Hello,
I don’t know about you but I am always fascinated by how other writers come about their poems. Where they write them, how they arrive and their process for wrangling them onto the page.
This week we are joined by another guest poet, LeeAnn Pickrell is a poet, freelance editor, and managing editor of Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche. A self-proclaimed lover of punctuation, LeeAnn has a chapbook coming out next month called Punctuated and writes a Substack called LeeAnn’s Punctuated Poetry. I definitely haven’t checked my punctuation more than once this week, ha.
LeeAnn mentioned to me recently how she, “writes her way in” to a poem, a phrase which I now think about regularly, so I was thrilled when she sent over this piece where we get to see behind the scenes of a poem coming to life. I think for anyone writing (or wanting to write) poetry, this timed invitation to get something down on paper is a wonderfully welcoming one.
A timed writing prompt on beauty.
First, thank you to Nelly for asking me to write this post. When she asked, I knew exactly what I wanted to write and then I spent a couple weeks second guessing myself but this is what I kept coming back to.
I’ve been part of Solstice/Equinox writing group for many years. We meet four times a year, on a Saturday closest to the Solstice or Equinox obviously. I was so nervous when I was invited to attend this group for the first time. At that point, I had published some poems here and there, but in my mind, these were real poets because they had published books. I felt so out of their league, which I was sure they would discover soon enough.
This group, however, was different than a regular poetry group where you bring a poem and get feedback; this group was about writing poetry. Members have come and gone, and we’ve changed locations over the years, but the format has never changed.
Each person brings a poem by another poet to read and a prompt. We start out by going around the room and reading poems by other poets. Then we write. The first poet introduces her prompt—it can be about anything; it doesn’t have to relate to the poem she read—and then we write for 15 minutes. You don’t have time to overthink. I can still get stuck in my own head, but generally, I’m able to start with something and go from there.
Afterward, we go around the room and read what we’ve written. With no feedback. You aren’t required to read. No one expects a wonderful poem. You might get a piece of a poem or something to develop, or you might not get a thing, or you might come back to your notebook a couple of years later and think, you know, this is worth exploring. Occasionally, very occasionally, something comes out whole. So many of my poems have come from this group.
That’s what’s wonderful about Poetry Pals. It’s a place to play with poetry. So I’m going to take you through a prompt from the Solstice/Equinox group and show you what I did, and then if you’d like, you can do the same over the coming week.
This is a poem by Kevin Young. This poem was originally published in Orion.
Egrets
By Kevin Young
Some say beauty
may be the egret
in the fieldwho follows after
the cows
sensing slaughter—but I believe
the soul is neither
air nor water, notthis winged thing
nor the cattle
who moanto make themselves
known.
Instead, the horsesstanding almost fifteen
hands high—
like regret they comemost the time
when called.
Hungry, the greys eatfrom your palm,
tender-toothed—
their surprisingplum-dark tongues
flashing quick
& rough as a match—your hand, your
arm, startled
into flame.
Your writing prompt for this week:
The exercise has three-parts.
First we made a list of things we found beautiful. Then we picked something from the list and wrote about it for five minutes. Then we took that free write and spent about ten minutes paring it down into a poem using simple language.
The first photo shows my list and the five-minute free write. You’ll note that I went through and underlined words and phrases that struck me.
This photo shows my first attempt at the poem. I took some of the words and phrases from the free write but not many.
This is the edited poem. It doesn’t have much to do with the Kevin Young poem at all—that was just a starting point.
Luscious
hues of green
blanketing the hills
still damp from
last night’s storm
each stalk an emerald
flashing in the
midday sun
as we sit
in the car by the park
eating a picnic
after your surgery
so grateful for this day
the darker green
of the trees that
held on through
winter like we did
how one word can
hold the essence of
green
So the prompt is to read the Kevin Young poem “Egrets” or any other poem that speaks to you about beauty. Make a list of a few things you find beautiful, maybe four or five. Pick one thing from the list and free write for about 5 minutes and then spend the next 10 minutes shaping it into the beginnings of a poem. I find that timing prompts helps me just write without overthinking it too much.
I can’t wait to see what you all come up with on Friday.
You can find out more about LeeAnn over on her website here. Or she also writes a great Substack - LeeAnn’s Punctuated Poetry.
Thanks
I very much enjoy that this invitation asks for us to find just 15 minutes (surely that is possible!?) and embrace the unfinished. That’s right up my street and I can’t wait to get going.How about you?
Nelly x
Thank you Nelly and LeeAnne. I went straight in with this prompt. I knew exactly what I wanted to write about and I look forward to sharing.
Love this prompt, both the idea and that it’s timed it feels manageable. Thank you.