#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
Farm Pond Writer’s Collective
Sunny and dry, it’s another spectacular blue and golden morning on the river, and we walk early before my writing group. I take it slow today, I’m tired from two late nights in the city in a row, and my head and heart are full of the intimate conversations and deep explorations I’ve witnessed or facilitated in the past few days. I change my mind three times about what I’ll use for a prompt in my Wednesday writer’s group, and it’s not until I am in the room and the writers have gathered that I finally decide to work from the Naomi Shihab Nye poem:
Next Time Ask More Questions
Naomi Shihab Nye
Before jumping, remember
the span of time is long and gracious.No one perches dangerously on any cliff
till you reply. Is there a pouch of raindesperately thirsty people wait to drink from
when you say yes or no? I don’t think so.Hold that thought. Hold everything.
When they say “crucial”—well, maybe for them?Hold your horses and your minutes and
your Hong Kong dollar coins in your pocket. . . .
I offer this question for the prompt:
Can you think of a time when you spoke too soon? Agreed to do something too quickly, or declined too quickly? Pressured yourself?
And then this twist on answering it inspired by a Playback Theatre structure:
Write from THREE Perspectives - Tell the story in 3 sentences 3 times from 3 different points of view - your own, and then the perspectives of two others involved, either human or inanimate objects, in the first person point of view.
Wonderful, fresh, surprising and delightful writing ensued.
