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

Magic Words

In the very earliest time,
when both people and animals lived on earth,
a person could become an animal if he wanted to
and an animal could become a human being.
Sometimes they were people
and sometimes animals
and there was no difference.
All spoke the same language.
That was the time when words were like magic.
The human mind had mysterious powers.
A word spoken by chance
might have strange consequences.
It would suddenly come alive
and what people wanted to happen could
happen –-
all you had to do was say it.
Nobody could explain this:
that’s the way it was.

Eskimo poem; author unknown. Translated from Inuit by Edward Field.


Please join in for Round 9 of Writing From The Inside Out by attending the December 2020 read-around sessions on Friday afternoons (except Dec 25). (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:

Note: Next Read Around is December 4, 2020 at 4:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

As poets, we are lovers of words and, if we take our craft seriously, we must believe that words are magical; that words do have the capacity to make things happen as this Inuit author describes. As far as I know, this believe in the power of words is a core concepts in all indigenous belief systems. Most of us have come to use words rather loosely without concern regarding the impact they have on our selves and  others. For years, when people asked me what I wanted in life, I replied that I wanted “to live the poetry of life.” But I didn’t know what that meant until I discovered the origins of the word context, which means “the weaving together of words.” The meaning we make of any situation or experience depends on the words—the descriptions and stories—we tell about things; especially about life, the world, others, and ourselves. If we elevate our descriptions to a work of art, we have poetry. To speak only the truth of our being and what we would wish to happen, if such were indeed “magic words”, would require considerable discipline! But perhaps the discipline of taking such care of our words, and indeed our thoughts, is, in fact, the magic!


Week 34 Prompt Menu

  1. If you could switch between human and animal forms, what animal(s) would you choose to be? What animal would serve what occasion? Or imagine there is one language that all beings speak and dialogue with your chosen animal.

  2. What makes humans—you—different than animals?

  3. Write an ode to words and the power of words. 

  4. Select a few of your favorite words (words that delight or excite you or words that sound delicious or feel vivacious ). What if those words came alive? Would they dance, prowl in the night, or soar across azure skies? You could start with the prompt, my favorite word(s) is (are)…

  5. Do an internet search to find little known or outdated words and write a poem using at least 4 of them (be sure to add, or be prepared to share, the definitions if you wish to share it in the read-around)

  6. If you knew that your words would happen, what would you immediately stop saying? What would you start saying?

  7. What, in your estimation, is one of the “mysterious powers of the human mind?” Notice how the author describes this “magic word” power as extinct. What powers are waning? What powers are waxing?

  8. Free write any words you wish. In other words, write whatever you want to write from whatever inspires you.