Traveling and Writing in Clean Hotels With Great Coffee

Our host today for the last day of the February 2023 Open Write is Stacey Joy, who inspires us to write etheree poems. You can read her prompt and poem here, along with others, and add your own if you wish. I’m traveling through three Southeastern states this week, and I have always found hotels to be some of the best places to write. Until now.

Upstairs

strong
coffee
hot showers
comfortable
bedding, firm pillows
large-screen television
whispery-gray painted walls
white down comforters on the beds
clean desk and chair with working wi-fi
hotel rooms are THE BEST places to write

Fitzgerald wrote books at The Grove Park Inn
Truman Capote at The Plaza
eliminating distractions?
any Hampton Inn will do…..
….unless there’s a toddler
crying all night long
jumping non-stop
on the floor
above 
you

February’s Open Write with Stacey Joy

Stacey Joy never fails to bring joyful and inspiring poetry prompts.  Her free verse is a perfect way to begin this month’s Open Write.  You can read it here on EthicalEla.com, and join us in writing today. The blackbirds are such beautiful symbols of the flight to freedom in the story, and on this weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count when so many are counting birds, I’ll reflect back on this story and her poem and be reminded that freedom as people and as a nation is a blessing that took blood, sweat, and tears – and lives – to have and hold.  She inspired me to choose an etheree to write about one of my favorites, also with a theme of freedom – The Legend of the Teddy Bear by Frank Murphy.  

They Called Him Teddy

When Roosevelt let a wild bear go free,

The Washington Post ran a cartoon.

Rose and Morris Michtom took note.

In their candy store, she sewed~

Commemorating choice~

Celebrating strength~

Their idea: our

Nation’s first

Teddy 

Bear