Writing From The Inside Out 2021 Week 18 Prompts
based on Andrew Colliver’s The Further You go
Read the poem
Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you
Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…
Use the selection of prompts below the poem
Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…
Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes
The Further You Go
Mercy, there have been revelations.
Grace, there has been realization. Still, you must
travel the path of time and circumstance.
The further you go, the more it comes back to paying
attention.
The rough skin of the tallowwood, the trade routes of
lorikeets, a sky lifting
behind afternoon clouds. Staying close to the texture of
things.
People can go before you and talk all they want,
but only one thing makes sense: the way the world enters and find its voice in you: the place you are free.
—Andrew Colliver — Colliver is a Psychiatric Social Worker and poet living in New South Wales, Australia.
Special Access Link for Read Around on May 7 and My 14: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83125922228
Please join Writing From The Inside Out by attending the read-around sessions on Friday afternoons. It’s free, fun, a great way to share, and reading a poem is optional. If you have not registered, click the button below; and if you have registered, you do not need to register again, simply use the link sent to you in your confirmation email. Register Here:
Note: Next Read Around is:
May 7, 2021 at 4:00 PM PST
Special Access Link for May 7 and My 14 only: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83125922228
My Thoughts
The opening line of the second stanza in Andrew Colliver’s poem, The Further You Go, rang through me like a liberty bell. It expresses such a simple truth, the further you go, the more it comes back to paying attention. And I like the balanced structure of that sentence, contrasting the opposites in “the further you go” and “the more it comes back," which adds to the feel of a glorious reverberation. In spite of all the complexities and beauty of poetic language or the intricate patterns in poetic form, I love simple, accessible poems. Colliver’s poem has that simple Grace, and, even before I knew that a lorikeet is a type of parakeet in Australia, the flow of the poem carried me. I also appreciate the reminder that no matter what Mercy or Grace has bestowed on us or what insight or revelation we have achieve, we still must travel our own path. And because of that, attention is our premium asset. Our choice of where and how you direct our attention is perhaps the most fundamental attribute of freedom. With that freedom, we can engage with the world, notice how it enters and finds its voice in us. Call it, Inspiration!
Prompt Menu
Start a poem as if you are addressing a virtue, like Mercy or Grace.
Consider what revelations have come to you through Mercy or Grace and write about them.
Write a poem about the path of time and circumstance that you are traveling now: describe the path, what it teaches you, and where it might be leading.
Use a series of sentences that balance opposites: inside - outside; forward - backward; fast - slow; accept - resist.
Pick three simple things you notice in the world and let them speak their voice through you.
Describe a time when you let people talk around you and you hung back: what was that like for you? Was it intentional? Or think of a time when you felt left out of a conversation. Describe the sturggle to insert yourself or what you did to enter into the conversation.
Identify one thing that makes sense to you about life, the world, people, or yourself and write a poem about it
Write a poem as if the world, or some thing in the world, has entered and expresses its voice through you.
Describe the place where you are free.
As usual, write from whatever else inpisres you in thepoem or in life.