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 the poem

  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

Forgiveness

How does it creep into arteries, 
level blood pressure 
and wipe clean 
the slate of anger 
held close to the chest?

Look long into the mirror, 
be tender with the face you see, 
then to the blistered past, 
the entire landscape, 
the smallest detail 
as in a Brueghel painting,

Then revise and revise 
until the story changes shape 
and you, no longer the jailor, 
have learned to love 
what is left.

— Mary McCue
Clickt Mary McCue tolearn more about this poet.

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Note: Next Read Around is:
April 2, 2021 at 4:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

I do not know anyone who has escaped a feeling of being damaged by someone or by life, or who has avoided harboring, at least from time to time, persistent guilt about some grave error or misstep in life. Whether it is an attribute of the universe or a human delusion, the belief in a just world dictates that good should be rewarded and bad punished. Yet, the accompanying feelings of resentment and guilt can eat away at us inwardly, limit our capacity to love, and stifle our thriving — unless we are able to let go the hold these feelings have over us, often through forgiveness of others and ourselves. 

Mary McCue’s poem, Forgiveness, explores how forgiveness works its magic in us and gives us clues about our part in the process. There are certainly times when our resentment or our guilt require action in the world to right a wrong. But when we let these feelings fester inside, we do ourselves harm. McCue gives us a strategy for our part in resolving the hurts of the heart, which is to tenderly look ourselves in the mirror, face our “blistered” past, however inconsolable it might seem, and revise the story in a way that honors the truth  while also setting us free.

Prompt Menu

  1. Write a poem of fogiveness for someone who has hurt you.

  2. Describe how forgoiveness manifests in you. How does it creep though your arteries and level your blood pressure? How does it wipe clean the slate of anger?

  3. Are you willing to look long in the mirror and be tender with the face you see? If so, write about that experience .

  4. What is your gneral relationsip with the past? Do you spend a lot of time in the past, retelling stories from the past, or thinking about what you have done or not done or what has happened to you? Or do you tend to be more focused on the present or the future? How do you balance timeframes inside of you? Write a poem about your relationship with the time of your life.

  5. Consider your past metaphorically and describe it as a landscape. Use this idea to write a poem. Consider what happens when you go from the panoramic view to details? What do you notice and what changes when you zoom in on details versus zoom out on the landscape?

  6. Consider some story you comonly tell (or have told) to explain the way you are or to justify some personally perceived limitation. For instance, I had polio as an infant and many childhood illnesses and was bullied quite a bit. I have used those experiences to explain physical awkwardness and shyness. In what way was this “limitation” a gift? What did it teach you or remind you of that you value? My limitation taught me to be more tolerant of and compassionate toward people who are different in some way.

  7. Take McCue’s idea of a story having a “shape.” Consdier some harm you suffered or wrong you endured and describe the shape of it in your life. How would the shape change (or how has it changed) once you let go of the hurt. How could you retell the story of a hurt to yourself or someone you love in a way that honors the truth of it but also frees you.

  8. Write a dialogue with the part of you that serves as your jailor. What does that part have to say about your misdeeds and your imprisonment? How does that part feel and think about its job as jailor. How might you help to relinquish the job as jailor.

  9. If all of your anger and hurt were somehow burned away or relaased, what would you like left that you could love?

  10. As usual, write about whatever else inspires you form the poem or from life.