Writing From The Inside Out 2021 Week 4 Prompt
Based On My Poem, The Coaster
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 Coaster
The golden koi
on the coaster said,
“Follow me.
I am not just
a surface on which
you float your cup.”
Dive beneath
the sparkle of joy
and swim
in the why of it.
There are stories
you cannot tell
until you find
your atmosphere.
The one you breathe in
day in and day out
without knowing
your own depth.
“Free me
from the static water
and I will take you
where your cup
is brimming.”
Where there is no fault
of your own and nothing
untoward about you.
When you surface
and others inquire
about your newly
anointed presence,
tell them Kindness
swept the scales
from your eyes
and you are swimming
in the immeasurable.
--© Nick LeForce
All Rights Reserved
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 January 22, 2021
at 4:00 PM PST
My Thoughts
Most of us pepper our homes with a variety of things: some functional, like the heart-shaped bookends on my bookcase, and some purely decorative, like the seashell on the table top. Many of these things drop into the background of our lives, unnoticed, except in rare moments, waiting to be remembered, or watching us as we go about our routines, or calling out to us in a silent language only the inner ear can hear. Recently, I was at a loss for words while staring at a blank note page waiting for poetic inspiration when my eyes fell upon the coaster setting on my end table. I picked it up, with a playful curiosity, wondering what it had to say to me, and the poem, The Coaster, came to me complete in a single sitting.
What if the things in your home could talk to you, tell you their secrets, show you the world as they see it, offer you an understanding or prod you with some insistent request? This week’s prompt is to allow the things in your world to come alive, to tell you their story, and discover a new intimacy with life. Pick out some thing in your home and use it as your writing prompt. Let it reveal itself to you through dialogue or imagery. Listen with your inner ear, and write down what it tells you about life or living, about its dreams and desires, about what it wants you to know or do.
Prompt Menu
Sit with your chosen object, give it a voice and let it talk to you. If you were to put its view of life into words, what woudl it say?
Describe your relationship to the object: what it means to you; what it makes you think or feel when you notice it, how you care for it; what you like about it; or why you keep it; what it serves for you in life.
What memories does the object have? What memories does it bring up ijn you?
Does the object have some request or need from you (for instance, for care or attention)? Does it have some gyidance about life and how to live it?
What reality might the object share with you that is “under the surface” of its appearance and function?
Tell the story of the object’s life: Where it came from, its history before its presence in your life, why you took possesion of it and what it hoped for or wished when you did.
Is the object happy where it is? does it want to be moved ? Where does it believe it belongs in your house or in the world. If it wished to move, notice what happens when you move it.
Or you can use any lines or ideas from the poem, The Coaster; or anywhere else in life to inspire your writing.