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

Promise

This day is an open road
stretching out before you.
Roll down the windows.
Step into your life, as if it were a fast car.
Even in industrial parks,
trees are covered with white blossoms,
festive as brides, and the air is soft
as a well-washed shirt on your arms.
The grass is turned implausibly green.
Tomorrow, the world will begin again,
another fresh start. The blue sky stretches,
shakes out its tent of light. Even dandelions glitter
in the lawn, a handful of golden change.

—Barbara Crocker
https://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=3463

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, February 9, 2023 at 5:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

Some friends and I were lamenting recently how rare it is for us to have an open day with absolutely nothing on the calendar: no appointments, no immediacy of errands, no pressing list or looming need of others crowding our mind, nostalgic for younger days when we would hop in the car and drive off without a destination. Now, we have to plan our spontaneity, block off the day before the rush of life flows in to fill the vacancy. If such a day drops in our lap, due to shift of weather or last minute cancellation, we typically take the time to stem the tide of undone things rather than unfurl ourselves to our heart’s desire. I am so far out of practice with spontaneity that the question, What do I want? in that moment often leaves me stymied and stammering or tripping over a slate of too many choices. Still, that young heart in me beats, eager to find a way into the unplanned day before another season ends, before the dandelion bulbs into a wish and is blown away in the wind.

Prompt Menu

  1. Use Barbara Crocker’s opneing phrase as your prompt; This day is… and free write whatevercomes to mind from there.

  2. Journal or write about an open road day in your life.

  3. Use the phrase: Step into your life, as if it were…

  4. Consider the way Corcker uses contrast in trees with white blossoms, festive as brides, growing in an industrail park. Pick some contrasting aspects of a landscape and use it as a prompt.

  5. Describe the way the fabric of your clothes touches your skin, the feeling different fabrics evoke, and how that feeling carries through in the background as you go through the day.

  6. Journal or write a poem about the changing colors in nature as winter gives way to spring.

  7. Crocker’s title establishes the idea of the promise of a new day. Journal or write a poem about the promise of a new day. What does that mean to you? How has that promise changed over the years in your life?

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