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 Think You’re Wonderful

I think you’re wonderful.
I’m driving my car
and your name is on every mailbox.
I’m kissing you
and my shoes crawl away
in darkness, sweet gadgets
sing in my wrist, the life
I dumped into the river years ago
is reported found in the Philippines….
Why do I tell you this?
Because your lingerie
is burning, because a lone drop
of rain is falling somewhere
above the Sahara, because
I think you’re wonderful.

—by Thomas Lux
Thomas Lux (December 10, 1946 – February 5, 2017) was an American poet who held the Margaret T. and Henry C. Bourne, Jr. Chair in Poetry at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He authored of fourteen books of poetry.

Next Read Around is August 7, 2020 at 4:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

This week’s prompts are a follow up or a continuation of last week’s prompts from William Stafford’s poem, Ask Me, which offered potential questions to find and express personal truths. This week’s poem, “I Think You’re wonderful,” by Thomas Lux is about confessing your feelings to people in your life. Many people turn to poetry when confused, when suffering, when ecstatic, or when in love because poetry offers a language to express what seems inexpressible. Sharing one’s feelings toward another, what you might call the truth of the heart, often leaves us tongue-tied and stuttering. Poetry is often the best, and sometimes the only, way to express it.

Confessing how a person “makes” you feel is typically shunned in polite society. It can be risky because it might cause trouble or create tension: you might be misunderstood, rejected, confronted, trapped, or overwhelmed. We intuitively know that confessing feelings almost always changes the relationship. In other words words, we know that we have to be ready to deal with the aftermath, both in ourselves, in the other, and in the relationship. So, writing a poem provides an outlet for what might otherwise stay trapped inside forever.

Week 17 Prompt Menu

1. Write a love poem starting and ending with the line: " I think you’re wonderful.” You can also change the descriptor from wonderful to another adjective: marvelous, delightful, delicious, etc.

2. Although Lux’s poem is about a lover, you can write about someone other than the beloved. It can be a friend, an acquaintance, even someone you do not know. Describe the impact that person has on you. As a stretch, do not mention the person’s name or your relationship to them.

3. Write about the impact someone has on you using only metaphors. Include at least 3 different metaphors.

4. Think of a person that you secretly loved or to whom you were unable to share your feelings. Imagine what you could have said if you had the courage.

5. Think of someone who had a significant impact on you, positive or negative, that you never expressed to them. Write a confessional poem and include the line: Why do I tell you this? Then use metaphor(s) to convey the reason.

6. Describe the best kiss you have experienced.

7. Lux describes how the person restores something lost in him (the life I dumped in the river is reported found). Think of someone in your life that helped you reclaim some lost part of yourself. Write what it means to you to reclaim that part and how the person helped bring it about.

8. Think of a choice point in your life, a relationship that ended, or that you did not pursue; a job or career choice you did not make, or a place you could have chosen to be your home. Use it as a starting point and write about the life you might have lived.

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