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

Aimless Love 

Aimless love took my fickle heart 
by default, hitched it to the everyday, 
leashed it to joy, insisting 
I take a walk in the world 
and bless the early buds 
on barren branches, shaking 
their booty in the wind; 

that I feel the way my feet 
mold to the ground with each step 
as if it is a homecoming; 

that I take this dear blue sky 
as my companion and confess 
all the ways I have fallen from grace 
neglecting its all consuming delight; 

that I shine this silly something-
up-the-sleeve grin through 
my unmasked eyes, aiming 
this aimless love at you, 
infecting your fickle heart 
with viral affections 
unleashing inexplicable joy
on the world.

-Nick LeForce
www.nickleforce.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.

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Next Read Around is February 4, 2022 at 4:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

Every year I publish a set of love poems for Valentine’s Day. This year‘s entry is called Wandering In Rapture and I am giving away free copies of the e-book at the link below. The poem, Aimless Love, included in the set, was inspired by Billy Collins poem of the same name. Perhaps the most sublime form of love is the love that has no target; the love that simply flows out of you into the world. Aimless love, more than anything, inspires wandering in rapture through life because it does not hinge on a single object for its fulfillment. The world comes alive in the heart: every day things take on a sparkle; every footstep feels like a homecoming; and we find the courage to confess our deep self while keeping a something-up-the-sleeve grin on our face. If we devote ourselves to the practice of opening the heart and bring an aimless love to life, we can truly be wandering in rapture. And if we wander long enough, rapture may carry us beyond our boundaries to the point where we not only let life shape us, but let life break down the boundaries we have between ourselves and life itself. To experience such a borderless love, even if only for a few moments, can change us forever.

Click here to learn more about Wandering in Rapture or go straight to the link below to get your free copy:

My Free Copy

The link will take you to the product section of my website. The download does not require entering a credit card.

Prompt Menu

  1. Journal or write your own poem about Aimless Love.

  2. Us the prompt, My fickle heart hitched itself to… and what whatever follows for you.

  3. Describe what it is like, or what you imagine it would be like, to be leashed to joy. What do you see, hear and feel? Where would it take you and what would it require of you?

  4. Journal or write a poem blessing things in nature or around you.

  5. Take a walk and carefully feel how your feet meet the ground. Describe the walk. Consider describing it from the perspective of your feet and what they sense and feel in relationship to the earth.

  6. In what way is the blue sky your companion?

  7. Journal or write a poem of confession about how you have fallen from grace or how you have neglected or denied delight in your life.

  8. Journal or write poem about what was up your sleeve at a time when you had a silly something-up-your-sleeve smile on your face

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