If you wish to attend the read around (t’s free, fun, a great way to share, and reading a poem is optional). Note: If you registered already, you do not need to register again, simply use the link sent to you in your confirmation email. Register Here:

Next Read-Around is 7/27/23 at 5:00 PM PST

How It Works:

  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

My Thoughts

I have always loved the magic world On The Other Side, as Lynn Unger named it in her poem. Even that title evokes greener grasses, forbidden fruit, and dark forests; conjures magical beings and strange creatures; hints at times and places where reality bends and rules get broken. In other words, it takes us back to the possibly impossible world as it was before we bound it by the scriptures of nature and nurture. There was a time when we could see through the looking glass, step through the invisible door at the back of the wardrobe, or turn a corner into a sideways world that can show us our gifts, teach us what we are made of, and reveal who we really are. Those fantasy books and films we watched when quite young sunk deep in our psyche, setting the stage for plot points to play out in real world equivalences: we can grow bigger and smaller in our stature in life or drown in tears at trying times or master a “magical” kind of charm and, at other times, disappear. Unger ends her poem on a fault line we adults fail to see when stepping on the shaky terrain of a new reality by assuming our world is crashing down rather than a new life breaking ground.

On the Other Side

Through the looking glass,
down the rabbit hole,
into the wardrobe and out
into the enchanted forest
where animals talk
and danger lurks and nothing
works quite the way it did before,
you have fallen into a new story.
It is possible that you
are much bigger—or smaller—
than you thought.
It is possible to drown
in the ocean of your own tears.
It is possible that mysterious friends
have armed you with magical weapons
you don’t yet understand,
but which you will need
to save your own life and the world.
Everything here is foreign.
Nothing quite makes sense.
That’s how it works.
Do not confuse the beginning
of the story with the end.

—Lynn Unger
https://www.lynnungar.com/poems/on-the-other-side/

Prompt Ideas

  1. What was your favorite fantasy story as a child? Journal or write a poem about your memory of it and how it impacted you.

  2. What is your preferred portal to other realms? A rabbit hole, a hidden door, a red pill or a blue one? A looking glass, a tunnel pass, an awakening from slumber? Use whatever portal you like and free write from whence to where!

  3. Journal or write a poem naming and describing your “enchanted forest.” You can use the prompt, In my enchanted forest, there are…

  4. What situations in life make you grow bigger or smaller? Describe what triggers your stature shifts and how you experience it. In what situations are you actually “bigger” or “smaller” than you thought?

  5. What “mysterious friends,” real or imagined, have you met along the way?

  6. What “magical” weapons or tools have you obtained that serve you in life (especially in unexpected ways)?

  7. Journal or write a poem from the perspective that everything around you is foreign and does not quite make sense.

  8. Consider a time when your life seemed to fall apart and you confused the beginning of the story with the end.

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