Welcome back to our month-long #WaterPoemProject. It’s Day 2. If you’re new to this project, please read the Introduction and FAQ.
Today our surprise writing prompt creator is children’s poet Elizabeth Steinglass.
Liz’s poetry prompt is: What Would a Raindrop Say?
Elizabeth Steinglass
Precipitation is water that falls to the ground as rain, snow, sleet, hail, or mist. Pretend you are one of these types of precipitation, a raindrop or a snowflake, for example. Write a mask or persona poem from your pretend point of view.
Here are some questions you might want to think about: Where are you? What’s happening? What do you see? What do you feel? Where did you come from? Where are you going? What do you hope will happen? What do you hope won’t happen?
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How did your writing go yesterday? Are you ready to dive in again? Your task is to draft a piece of writing about the language of water before the end of the day tomorrow, Tuesday, March 24, 2020.
If you’re doing the #WaterPoemProject with a group, be sure to share or post your rough draft, read other people’s poems, and cheer for their efforts. Or leave your poem here, in the comments.
Elizabeth Steinglass is the author of Soccerverse: Poems about Soccer, illustrated by Edson Ike, published by Boyds Mills & Kane. You can find out more about Elizabeth at her website www.ElizabethSteinglass.com.
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#WaterPoemProject Series Posts:
Project Introduction
FAQ
Prompt 1: Irene Latham, The Language of Water
Prompt 2: Elizabeth Steinglass, What Would a Raindrop Say?
Prompt 3: Linda Mitchell, Found Haiku
Prompt 4: Shari Green, Fogbow Fibonacci
Prompt 5: Margaret Simon, The Taste of Water
Prompt 6: Heather Meloche, The Shape of a Wave
Prompt 7: Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, A Water Memory
Prompt 8: Laura Shovan, Rainy Day Opposites
Prompt 9: Kathryn Apel, Silly Solage
Prompt 10: Buffy Silverman, A Watery Home
Prompt 11: Kara Laughlin, Frozen Fog
Prompt 12: Debbie Levy, Jump into a Limerick
Prompt 13: Joy McCullough, What Are Water Bears?
Prompt 14: Linda Baie, Frozen Water Skinny
Prompt 15: Chris Baron, The Hidden World of Water
Prompt 16: Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, Water Wordplay
Prompt 17: Susan Tan, The Sound of Water
Prompt 18: Mike Grosso, Waterplay!
Prompt 19: R. L. Toalson, Wishing Well
Prompt 20: Margarita Engle, Ode to the Shore
Prompt 21: Faye McCray, Poem in a Bubble
Prompt 22: Meg Eden, Surprising Connections
Please support the #WaterPoemProject authors by buying their books from your favorite independent bookstore.
We tumble too much;
And what’s the rush?
Can’t we just hover
here for just a bit, and
enjoy the scene:
this frozen white sky
winter storm daydream –
It ain’t much to
ask for, is it? To pause
in this open space
between cloud and
ground, for this is where
I found equilibrium,
if only for a second
before falling
before gravity
reached its fingers to pull
me back to reality, I’m falling
again, forever falling
I love the voice and the desire to pause and hover before falling and the fingers of gravity.
I think this pandemic reminds us to pause, “we tumble too much.” It’s nice to have time to pause and write poems.
This poem reminds me of Brueghel’s “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” — that moment before falling.
Riddle-Ku for you!
a professional
at falling, splatting, pouring
dull sky…what am I?
Instead of falling
I freeze—flake, crystallize
pile on…what am I?
answers:
raindrop
snowflake
A riddle-ku is a great idea for today’s prompt. I’m looking at a dull sky this morning, but no rain yet. I love “pile on” in your snowflake poem.
I still haven’t tried a riddle-ku, but you’ve inspired me to give it a go. Maybe tomorrow!
I love the rhyme in dull sky…what am I? and all the awesome verbs, especially freeze, flake, crystallize. : )
“gravity narrative”
it’s been dark for a while
but today a change is coming about.
it’s getting warmer, heavier;
a faint new something is seeping in from cracks in the blackness.
is it noise? light? it’s hard to tell, but
it’s different.
we had adjusted to the slow, drunken rut of waiting
but something has woken up today.
accompanied by the faint crashing and rumbling
that ignites our senses and
reinvigorates our collective conscious,
it calls out to us and we
finally
begin to move
we surge forward, gently at first
but quickly gaining speed now
and aggression,
with a deep hum that echoes through us all;
advancing with a
crazed sense of glee
and twisted delight.
it’s been dark for a while
but
we bring the change today.
My favorite line is “a faint new something is seeping in.” And choosing a 2nd person narrator was a great choice for this poem.
I especially like “the slow, drunken rut of waiting”. Great description!
Drifting snowflake
Softly brushing the tops of trees
Silent cold dark velvet night
Who is that trudging down the lane?
Camera slung over his shoulder, i recognize someone who loves snow
And snowflakes
From the sky meandering over spiky pines
Free from the bonds of earth
Like the tiptoes of cat’s paws on carpet
(Snowflake Bentley)
I really like the way you set the quiet scene before the photographer shows up, Amber. As a reader, it lets me settle into my imagination and visualize.
Thank you 🙂
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