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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.

23 responses to “#WaterPoemProject: Day 2, Elizabeth Steinglass”

  1. 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

  2. Linda Mitchell says:

    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

  3. Liz says:

    I love the rhyme in dull sky…what am I? and all the awesome verbs, especially freeze, flake, crystallize. : )

  4. mia says:

    “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.

    • Laura Shovan says:

      My favorite line is “a faint new something is seeping in.” And choosing a 2nd person narrator was a great choice for this poem.

    • Amber Hadley says:

      I especially like “the slow, drunken rut of waiting”. Great description!

  5. Amber Hadley says:

    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)

  6. […] 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 […]

  7. […] 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 […]

  8. […] 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 […]

  9. […] 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 […]

  10. […] 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 […]

  11. […] 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 […]

  12. […] 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 […]

  13. […] 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 […]

  14. […] 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 […]

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Laura Shovan

Laura Shovan is the author of the award-winning middle grade novel, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary. Her second book, Takedown, is a Junior Library Guild and PJ Our Way selection. Look for A Place at the Table, co-written with Saadia Faruqi, in 2020. Laura is a poet-in-the-schools Maryland.

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