A poetry prompt

Whooo! How exactly do you spell that exclamation you make when you’ve done quite a lot and feel slightly tired but really accomplished? It’s been a busy vacation in every way possible and I am returning to work tomorrow feeling tidied up! As I was cleaning I came across several writings that I began at a writing class and meant to make into blog posts, but never did. So this first one, which was all about using poetry to inspire writing, is from that class.

The writing is raw, but honest. I think of all the writing I put my students through. I’d like to think I’d never ask them to do something I would not, but I do. How? Well if I won’t share my work, if I won’t dare to expose myself, then how can I ask the same of them?

So here is post one of the “raw” free write inspired stuff! The prompt was simple:

Start with “I am...” and ramble on:


I am cacophony
At once the noise of many
As I dance through the scene on a stage.
I am bright water
Churning, crystal, wetting rocks and earth
As I glide.
I am the sound of music
Twirling dizzy like the leaves
As I wonder.

I am my telephone number, my house number, my age.
And I am none of these.
I used to think I’d know the Answer first at 23,
Then 30, then 35-
But no number will ever hold a magic answer for me.

I am not poetry
Words that sing in metaphor,
Pounding rhythm and mystical rhyme.
I am facts, square and strong
But I’d like to think that square’s gotten rounded over time.
I am a spiral
Starting at my center and extending outward round and round.