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

A Reminiscence

Held in a late season
At a shifting of worlds,
In the golden balance of autumn,
Out of love and reason

We made our peace;
Stood still in October
In the failing light and sought,
Each in the other, ease

And release from silence,
From the slow damnation
Of speech that is weak
And falls from silence.

In the October sun
By the green river we spoke,
Late in October, the leaves
Of the water maples had fallen.

But whatever we said
In the bright leaves was lost,
Quick as the leaf-fall,
Brittle and blood red.          

Richard O. Moore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_O._Moore

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Next Read Around is Friday, November , 2022 at 4:00 PM (PST)

My Thoughts

It seems, in today's world, that fighting words are tossed into the ring with ease, especially through the faceless distance of the Internet, a convenient dumping ground littered with rage and anger. Then there are those battles that are close to home: rifts with friends and loved ones that pierce the heart, break the ties, and build the walls that lock us out of each other. Flaunting rage and engaging battle is a lot easier than looking at ourselves, seeking to understand, making peace, or, simply, letting go. The age old wisdom to pick your battles reminds us that we have a great deal of choice over what we struggle with and fight over.

Richard O. Moore’s poem, A Reminiscence, written for his friend and fellow poet Kenneth Rexroth, likens the act of making peace to Autumnal fall of maple leaves in late October. Moore inplies that the key to such a change of heart is to seek “each in the other,” and to grant yourself and the other permission to speak truly rather than wallow in the cold shoulder of silence or utter the “slow damnation” of weak words that fall from that pained silence. After making peace, all those sickly, old fallen words, frail and brittle, are lost in the great cycle of seasons, returned to the earth, laying like a kaleidoscope of fallen leaves on the ground ready to be mulched back into basic nutrients for future growth.

Prompt Menu

  1. Journal or write a poem about the impact of holding ill-will on the heart and soul. Or write about what it requires to hold a grudge. Consider personying “Grudge” and describe its upbriging, outlook, and temperament.

  2. The “Silent Treatment” refers to a time when one person actively stops talking to another person to express their discontent while also expecting the offender to know what they did and proactively make amends. Journal or write about a time when you gave or got the “Silent Treatment.”

  3. Consider how resentment might continually boil in a “slow damnation.” Journal or write a poem about the form(s) of expression for, or the differing species of, slow damnation.

  4. Moore talks about weak words that fall from silence. Write a list poem of weak words. Or describe what words might “fall” from silence. Consider what other kinds of words that might drop from silence?

  5. Use the idea of seasonal change of Autumn as a prompt. Or use the stem sentences: In the golden balance of autumn… or At a shifting of worlds…

  6. Write whatever comes to mind from the prompt: Out of love and reason, we….

  7. Journal or write a poem about a time when you actively made peace with someone with whom you had a “falling out.”

  8. Journal or write a poem about the aftermath of making peace with someone. What metaphor, instead of fallen maple leaves, might capture that scene or express the feeling.

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