Each day, we've had a writing prompt based on the poem.
One of my favorite writing prompts is to take the title or first line of a poem and without reading the poem itself, free-write.
Let's do that today. Our exercise is a list poem/writing brainstorm with the title: What Is Possible at 6 A.M.
No cheating! Scroll down and read the model poem only after you're done writing.
Done? Okay!
Maryland poet and author Ann A. Philips is a dear friend of mine. Her poetry is dense with images and ideas. She is a master at looking at the world through different points of view.
She's also the author of a middle grade novel, If You Believe in Mermaids,,,Don't Tell. It's a gentle look at a 'tween who is questioning society's gender roles. I like that the story doesn't get caught up in sexuality -- it's appropriate for the age of the characters.
Here is Ann's poem, from which we took our "borrowed title" writing prompt.
What Is Possible at 6 A.M.
by Ann A. Philips
In the green slurry of six o'clock
before suburban curtains part,
that whirr could be the wind
over the headland, raising
the grass off its roots.
That grind could be a seal
on Prudy's Ledge. That vroom
the pound and suck of rollers
caught in the trough at Ocean Point.
Or Mace Carter motoring
out on the Henry G to pick
his traps. Those cries could be the osprey
cheating the eaglet of a prize
on the rocky beach of Christmas Cove.
The mackerel, airborne, gasps
and drowns into day.
Posted with permission of the author.
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