The Line Break

Why do we want to write poems? What is behind this crazy impulse? The wish to connect with others, on a deep level, about inward things.

The pressure of emotion, which many people prefer to ignore, but which, for you, is the very substance of your work, your clay.

There’s play involved in the writing of poetry. Baby waking up. We have to be like babies waking up–trying every sound, every pitch, every word, however nonsensical. Later, be a revising adult. Babies build it up and knock it down again.

There’s the need to make sense of life behind the impulse to write.

And finally, we celebrate the world by writing about it, we observe it more closely, with more love. We are more fully alive and aware because of our efforts.

Jane Kenyon, “Everything I Know About Writing Poetry”

We are at midterms, writing papers, taking tests, submitting journal prompts, turning in many assignments, feeling overwhelmed. So, my writing prompt for you this week is to sit down and take all the pressure off yourself to do something great or achieve something. Instead, let your mind play. Let it wander. Let it use sound like colorful blocks, like a toddler builds and knocks over, shrieking with delight at their own creations and destructions. Begin with something you’ve noticed lately. Maybe the bradford pear or sugar maple is budding. Maybe you watched the black capped chickadees eat in the sweetgum branches out the dentist office window. Maybe the sky was grey and depressing this morning, but you were listening to your favorite song, and the contrast was pleasant. Journal for a little while, and see if you have the beginning of a poem or a story or an essay. Remember that the way to the universal is through the local. Remember to be a baby, waking up.