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

Soulcraft

It’s true: there is a light at the centre of my body.
If I could, I would lift aside a curtain of this flesh
and demonstrate, but for now it is my private neon.
It is closest to the air at certain moments,
like when buttercups repair a morning’s jagged edge.
Other times, a flock of days descends
and my soul flickers, goes to ground.
Without light, I’m all membrane; each part
becomes a gate. I pour across each margin
and nothing has enough hands to catch me,
my teeth knocking so fast I daren’t hold any piece
of myself near in case I start a banquet.
I’m only eased by accident. On the drenched path,
I pick up snails and transport them to safer earth
then feel a stirring. I watch as rain streams
from lopped-back elms, my face teeming with water
and―hello stranger―my soul glides to my surface
like it, too, belongs there; like a bright fish rising to feed.

—John McCullough
https://johnmccullough.co.uk
https://poetrynonstop.com/2020/07/21/john-mccullough-soulcraft/

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Please Note New Read-Around Day and Time:
Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 5:00 PM
All Future read-arounds will be on Thursdays at 5:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

Poetry is one art that allows us to swim the ephemeral sea, to engage with indecipherables, and to converse with the world soulfully. Whether or not we believe there is a thing called soul, we all have a sense of some essence of ourselves that travels this life, that remains true despite the tide of the times, the weathering of our bodies, and the vagaries of our mood, mind, and emotions. Whether or not science can measure the weight of the soul, we can feel the weight of its membrane when we hit ground. We can feel its paper wings flutter in the dark flock of days and then, inexplicably, lift us toward the light and carry us across the margins between falling and rising. John McCullough’s poem, Soulcraft, takes us to that margin closest to air when buttercups repair the morning’s jagged edge. Soulcraft is an invitation to ease into the accidental moment when our soul glides to the surface of our belonging, when we say to ourselves, hello stranger, as if serendipitously encountering a dear, old friend we have not seen in a long while reminding us, once again, that there is light at the center of our body.

Prompt Menu

1. Journal or write a poem about the light within (wherever you might conceive to be in yourself). You can use McCullough’s opening phrase: It’s true, there is a light… Then describe where it is and how it works.

2. When do you allow yourself to share your light and when do you keep it as your own private neon?

3. Journal or write a poem about soulcrafting. What does soulcraft mean and how does it work?

4. What might it mean for a moment to be closest to the air? Journal or write a poem about being closest to the air or about things that are closest to the air.

5. Journal or write about the morning’s jagged edge. What makes a morning jagged? What repairs the jagged edge?

6. Write from the prompt: When a flock of days descends and my soul flickers, I…

7. What chatters your teeth? What makes you want to devour yourself?

8. Journal or write a poem about a time when your soul glided to surface or when you felt a sense of soulful belonging.

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