Introducing May Poetry Prompts

a poem a day keeps us from dying inside

Hello friends!

I have so enjoyed the last few months with you, sharing and interacting with posts from my old blog. If you haven’t checked out those posts, they are in the Liminality Journal archive and I’d love to hear your thoughts!

But, I’m ready for a break, and not just any break. I’ve been asking myself how I can begin my mornings with quiet, with gratitude, with grounding.

I’m one of those people who wakes up and checks my email just to see what’s there.

I’m one of those people who creates boundaries around social media and then breaks them.

So, I’m leaning into a practice that I think will help ground and sustain me, at least for the month of May.

A poem a day in the month of May, or, if you like,

a poem a day keeps us from dying inside

We can do this! We can lean in! We can breathe!

I’ll be taking a break from all posts, even for paid subscribers during May so we can all gather here for daily poems.

Here’s how it will work:

Each day of May there will be a word prompt sent out with the poem I wrote for that prompt.

For example, I’ll give you a sneak peek—the word for day one, this coming Sunday, is SUCCESS.

So, we will write a poem, whatever comes up prompted from that word! It can be a long poem, it can be four lines. It can have a picture connected with it. I can be stream of consciousness—whatever you want it to be. It can be handwritten, typed, spoken into a voice recorder. This is for you, so let it reflect who you are.

I welcome you to share your poem in the comments if you’re comfortable, otherwise, let the words be just for you, or for you and a friend! Ask others to join you! My quiet space happens to be in the morning after my kids go off to school, so that’s when I’ll be writing.

But what’s that space for you? In the evening before bed? At dinnertime? In the afternoon? Whenever it is, I hope you’ll take just a few minutes to let some words flow out of you as a grounding practice.

I’m sharing this poem with you that I wrote in my award-winning book, Native:

I am often in my own way.

Instead of experiencing the Universe,

I write about experiencing the Universe,

while at that very moment, the wind had

holy secrets to tell me.

So, what secrets are waiting to be told? What sort of grounding are you looking for? Please respond in the comments and let me know if you’ll be joining me for May Poetry Prompts, even if you just join for a day or two each week— I’m so happy to have you here.

Feel free to use these images, share the project with friends, and ask others to join you through your community and social media networks.

They can subscribe right here:

May this be a mini-movement of embodiment and rest in chaotic times.

Onward!