Today’s writing prompt is based on an excerpt of “Neruda’s Memoirs”
Whenever we face challenges, we have the privilege of framing them in words—words that express our hopes, our losses, our dreams; words that transform our personal vision or the world’s. These words can become a source of sustenance and discovery, for the sometimes long work of bringing-to-birth necessary change.
Earth care, which is also about self and other care, presents you just such a challenge. And, as a poet (or a poet in the making!), you have the chance to, like our poem reading says today, “pour your words into the glass”—to give light, to water, to find, to remember, to hold.
Write a poem about the making of you as a poet who cares about earth, self, and others. Describe what you have experienced over the past 29 days or what you hope to do in the future, as a poet who will sometimes write about earth, self, and other care. You might also want to include something about your style and themes—the poems you’ve made or hope to make.
What long-ago or recent memories of the natural world shape you for this vocation and shape the poems you’ve made or hope to make? You might like to include them.
Consider writing about yourself in the third person (“he,” she,” or “they”), as if someone else is telling the story of you as a poet or the story of your poetry. You can then try writing in the second person (“you”) and in the first person (“I”), to create a trinity of poems about the makings of you as a poet (and the things you’ve made as a poet).
What do you feel either too young or too old for, in embarking on this journey? (Or, in having traveled the last 29 days poetically?) Feel free to use phrases from the “Neruda’s Memoirs” excerpt to shape your trinity of poems.
Want the whole 30 poems, 30 prompts series in one convenient place?
You can get that in Earth to Poetry: A 30-Days, 30-Poems Earth, Self and Other Care Challenge.
