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

Tiny Griefs

Over and over, my silly heart
fastens itself to falling things —
the harsh word, the cracked screen,
the missing book, the downcast eyes —

tiny griefs, scattered
all over the yard, each
light as a feather and yet
too heavy to haul away

in a wheelbarrow.
I used to catalogue them,
recording them on the pages
of my journal as if I could

close them out or keep them
under cover and then
pack them up in a box.
I used to gather them up

believing they would lift me
out of my life if I could only
fashion them into wings.
Now, I leave them be,

countless reminders
of my fragility. I let them
settle into me. Now,
when my silly heart

fastens itself to falling things,
I let it fall and it becomes
a feeding ground
for a swarm of sparrows.

And I watch as they
lift their wings to the sky.

© Nick LeForce
All Rights Reserved

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.

Register Here:

Next Read Around is June 26, 2020 at 4:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

There is profound wisdom in the old adage that you do not know what you’ve got until it is gone. Clarity about our selves, our lives, and our path often comes from crises, from our losses, our mistakes, and our failures and from facing difficult, seemingly impossible, choices. And nothing gives clarity more than the prospect of death.

Our lives are cluttered with little losses, little deaths every day. This could be lost things, lost moments, lost opportunities, hurt feelings, a damaged ego, etc. Since I travel a lot and have lost a few things on the road, I have made it a habit to “always look back” when leaving a space. The poem, Tiny Griefs, invites you to look back on the little losses in your life as a way of examining your relationship to loss and to letting go.

Tiny Griefs is an excerpt 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 third of a 4-session book reading series on June 21, 2020. Below is a video recording of the book reading. Please join in for the last reading in the series on Sundays, June 28 at 9:00 AM PST (register with the the link below to the video):

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

Week 11 Prompt Menu

  1. The opening line refers to the “silly heart that fastens itself to falling things.” What does your “silly heart” fasten itself to? Write from the stem sentence, “Over and over, my silly heart fastens itself to…”

  2. What is on your list of tiny griefs? Actually make a list, which itself could be a poem. Or pick out one or two as the focus for writing.

  3. In the commentary on the poem, I mentioned the practice to “always look back” as a way of preventing little losses. What do you do to prevent or avoid losses? Describe or create your own practice for managing loss. Include a “rule” that you might follow.

  4. Imagine there is a storehouse of little losses. Describe your storehouse. How are the losses stored? Are they catalogued, stuffed into boxes, put on shelves? Are they framed and hung on the walls? Are they dropped in random piles?

  5. Using the storehouse image above, imagine it is, instead, a museum and take the reader on a tour. When is it open and closed? What is in the permanent collection? What is the theme of the current exhibit? What events or life triggers send you back to the museum?

  6. The poem describes the desire to fashion the griefs Into wings that could lift up one’s life. What would you fashion your griefs into?

  7. Imagine there is caretaker or guardian of your griefs. Interview the caretaker/guardian. Ask the caretaker/guardian what the purpose is in keeping them.

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