Denise Krebs of California is our host for the final day of the October 2026 Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. You can read her full prompt here. She writes:
I invite you today to find a seventh book anywhere and join me in a fun discovery.
Process
- Find the 7th book on a shelf or pile wherever you are, in a library, a bookshop, at home or school (any genre).
- Turn to page 7.
- Read the seventh line.
- Let that line inspire a 7-line poem. The line can become part of your poem, or just a muse.
I looked to the seventh shelf, seventh book from the left, and plucked Stillmeadow and Sugarbridge by Gladys Taber and Barbara Webster from the bookcase. The seventh sentence: Even when the mortgage reared its ugly head, we never regretted it and now it is fine to know everything is paid for, our forty acres – although how can man own God’s earth? – and the 1690 farmhouse, and the barn, even the pond, and presumably that cricket chirping endlessly on the hearth is also ours.
I chose a tanka for today and can split the last two lines into two more if I decide on having 7.
Merely Caretakers
how can man own God’s
earth? impossible, for we’re
merely caretakers!
and let’s be real ~ we pretty
much suck at that simple task….
For more information on Gladys Taber and her cozy books, check out A Reader’s Almanac with Celeste on YouTube and search for Gladys Taber’s Cozy Seasonal Books episode. I tried to embed the link here, but sharing has been prohibited by the owner of the channel. Gladys Taber’s books are like stepping into a painting by Currier and Ives and living there for a little while in the days before the world went sour.
