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

Listening For Your Name 

As a father steals into his child’s half-lit bedroom
slowly, quietly, standing long and long
counting the breathes before finally slipping
back out, taking care not to wake her,

and as that night-lit child is fully awake the whole
time, with closed eyes, measured breathing, 
savoring a delicious blessing she couldn’t
name but will remember her whole life,

How often we feel we’re being watched over, 
or that we’re secretly looking in on the ones
we love, even when they are far away, 
or even as they are lost in the sleep

no one weeks from—what we know 
and what we feel can fully coincide, like love
and worry, like taking care in full silence
and secrecy, like darkness and light together.

by David Graham
https://www.davidgrahampoet.com/poems.html

Note: Next Read Around is:
June 20, 2021 at 4:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

We all want to know we are safe in the night, protected, and know that, for those brief hours when we turn the world off, someone will stand guard over us. David Graham’s poem, Listening For Your Name, depicts a moment when a parent looks in on a “sleeping” child. I’ve rarely had such pleasure since I never had children. But I do recall a few instances, babysitting, or in certain circumstances visiting friends with kids, where I was able to witness the calm serrenity on a sleeping face. I’ve also had the experience of knowing someone was looking in while I pretended to sleep tuned in to the secret conversations that grown-ups had when they thought no little ears were listening. I cannot say how many other nights passed by, fast asleep, when I did not notice loving eyes looking over me. No doubt many of those looks were done out of duty and did not rise to the level of sublime perception. I once had a chance to witness this intimacy of watcher and watched and that moment is indelibly etched into my memory as the purest representation of love. I’ve always felt a presence, call it an angel or a spirit guide or a figment of imagination, that hovers around me with pure heart, perpetually fascinated. Sometimes I believe I could slip into that cloak of light and look upon everyone I meet as a sleeping beauty waiting to be awakened or already awakened into the light. No matter how shy we might feel or how fearful we are of judgment, we all want to be seen with total acceptance, to be gazed upon with loving eyes. And it only takes one such a moment to shape a lifetime. 

Prompt Menu

1. Descirbe a time when you secretly looked in on someone you love. describe in detail the feelings, thoughts, and sensations of the moment.

2. Write a poem about “loving eyes;” for instance use the prompt, “With loving eyes, I looked upon…” or “you looked; or he or she looked….”

3. Write about a time you pretended you were asleep. Why did you pretend to be asleep, what were you hoping for and what happened?

4. Imagine you have a guadian angel watching over you. Describe the angel. Imagine having a dialogue with the angel.

5. Consider someone in your life who you feel is a protector or supporter. Write a letter of gratitude to the person.

6. Describe the two sides of being “watched over:” the guardian angel side versus the big brother side. Consider the competing forces of privacy and transparency.

7. Graham describes how such a simple yet sublime moment, like being looked in on or looking in on someone, could become a lifetime memory, or serve as a reference experience in life. Identify a belief or idea about yourself, or about others, or about life that could have formed out of such an experience.

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