Many of my afternoons are filled with meetings since writing project work is hard to squish into typical work hours. This afternoon on the National Writing Project (NWP) Connecting the Network Call, as is typical, we had a writing prompt to write our way into the meeting. Since #writeout is now in full swing, our prompt was a poetry in the parks invitation of Lucille Clifton’s The Earth is a Living Thing read by poet laureate Ada Limon.

I don’t love to write on demand–I often feel stumped in that compressed moment, pressured to create in what I already know will be too little time. But today felt different. I loved the structure of Clifton’s poem as each stanza began with “is a…” followed by some action.

My mind began near the sea–a place I love and often find inspiration. And then I found myself in my classroom, inspired by the small children I spend so much time with.

Here’s my first draft written in five minutes at the beginning of this afternoon’s meeting. (And is currently untitled so I’m borrowing Lucille Clifton’s title)

The Earth is a Living Thing: Riffing off Lucille Clifton

is a great blue heron

wings spread

blotting the gray skies

with the wonder of birds

is a child poet

words tumbled

letters scrambled

ideas piercing your heart

is playground balls

in rainbow colors

bouncing, rolling

here, there, everywhere

in the play that is essential

to learning and growth

And of course, I have to add a photo that was also a part of my inspiration.

How will you #writeout today?