Give yourself a gift.  Grab a pen and your journal.  Close your door and minimize distractions... no cell phone, no radio, no television.  Take a few deep breaths and commit to 30 minutes for yourself.  Don't have thirty?  Go for twenty or ten; whatever you can do.  Read the poem, aloud if possible.  Read the writing prompts and choose one (or not).   

Poem on a Line by Anne Sexton, 'We are All Writing God's Poem'

By Barbara Crooker

Today, the sky's the soft blue of a work shirt washed
a thousand times. The journey of a thousand miles
begins with a single step. On the interstate listening
to NPR, I heard a Hubble scientist
say, "The universe is not only stranger than we
think, it's stranger than we can think." I think
I've driven into spring, as the woods revive
with a loud shout, redbud trees, their gaudy
scarves flung over bark's bare limbs. Barely doing
sixty, I pass a tractor trailer called Glory Bound,
and aren't we just? Just yesterday,
I read Li Po: "There is no end of things
in the heart," but it seems like things
are always ending—vacation or childhood,
relationships, stores going out of business,
like the one that sold jeans that really fit—
And where do we fit in? How can we get up
in the morning, knowing what we do? But we do,
put one foot after the other, open the window,
make coffee, watch the steam curl up
and disappear. At night, the scent of phlox curls
in the open window, while the sky turns red violet,
lavender, thistle, a box of spilled crayons.
The moon spills its milk on the black tabletop
for the thousandth time.

"Poem on a Line by Anne Sexton, 'We are All Writing God's Poem'" by Barbara Crooker, from Line Dance. © Word Press, 2008

Writing Suggestions:

1.  This poem is rich in image and subject.  Jot down a few lines that really jump out at you.  Pick one of those lines and try a poem in the writer's style:  Poem on a Line by Barbara Crooker, 'Glory Bound and aren't we just?' or maybe Poem on a Line by Barbara Crooker, 'The moon spills its milk on the black tabletop'.

2.  This poet pulled lines in from other sources.  What do you read for inspiration?  Pick a line from something you've read lately: the Sunday newspaper, a religious text, Martha Stewart's Living.  Whatever sticks in your head.  Write the line, or your recollection of it, at the top of the page.  Use it as a fast write prompt.  Write for 5 or 10 minutes without lifting your pen, without censoring yourself, without the edit suggestions of your inner critic.

3.   Ever try a "found" poem?   Write down lines from something non-poetic - a website, a conversation, a 24 hour news channel.  Arrange the lines into a poem.  A great source for found poems are readback lines.  If you attend our Read Arounds the week of June 1st, you're sure to find lots of poems!

4.  Here is another reference to this same Anne Sexton line.  It is a New York Times Opinion piece written by Erica Jong, honoring the life of Anne Sexton.  Perhaps you can find words of inspiration there.

5.  Take any, all or none of these writing suggestions.  Follow your muse!!