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 the poem

  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

I Woke Up A Different Man

I woke up this morning a different man.

I didn’t know it when I first opened my eyes
and threw the covers off of my life
or when I lifted myself out of dreams
and my feet hit the cool surface of solid ground.

It all seemed so casual, so matter-of-fact,
as if I had always known it would be so
and it required no notice from me.

I walked out the door with my stained grace
and broken dignity, clear-eyed and curious
about what lay ahead of me. Everything
shimmered alive and I fell into step with my heart.

I had no need of plan or purpose,
no destiny to follow, no desire to fulfill,
no fire to put out and no litter to pick up.

I felt nothing, for the first time
since before I could remember:
nothing at all between me and the world

© Nick LeForce
All Rights Reserved

An email with information about how to join the meetings will be mailed to you once you register.

Please join in for Round 3 of Writing From The Inside Out by attending the June 2020 read-around sessions on Friday 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.

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Next Read Around is June 19, 2020 at 4:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

Your arrival on the planet heralds a miracle. You were endowed with the spark of life and that flame will continue to burn in you until you take your last breath. Despite the best explanations from science and the most amazing mythic stories of creation, we live in the midst of a great mystery that we take for granted because our daily life is so familiar to us. We have come to rely on so many things that we lose touch with the miraculous nature of the everyday world. The poem, I Woke Up a Different Man (change gender if it helps to a different woman; a different person) celebrates those time when we come alive again and feel the intimacy with life that is our natural birthright.

The poem is excerpted from my latest book of poetry: The Undiscovered Country: How To Live In Your Own Heart Land. It is one of the poems I read for the second of a 4-session book reading series on June 14, 2020. Below is a video recording of the book reading. Please join in for the series on the next two consecutive Sundays, June 21, & 28 at 9:00 AM PST (register with the the link next to the video):

Week 10 Prompt Menu

  1. Write about what it means to “wake up” in life. Or think of a time when you “woke up” to something, or became vividly aware of something that might have been there all along but you never noticed before. For instance, many people are “waking up” to racial injustice at this time.

  2. Consider the lines in the second stanza as metaphors and write about what it might mean to:

    1. “throw the covers off of your life”

    2. “lift yourself out of dreams”

    3. have your feet hit “solid ground”

  3. Imagine you did wake up a different person, but it was so natural that you didn’t notice. What could clue you to the change? For instance, I often used to get upset with myself for making mistakes; but one day I caught myself simply correcting a “mistake” without any fanfare and realized I had done it several times in the days before that. Since it seemed so natural, I just did it and moved on and I could have assumed that is the way I have always been.

  4. Recall a time when someone else noticed some skill, quality, or trait in you that you did not notice in yourself. Write about the experience or step into that person and describe “you” as that person might see you.

  5. What could it mean to walk out the door with “stained grace” and “broken dignity?”

  6. Write what it is like when “everything shimmers alive around you” or when you felt as if there was nothing between you and life. Complete the prompt: When there is nothing between me and life…

  7. Describe what it is like when you have no plan, no purpose, and no agenda. Do you feel lost, aimless, and anxious; or free, eager, and excited; or...

  8. Write from whatever else in the poem inspires you or from elsewhere in your life.