Hearing new writing, even before the ink has dried, before the coffee has turned cold, we imagine bright lights into a newly formed sky. In the free-write group that I host every Friday afternoon, I invite participants to engage with a simple writing prompt for a 15-minute composition (it usually goes a little longer). Then the glorious sharing begins. Yesterday I brought in the New York Times weekend arts section and distributed the pages for inspiration. Connecting a creative discipline with a daily phenomenon can help keep inspiration flowing, especially if self-doubt tends to undermine you, as it does me. Here’s the poem I wrote (yes, I write and share too in these groups) on American art~
The Little Peach
studied as though across
a vast page of unfamiliar
script, letters turned 90 degrees
and written over again. Turn and
turn the stone until the summer
cloud tastes sweet and drips
juice on gingham. We only
wanted to fill the trees,
again and again.
poet | artist 