Earth Day Prompt with Rhythm

“Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.” 
― Thornton Wilder, Our Town


More Earth Day Writing Prompts!

Happy Birthday to Thornton Wilder! Enjoy the video of rhythm instruments below. Get inspired for Earth Week and find something that you might normally throw away and use it to make something beautiful. For your writing prompt, write a story, poem or reflection about the people in video coming together to make music.

Writing Prompts for Earth Day 2016

American Life in Poetry: Column 456

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE 

For Earth Day, I thought I would bring up a beautiful poem from Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry. 

First, read Kooser's comments and the poem below. The prompts will follow the poem. 

American Life in Poetry: Column 456

Many of us feel a great sense of pride as we watch our children discover the world for the first time. Here, Kathleen Driskell, a Kentucky poet, shows us her own daughter taking that first taste of a late summer watermelon she has grown herself. 

Seed  by Kathleen Driskell

In first grade, you met Squanto,

nearly naked and

on his haunches, showing

those thick-headed pilgrims

how one must plant fish

to grow maize. And in autumn

you dove into the lobotomized

pumpkin, into the gooey pulp

and seeds, raising a clump

like a slimy chandelier

from the Titanic. And now

in late summer, daughter,

you smile, holding a ripe watermelon,

cut in half, exposing the black

seed within its bright red heart.

Your melon. How proud you are

to think you grew this delicious

thing all on your own.

You can read more poems from the column at this link American Life in Poetry

Earth Day Writing Prompts

Poetry and Nonfiction

1. Write about a memory of yourself as a child (or a child you know or have known) having an active or proud moment connected to nature. It can be catching a fish, climbing a tree, or ?????

Free write about this moment for about 5 minutes.

2. After your free-writing, form your ideas into a poem or a short memoir. Use the word bright in your poem (any other word that means bright) as an adjective not to describe the child, but to describe something from nature that is in the poem. 

Fiction

Think of a character for the little girl in the poem. Give her a name and personality. Write a short story about her and the watermelon. Make the watermelon seeds magical and make something interesting happen!

*********************************************

For Discussion:

1. What are the three scenes in this poem?

2. Which two seasons are mentioned in the poem? 

3. Why do you think the poem is called "Seed"?

A Different Kind of Bucket List Writing Prompt

Photo: Bucket and Spade on the Beach by Henry Burrows 

Hello, Everybody! I just want to say thank you to everyone who visits the blog. I know I have not posted in quite some time, but the archive is huge, and I'm so glad so many come to the blog every day in search of writing inspiration.

I have been teaching so much, which is why I have not been posting.  But since I am going to be off for a while, I thought of some new prompts I would like to add.

For today's prompt, I want you to think "Bucket List," but not in the typical way.  Many people have bucket lists, whether it is written down or just ideas in their heads. However, for today, I want you to think about some of the surprising things that you have already done, maybe some things you have engaged in without having any prior plan. Think about some cool things you have done, things you are glad you have done, things you have achieved. Take 2 minutes and write a list.

***************Time Passes. . . . .

Now that you have a list, I would like for you to pick one thing from your list and write for 7 minutes to the following prompts:

1. Memoir: Write a short memoir piece about one of the things you have done. Include your feelings about it before, during, and after. OR write about the interaction of the people who encouraged you or were with you when it happened.

2. Poetry: Write a reflection in verse about one of the things you have done. Show surprise. Show light.

3. Fiction: Add to the details of your outcome, or change details to make it more interesting. Put a character in place. The conflict is trying to achieve the outcome, and the journey is the story. Does the character end up achieving the goal? Why does the character want to do this? Are there people contributing to the conflict? Are there supporters for this character? The support the character receives does not have to be human. So.....



After you write for 7 minutes, you might have something you can work with, so Happy Writing and Happy Revising! Feel free to share what you write.

Writing Prompts with Lindsay Stirling's Video

Lindsay Sterling is amazing. For today's prompt, enjoy her music video. Write to the music for 10 minutes without stopping. No subject required, just go where the music takes you. The song is "Crystalize," and the scenery is breathtaking. Enjoy!

Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Prompts

Today is Martin Luther King Day. You can reflect on either the quote in the photo or the quote below. Write for 15 minutes without stopping.


"We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

When reflecting on forgiveness, you can:

1 Start an essay about forgiveness in your life and what it took to forgive someone, or reflect on the process if you are still working on it.
2. Write a poem about something you have or have not forgiven.
3. Write a story or dramatic scene where two characters must forgive each other in order to move on with their lives.
4. Write a short essay about whether or not you agree with the quote.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther_king_jr.html#AAEDjWhsRCqOpHdt.99

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther_king_jr.html#AAEDjWhsRCqOpHdt.99

An Ordinary Object

Make a list of 10 ordinary objects you come across often in your life.

Read a featured poem on Writer's Almanac. https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php%3Fdate=2014%252F01%252F15.html
It is "Towels" by Samuel Hazo.

Now write a poem or short essay about an ordinary object from your list, or start a scene with a character and an ordinary object from your list to open a story.

Happy Writing! 

Earth Day Creative Writing Prompts

Happy Earth Day!

Below is last week's column from American Life in Poetry.  I chose Linda Hogan's poem "The Sandhills" for your enjoyment.  I hope you like the poem.

Creative Writing Prompts

Fiction:  Write a short story that starts with 2 characters watching sandhill cranes.  Where are the characters?  What are they talking about?  Note:  This can be written as drama, too. 

Poetry:  Write a poem with a bird in it.  10 lines or less.

Nonfiction:  Reflect on watching birds.  If you are fortunate to look out your window and see a bird, just observe for a few minutes, then reflect on life via a journal entry.

Free write prompt starters from Hogan's poem:

From the following lines, free-write for 3 minutes and see what you get!

1.  The wind is. . .

2.  The shine of water. . .

3.  Above strands of earth. . .



Commentary by Ted Kooser, from American Life in Poetry

This column originates in Nebraska, and our office is about two hours’ drive from that stretch of the Platte River where thousands of sandhill cranes stop for a few weeks each year. Linda Hogan, one of our most respected Native writers and Writer in Residence for The Chickasaw Nation, perfectly captures their magic and mystery in this fine poem. 

The Sandhills  by Linda Hogan

The language of cranes

we once were told

is the wind. The wind

is their method,

their current, the translated story

of life they write across the sky.

Millions of years

they have blown here

on ancestral longing,

their wings of wide arrival,

necks long, legs stretched out

above strands of earth

where they arrive

with the shine of water,

stories, interminable

language of exchanges

descended from the sky

and then they stand,

earth made only of crane

from bank to bank of the river

as far as you can see

the ancient story made new.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem reprinted from Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas, Ed. by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, The Univ. of Arizona Press, 2011, by permission of Linda Hogan and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2013 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.