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 7/18/2024 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 below

  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

No human life is exempt from setbacks, failures, and defeats. We all have and will experience the failure of our efforts, the crushing of our dreams and the slashing of our hopes. All of these words refer to a halting of our effort toward a goal or desired state. A “setback” is a temporary condition, an interruption in the plan without forfeit of the goal. “Failure” assigns personal responsibility when things did not go as expected and and is more likely to result in forfeit of the goal.  “Defeat” is to be beaten by an opponent, with all the weight of resignation and finality. It is a story ending with the act of being flattened or conquered.

Such experiences, if taken gravely, can paralyze us. But not so for Kahlil Gibran. He turns defeat on its head in an act of defiance against being defeated. Instead of laying him to waste, he sees it as a fertile field, making every aspect of defeat life affirming. Instead of breaking his spirit, defeat ignites his spirit, becomes a friend, a teacher, a motivator. Gibran’s elucidation of defeat is, ultimately, a poem of liberation, one to keep posted on the wall as a reminder of what’s possible when we find ourselves thwarted. If we can look defeat in the eye and march on, we are truly, as Gibran says, dangerous.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/58713/defeat-56d23d566b4c3

Defeat

Defeat, my Defeat, my solitude and my aloofness;
You are dearer to me than a thousand triumphs,
And sweeter to my heart than all world-glory.

 Defeat, my Defeat, my self-knowledge and my defiance,
Through you I know that I am yet young and swift of foot
And not to be trapped by withering laurels.
And in you I have found aloneness
And the joy of being shunned and scorned.

 Defeat, my Defeat, my shining sword and shield,
In your eyes I have read
That to be enthroned is to be enslaved,
And to be understood is to be leveled down,
And to be grasped is but to reach one’s fullness
And like a ripe fruit to fall and be consumed.

 Defeat, my Defeat, my bold companion,
You shall hear my songs and my cries and my silences,
And none but you shall speak to me of the beating of wings,
And urging of seas,
And of mountains that burn in the night,
And you alone shall climb my steep and rocky soul.

 Defeat, my Defeat, my deathless courage,
You and I shall laugh together with the storm,
And together we shall dig graves for all that die in us,
And we shall stand in the sun with a will,
And we shall be dangerous.

—Kahlil Gibran

Prompt Ideas

  1. Journal or write a poem about a time you experienced defeat. What were the consequences, good and bad? How did you recover? Or consider a time when you looked defeat in the eye and marched on.

  2. Journal or write a poem about what is more dear to you than one thosand triumphs.

  3. What good or, as Gibran says, what joy may be found in being shunned and scorned?

  4. Personify defeat (or failure or setback or any kind of thwarting) and write how you might be viewed through the eyes of that personification.

  5. Take any “negative” emotion or state (for instance, shame, boredom, etc.) and turn it on its head by making it an ally. Use Gibran’s opening formula: for example, “Shame, my shame, my…”

  6. Take any positive emotion or state (for instance, being celebrated or being understood) and write about its downsides— how it might entrap you or level you or otherwise limit you. You can use the formula: to be celebrated is to be…

  7. Consider your soul as a metaphoric landscape. Is it steep and rocky? Vast and impenetrable? Is it a garden? A Lake? Who or what do you allow to wander on that landscap?

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