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

To See It

We need to separate to see 
the life we’ve made. 
We need to leave our house 
where someone waits for us, patiently, 
warm beneath the sheets. 
We need to don a sweater, a coat, mittens, 
wrap a scarf around our neck, 
stride down the road, 
the cold winter morning, 
and turn our head back 
to see it – perched 
on the top of the hill, our life 
lit from inside.

—Laura Foley
https://www.lauradaviesfoley.com

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:


Next Read Around is April 29, 2022

My Thoughts

Mostly I run my life from the inside, constrained by the microscopic view of daily life and consumed by the anxious comfort of every day troubles and triumphs while striving to make sense of it all. Laura Foley’s beautiful little poem, To See It,  metaphorically describes the challenge of getting a good view of our life while living inside of it. It is just as difficult to see the shape and structure of the life in which we dwell while dwelling in it as it is to see the outside of the house in which we live from the inside.  We need to separate from ourselves, to step outside of our own occupancy, to get some distance from our life, and then to turn back, almost in surprise, in order to see it. Foley cleverly does not describe the type or condition of the house, only that it is lit from within, leaving it to the imagination of the reader to fill in the structural details while celebrating the presence of the life force inside no matter the history or circumstances through which the spirit shines. 

Prompt Menu

  1. Journal or write a poem describing the life “you have made.” In what way have you “made” your life? How much of your life have you shaped and how muysch has been shaped by outside forces? How does the life you have made reflect the life you want?

  2. We all become attached to people or things in our lives. Who or what would you need to separate from in order to see your life. Journal or write using this idea. Or start with the stem sentence, To see my life, I need to separate from….”

  3. Journal or write a poem about someone or something you love so much you cannot see your life without that person or thing. Then go second position and write about how you or your life appears through his/her/its eyes.

  4. Journal or write a poem about some surprising event that made something about you or your life become clear.

  5. Consider “roads“ (or times, actions, and events) that have taken you either farther from or closer to your “self” or your life.

  6. Journal or write about your life as a house. Describe where the house is is located, the style of architecture, the construction, its condition, history, special features, etc. Describe it from the outside or from the inside or from both perspectives.

  7. Pick another metaphor to describe the outside view of your life or use the stem sentence, “When I step outside of my life and look back, I see…”

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