Rekindling the Flame

Photo from the Public Domain

Every now and then, anyone can have a tough year—personally, professionally, or health-wise.  But, when friends and family rally around us with their support and love, the unbearable becomes tolerable. Our chances for recovery magnify.

And many of us have “been there” for others, whether it’s by phone, Skype, mail, or being physically present. We offer a kind or encouraging word, share useful information, help with necessary tasks, or just stay near. These actions give comfort and bolster feelings of well-being. They restore confidence and lift depression.

Humans are wired to help those in need. We look at our skills and abilities. Then we do what we can. We’ve all been there --encouraging, supporting, instilling hope, sometimes taking the situation in hand.

Everyone’s been on the receiving end at one time or another. Friends and family, colleagues, and sometimes strangers, extended a hand and rekindled our flames. The humanity comes out in every one of us, and we realize we’re all in this life together. For this we are grateful.

Photo by geralt (2016) via Pixabay, CC0 Public Domain.

This Week’s Prompt

Free write about a time when another person stepped up to rekindle your flame. OR, when you were the person who helped revitalize a friend’s, family member’s, or an acquaintance’s spark. OR, maybe you reignited your own fire.

What was the situation? What were you feeling? Who else was involved? How did the renewal happen? What difference was made? How did you feel once the episode was over?

1)      Let your writing sit for a few hours or overnight.

2)      Read it over and highlight or circle words or phrases that strike you.

3)      Use some of those words to guide your poem. Your poem could turn out to be an ode. (See Shadow Poetry.)

Word Bank Prompt

desperate

hopeful

down and out

rejuvenate

revive

gratitude

Quote Prompt

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”  -- Albert Schweitzer

Share your website or your poem in the Comments section below and/or in the Facebook group Poets on the Page. On social media, use #PoetsOnThePage.

Poetry Book Highlight

            Counting Descent by Clint Smith

From Amazon.com:

Winner, 2017 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Award
Finalist, 2017 NAACP Image Awards
'One Book One New Orleans' 2017 Book Selection

---

Clint Smith's debut poetry collection, Counting Descent, is a coming of age story that seeks to complicate our conception of lineage and tradition. Smith explores the cognitive dissonance that results from belonging to a community that unapologetically celebrates black humanity while living in a world that often renders blackness a caricature of fear. His poems move fluidly across personal and political histories, all the while reflecting on the social construction of our lived experiences. Smith brings the reader on a powerful journey forcing us to reflect on all that we learn growing up, and all that we seek to unlearn moving forward.

See Clint Smith reading his poem "Counting Descent" for Poetry in America. 

Annis Cassells is a writer, poet, life coach, and teacher.  She divides her time between Bakersfield, California and Coos Bay, Oregon. She is a member of Writers of Kern, a branch of the California Writers Club. See Annis’s blogs at www.thedaymaker.blogspot.com and www.poemsbyannis.blogspot.com and her website at www.connectionsandconversations.com

Going "poemcrazy"

“Poems arrive. They hide in feelings and images, in weeds and delivery vans, daring us to notice and give them form with our words.”

~ Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge

Thus begins the introduction to her book “poemcrazy”. Through a combination of personal stories and poems, Susan pulls you into her word world and invites you to begin making poems of your own.

One of my favorite anecdotes centers on her seventh/eighth grade English class and her teacher, Mr. Mabie. She speaks of how his was the first class she ever had in school that allowed her to express the person she is instead of the “good girl I was supposed to be.” I only wish I would have had a similar experience so early on in my academic life! I have only begun to find that same sense of creative freedom now in my mid-forties.

Wooldridge challenges the reader to begin collecting words.

drive, pomegranate, trendy, ephemera

Words cost nothing. They are ours for the taking. They don’t have to be categorized when we’re collecting. They can be anything that pulls at our attention.

press, fairy, optional, grandiose

Words come to us from an endless number of places. By collecting words in this manner, they can fall into a surprising phrase.

rehabilitated finesse, orange existence, flickering asphalt

At the end of many of the short chapters, she offers what she calls “Practice”. These prompts relate to the story shared in the chapter and are often accompanied by poems written by students in her workshops.

One of my favorite practices that I return to often asks the simple question, “Where have you felt most at home? Where do you think you really come from?” This led me to write “Curtain Call”and “I Come From the Air”. (Be on the lookout for a prompt around this idea in October!)

I confess that I have not read this book from cover to cover. I pick up poemcrazy when I’m in need of an idea. I open the book to a random page and begin reading. I find new ideas every time, even on pages I’ve used before.

You can pick up a copy of poemcrazy at your favorite book outlet.

~Amy McGrath