are granted this poetic license, this permission to let the world around us speak directly to us. Faulds uses the device and offers us a formula for a poem: start with a “truth” expressed in a sentence or phrase as if quoted from another source. Or it could be a line or phrase you’ve repeated in your own writing. It could be a cliché, an aphorism, or a short quote from a known author (like Ghandi’s, Be The change…”). Then, let variations of that same truth be spoken from different positions and different creatures in nature. After it has gone through several mouths, offer your own variant. Give yourself permission to be surprised by where it leads you and what, in the end, comes out of your ”own” mouth.

Limitless

Sun says, "Be your own
illumination.“ Wren says,
“Sing your heart out,
all day long.“ Stream says,
“Do not stop for any
obstacle.“ Oak says,
”When the wind blows,
bend easily, and trust
your roots to hold.”
Stars say, “What you see
is one small slice of a
single modest galaxy.
Remember that vastness
cannot be grasped by mind.”
Ant says, “Small does not
mean powerless.” Silence
says nothing. In the quiet,
everything comes clear.
I say, “Limitless.” I say,
“Yes.”

—Danna Faulds
http://dannafaulds.com/#

Prompt Ideas

  1. Journal or write a poem using Faulds initial phrase, Sun says…

  2. Pick something in nature and give it a voice. Start your writing with the chosen speaker sharing its distilled widom (or whatever it wishes to tell you) in a prase or short sentence. Then riff from there.

  3. Pick a quote (or a a line or phrase you’ve repeated in your own writing. It could be a cliché, an aphorism) and use it as your prompt. Follow Faulds format by noting how different entities in nature would say or reflect the same idea (eg.Wren says…; Stream says…)

  4. Take any of the lines Faulds attributes to other beings as your prompt (For instance, use Wren’s advice to Sing your heart out, all day long; or any other line from the poem and gofrom there wherevetit takes you)

  5. Journal or write a poem about about perseverence or about a time when you would not stop for any obstacle.

  6. Journal or write a poem about the overwhelming vastness of the universe.

  7. Journal or write a poem about about being small but not powerless.

  8. As usual, write about anything else in the poem or in life that inspires you.