Poetry Writing Prompt #26 - Use Poetry to Increase Our Ability to Love & Write Our Way Into the Power of Forgiveness

Can you believe the 31 Days of OctPoWriMo are almost complete?

This surprises me. It feels like Morgan was just asking me if I could help and I was sure and not sure simultaneously. I had cancer surgery ten days before we started and somehow, I’ve done pretty well, considering.

As we weave our words through these last days, I’ve been thinking we’re ready now to take on a topic that always has meaning for me.

Today’s topic? Asking forgiveness and being forgiven.

Caroline Myss wrote "Forgiveness is no longer an option but a necessity for healing."

There are a couple kids from my childhood I never apologized to, ever. I should have apologized. The thought of it haunts me.

I was usually the kid who stuck up for the less popular kids. I called myself a “friend of the friendless” after having a rocky fifth and seventh grade myself. In my elementary years, though, there was a girl named Celeste who people, for whatever reason, didn’t like very much.

Then in the later days of Middle School, for some reason when this one kid said mean stuff to me, I said mean stuff back. The only thing is I was quite a bit smarter than him so he didn’t have the ability to fight back at the same level.

I knew it. It made me feel powerful.

He would use bad language in my direction and I said, “Only people who don’t have large vocabularies have to stoop to use swear words. Too bad for you.” We lived in a suburb of New York where smartness and academic ability was as high on the totem pole for popularity as athletics and good looks.

I even had a mean name I called this boy whose real name was Steven.

I would love to have the chance to apologize to these two kids and I will do so, today, via poetry.

Who are you called to forgive?

Well, the person I am hardest on and least likely to forgive on an everyday basis is myself. I have worked for years on having as much compassion for myself as I do for others and so far it hasn’t worked well at all.

Poetry Writing Prompt: 

Your task, today, is to write a poem to apologize or to write a poem asking for forgiveness. You may never show these poems to the intended person, but I guarantee you will feel better having written your words.

Word Prompts:  Sorry or Forgive

Sentence Starters: I’m sorry…

Please forgive me…

I offer grace…

I offer forgiveness…

I forgive….

Final words from Caroline Myss - "When we harbor negative emotions toward others or toward ourselves,  or when we intentionally create pain for others,  we poison our own physical and spiritual systems. By far the strongest poison to the human spirit is the inability to forgive oneself or another person. It disables a person's emotional resources. The challenge is to refine our capacity to love others as well as ourselves and to develop the power of forgiveness. "