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 in the column on the right

  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

Tree At My Window

Tree at my window, window tree,
My sash is lowered when night comes on;
But let there never be curtain drawn
Between you and me.

Big dream-head lifted out of the ground,
And then next most diffuse to cloud,
Not all your light tongues talking aloud
Could be profound.

But tree, I have seen you taken and tossed,
And if you have seen me when I slept,
You have seen me when I was taken and swept
And all but lost.

That day she put our heads together,
Fate had her imagination about her,
Your head so much concerned with outer,
Mine with inner, weather.

—Robert Frost
https://allpoetry.com/Tree-At-My-Window

Please join Writing From The Inside Out by attending the read-around sessions on Thursday 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:
Thursday, January 12, 2023 at 5:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

One of the fundamental experiential dichotomies in human life is the awareness that there is a world outside and a world inside. Sometimes these two may seem inseparable and other times there is a grave divide. Looking at the world through a window is one way we maintain the separation, both physically and metaphorically, while also creating a relationship between them. In Robert Frost’s poem, Tree At My Window, he suggests a friendship, or even a kinship, with the tree outside his window that has to endure the torment of stormy weather. Just as he watches the tree whipped by the wind, he imagines the tree watches him sleeping within. Only in his case, he is whipped around by his own inner weather. The world we live in now is increasingly filled with droughts, floods, fires, and extreme weather, which is mirrored in our social, political,  and economic lives. And then there all the thoughts and feelings that run rampant inside. We can look  for lessons in how the tree survives: it’s best to have roots deep and wide and a good solid trunk that stands sturdy through challenging times. And the tree stands as a symbol to anchor ourselves to whatever serves as our own solid ground.

Prompt Menu

  1. Journal or write what you see outside one of your windows.

  2. We can relate to the world as a friend or an enemy, as a teacher or a spy, or many other ways. Jornal or write a poem about your relationship with what is outside your window.

  3. Using the widow as a metaphor, describe what gets you to open or close your window to the world. When do you close the blinds and draw the curtains and what does it mean when you do.

  4. Journal or write a poem about how the increasingly volatile weather impacts you.

  5. Journal or write a poem about what storms your inner world: what thoughts, feelings, concerns, and worries have ”taken and swept” you away, all but lost

  6. Journal or write a poem contrasting the outer weather your own and inner weather. To what degree does the outer weather dictate your inner weather. Although you cannot control the outer weather, what do you do to manage your inner weather.

  7. Imagine you are a weather forcaster and offer your predation for future weather. What do you predict for outer weather? What do you predict for inner weather?

  8. Watch actual weather forecasters and collect material to use as your prompts: words and phrases (like storm bomb and atmospheric river) that you weave into a poem.

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