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

Madly Singing In The Mountains

There is no one among men that has not a special failing;
And my failing consists in writing verses. 
I have broken away from the thousand ties of life, 
But this infirmity still remains behind.
Each time that I look at a fine landscape,
Each time that I meet a loved friend,
I raise my voice and recite a stanza of poetry
And marvel as though a God has crossed my path.
Ever since the day I was banished to Hsun-yang
Half my time I have lived among the hills.
And often, when I have finished a new poem, 
Alone I climb the road to the eastern rock.
I lean my body on the banks of white stone;
I pull down with my hands a green cassia branch.
My mad singing startles the valleys and hills;
The apes and birds all come to peep.
Fearing to become a laughing-stock to the world, 
I choose a place that is unfrequented by men.

Po Chu, 9th c. Chinese poet and critic of the government was banished to a remote outpost with little duty to quiet him.
Translated from the Chinese by Arthur Waley.
Learn more about Po Chu here: Encyclopedia.com: Po Chu

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

My Thoughts

In the poem Madly Singing In The Mountains, Po Chu describes poetry as a kind of failing, an infirmity or weakness. Perhaps it is an infirmity in those of us who are willing to be taken by life, who are charmed into verse by a fine landscape or a loving friend. The poet describes his other halftime banished to the mountains where he escaped judging eyes and found witness in apes and birds.

Most of us, city dwellers and suburbanites, don’t have the privilege of roaming vast mountains. We are lucky to have a park nearby or to take a short drive to a place of beauty that might match or merit our poetic eyes or offer some solace and solitude. But I can roam wild mountains in my mind, sail across unsettled seas in my heart, lift and land like delta waterfowl on my own nature’s preserve.

If only my life were half-time writing poetry and half-time singing timeless praises to my partner mountains, my noble sky, and my carefree wind. But, isn’t that what I am doing now? And, besides, the world would still enter through the same eyes…. So, I think I would be no more or less happy than I am with what I have!

Prompt Menu

1. Write about a “special failure,” an inifirmity or weakness that ties you, or ties a person to life.

2. Write about a weakness that is also a blessing.

3. What inspires you to write poetry—fine landscapes, loved friends, or?

4. Challenge yourself, at some odd or special moment, to “raise your voice and recite a stanza of poetry” spontaneously. Or set the intent to do so and then let it come when it comes. Be ready with pen and pad or use the phone’s dictation feature to capture that moment of poetic abandon.

5. How do you know when a poem is complete? What do you do after you have finished a new poem that you feel good about?

6. Do you have a special place in nature, or in the world, that you can go and “sing” (literally or metaphorically) what is in your heart? If you had such a place, what would your heart be madly singing?

7. Recall a time when you leaned or laid on a rock and write about that experience. What was the environment? How did the rock support you or interfere with you (physically, mentally, or emotionally

8. Write about a time when you were embarrassed or made to feel like a laughing stock. What did you learn from it or how has that experience shaped you or served you?

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