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 3/20/25 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

Judgment. The word has gotten a bad rap. It's a natural human process to make judgments. If you strip away all the embellishment, and look to its origins, it simply means to form an opinion. In our everyday vernacular, “judgment” is reserved for negative opinions formed about ourselves and others. All of us have been on both sides of that equation: being the one judged and the one judging. Judgment, even if negative, isn't the problem. The problem is that we formulate judgments too quickly, apply them too personally, take them too seriously, and extend them across time too permanently. We forget that they are not facts or truths; they are simply opinions. The burden of vernacular judgment solidifies and hardens opinion into stones we carry and weights we bear. As Mark Nepo points out in the opening line of his poem, Can’t Really Say, dropping these judgments lightens us, turns the stone into a cloud that moves on and dissipates. Mark’s poetry generally celebrates the beauty of human connection and the power of presence in everyday interactions with others. Then, as we listen to each other, we have access to the deeper stream that carries us all and things feel closer, friendlier, more intimate.  

Can't Really Say

I drop my judgments and 
the stone becomes a cloud, 
which in time, disperses. You 
notice I am lighter, but I can’t 
really say why. 

You look to me as if I know
something, when all we can do 
is keep each other company.

All I can do is ask about what 
you carry, where it came from, 
and wait with you as you learn 
to put it down.

Under the known world, atoms
glide and shift and a mountain
forms or an owl hoots.

And somewhere now, under 
the choke of all our streets, 
something lightens as we 
listen to each other, and 
things feel closer.

—Mark Nepo
https://www.marknepo.com

Prompt Ideas

  1. Journal or write a poem about a time when you dropped a negative jugdment you held about someone else. What allowed you to make tha shift? What difference did it make in your experience and your perception of the other person?

  2. Use “Judgment” as the title of your entry and free write or compose from there.

  3. Journal or write about a time when something shifted in you and you suddenly felt lighter but you could not really say why. Or consider anytime something changed in you that youcould not really explain.

  4. Journal or write a poem about something heavy that you carry inside. What happens if imagine it as a stone. Describe its location in you; its heft, shape, color, and texture. What happens if you imagine it dissipating?

  5. Describe a time when someone looked to you as if you had an answer to their dilemma or knew something that could help them. What did it feel like to be put in that position? Did you like it, feel obligated, dismiss it? Or consider it the other way around: a time when you assumed another person had the knowledge or wisdom to help you? How did that impact the interaction?

  6. Nepo’s poem focuses on an interaction that includes or requires an unburdening. Aside from professional helpers (priests, counselors, coaches), describe a time when you talked (or someone else talked to you) about something hard. What allowed you to do so?What allows an unburdening in an interaction?

  7. Journal or write a poem about the kind of conversation/interaction that lightens you, makes you feel closer to things, more alive.

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