Tammi Belko of Ohio was our host for the first day of the January 2026 Open Write yesterday at http://www.ethicalela.com, inspiring us with her shared process that you can read below:
Process: Grab a book from your shelf. Read the last line in it. Use that line as the first or last line of your poem. If you don’t have any books near you load this page, and scan down till you find the right one.
I’ve been reading Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, so I reached for the book and found the last line to use as my inspiration for my poem today.
“Avery’s coming for pie. And there’s a Scrabble game to win, after all.” -Shelby Van Pelt from Remarkably Bright Creatures
On Playing Scrabble with My Children
there’s a Scrabble game to win
and you can be sure
the dictionary will be the referee
at the turntable deluxe edition
on their great great grandmother’s
refinished table where the
ancestors have refereed
their own games
Common Threads 