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

Under the Veil

The days can blur in their
cascade of tasks till a pin
of light or a grip of pain
punctures the relentless
noise. Then, the glow
under the veil comes
through and I remember
that I am alive. And in the
tremble of tenderness that
makes me open like a rose,
words like these gratefully
fail. All I can do is stop
you from whatever you
are cleaning or fixing to
tell you that life is worth
all the heartache. You ask
if I’m alright. I nod and
kiss your hand and you go
out to fill the birdfeeders.

—Mark Nepo
https://marknepo.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 Friday, November 18, 2022 at 4:00 PM (PST). NOTE: There will be no read-around on Friday November 25, 2022. Future read-arounds will be held on Thursdays at 5:00 PM PST Starting on December 1, 2022

My Thoughts

It’s amazing how easily the days can blur in a cascade of tasks, one into another, and then 2022 is almost over. We can ride it along, catching our breath when we can, keeping up with things as best we can. Then there are those moments when something snaps us out of our routines and awakens us to life once again. Unfortunately, it is usually something dramatic, the troubling phone call, the sudden fall, an accident in the street, the demise of a pet or loved one. But , As Mark Nepo points out in his poem, Under The Veil, it can be something inexplicable—a pin of light or a grip of pain—and the heart melts into an innocence, touched by the preciousness of some little thing sparking an awarness of being alive. Those fleeting moments make all the heartache worthwhile. The veil of the ordinary quickly knits itself back into place. Our wonder often leaves others perplexed and we are left only with the afterglow and nothing else to do but return to our blur of days and cascade of tasks.

Prompt Menu

  1. Journal or write a poem about the blur of days. You can use the stem sentence: In the blur of days, I…

  2. Journal write a poem about the cascade of tasks in life. You can use the word cascade to spark your imaginatioin: how does a task list cascade over your days? Or use your own metaphor for the list of to-do’s and the duties of your days.

  3. Journal write a poem about a time with a pin of light or a grip of pain interrupted your life, threw you off-schedule, and awakend you in your life.

  4. What gets you to appreciate that you are alive? Journal or write a poem about the things, events, or experiences, that remind you of the preciousness of life.

  5. Nepo describes a tremble of tenderness that made him open like a rose. Use that phrase as your prompt. Perhaps start with the title, a tremble of tenderness; or use the prompt, I open in like a rose when…

  6. Write an ode to tenderness.

  7. Turn on write a poem about a time when you had a numinous experience but did not know how to express it or tried to express it and it left the other confused.

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