Read the poem
Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you
Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…
Use the selection of prompts below the poem
Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…
Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes
No Greater Love
My heart is big enough
for you to roam
where ever you wish
and feel you loved.
My patience is deeper
than the canyon
where my voice echoes
in your absence because
I am here for you
whispering into your
dreaming ears,
which are timeless
and know no boundaries:
“Go. Live out your Self.”
And do so without apology
because, no matter how far
or how long you wander,
I know that we all must take
the steps on our own path,
and there is no greater love
than the love that gives you
to your Self.
© 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 July 3, 2020 at 4:00 PM PST
My Thoughts
So much of our lives are lived in the harsh light of social judgment. Consequently, many people feel they do not have permission to live their own lives or to be themselves. Underneath the mystical longing, beyond the urgency to make a mark in the world, and behind the fear and anxiety is often a simple wish to be blessed by a parent's pride in you, a lover’s desire for you, a friend's trust in you. One of the greatest legacies anyone can leave behind is a blessing. Some people in your life— your children, extended family, friends, and acquaintances—will outlive you. They will carry some piece of you on inside. If that piece of you is a blessing, then, whether they know it or not, it will give them wings to fly.
No Greater Love 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 4th of a four-session book reading series on June 28, 2020. Below is a video recording of the book reading:
Week 12 Prompt Menu
Free write using the stem sentence: “My heart is big enough for…”
Write about the effects of life events on the openness of your heart. What shrinks your heart? What expands your heart?
Write about the experience of missing someone. You can use the metaphor of a voice echoing in the canyon of absence. Whose voice is it? What does it say?
What words would you whisper as a blessing into into the dreaming ears of someone you love?
What does the dictum, “Go, live out yourself ,” mean to you? How might you actually fulfill it (what might you do, say, or be)? Conversely, think of someone that you love and write about what you imagine that person might do, say, or be to live out themselves. What do you hope and what do you fear if they were to truly do so?
What does it mean to live without apology? Is this a good thing to do? What are the pros and cons.
The last stanza claims there is “no greater love than the love that gives you to your Self, using a capital “S” for Self. Write about what that could mean? How could you love someone into themselves? Or, use the stem sentence, “there is no greater love than…” and write your own response to the prompt.
Write from whatever else in the poem inspires you or from elsewhere in your life.