I’m hosting Day 11 of VerseLove 2025, and I’m excited to share my prompt with you today. You can read it below, or you can see it on the ethicalela.com website here.
Inspiration
I’m using a prompt from 90 Ways of Community (p. 140) for today’s inspiration. You can download a free copy here. In the book, I describe Joe Brainard’s I Remember strategy. When members of EthicalELA attended the National Council of Teachers of English conference in Boston, Massachusetts, I combined the I Remember approach with Linda Reif’s Quick Write model to inspire attendees to create random poems in a short time frame. The most heartfelt poems came out of that session. Imagine my surprise when I realized that Linda Reif herself was in that session as we shared her Quick Write model!
Process
● Reminisce on a time and place in your life that you want to revisit, or
● Ruminate on a time and place in your life that you want to re-imagine
with new eyes and perspective, or
● Imagine the future and predict what you will remember.
Give yourself two minutes to list whatever comes to mind, keeping your pen moving the entire time. Circle one idea, then write for two more minutes on your chosen idea. Repeat the process as many times as you like to unearth the specifics. Your poem can be as short or as long as you’d like, and take any form your prefer (see here for a list of form suggestions). Accept that whatever you write is good enough. Give yourself permission to reject this idea and instead write whatever the universe calls you to write today. I’m sharing a previously written poem as my sample poem.
I Remember
I remember clutching
her warm hand
as the death rattle beat the drum
of her final march
deferring to my brother,
“I picked the spot.
You pick the plot”
I remember pleading,
“Lord, I need a sign
she can rest in peace”
confessing I’d prayed for a sign:
a majestic bird in flight, wings outstretched,
assuring peace
I remember fighting tears,
wanting to shoot three birds circling overhead
resisting the urge to punch my brother,
who was fighting his own tears
wait……of laughter?
I remember eyeing him,
raising one questioning brow,
tightening my lips,
muttering obscenities
wondering if he was drunk
as he whispered sideways,
“She showed up! With her parents!”
I remember feeling the full force of her humor,
her sign: sending buzzards in place of an eagle
I remember my animal-loving mother –
prankish and ever-present.
Even now.
Since my poem was previously written, I’ve added a borrowed line poem to today’s blog, since I pledged to write a new poem each day for The Stafford Challenge. I used lines from yesterday’s poems on http://www.ethicalela.com to compose this Cento poem:
I Step Outside
to tend to the present
cradled crescents
the softening sounds of spring
curled against
that dark corner
the return of yellow
watch a swallowtail circle
fuschia petals
the sitting still
but don’t we all?
what I needed that day
comforting
peace
welcome to my front porch
no longer held in expectation’s thrall
the black, brown, gray, sometimes mossy green
most of the morning, watching birds
shouldn’t we give shelter when we can?
I lift the binoculars
I chat with them
which I am grateful and so at home
this present iteration
and all that it holds within
bringing hope for spring
a messenger of change
wait for it….
like a breath not yet let go
outside my window now
a drifting hush like a silent call
smiles ruefully
forever-alive bright
so direct, clear, certain
the fields of flowers and
swirling colors and rainbow creation
steady the tensions
there’s lots of good stuff to smell here
so far, so good……
now I scarcely remember
yesterday
I look around for birds
that are calling to become
will become a constellation of stars and I realize
His treasure.
Common Threads 