Capturing Gratitude in a Poem
Day three of the 'Five Days of Poetry Prompts Challenge'
Hi Poetically Purposeful Souls,
I hope you are enjoying the five days of poetry prompt’s challenge so far. Today we find ourself at the midway point of the challenge, and I want us to explore a different emotion today in our poetry - gratitude.
I often keep a little mental or written note of three things I am grateful at the end of the day. Right before I settle down to go to sleep. I always think it is a nice way to put some happy thoughts into my mind, as I drift into the land of dreams.
So today, I want you to do the same, at some point during the day, right before you go to sleep if you want, sit down with your notebook and pen, and write down three things you are grateful for. This can and probably would work well if you look at the small things. For example, so far today, my three things I am grateful for are;
The warm sunny weather and the blue sky, I woke up to this morning.
My walk with my dog, the blooming flowers I saw there, and the baby Shell Ducks who were running around the estuary. Also, the interactions I had with random strangers.
Being able to sit in my garden to work/write today.
Now, I want you to pick out a specific detail from one of the things you are most grateful for, and use that as an opening line. For example, I could use a detail about a flower I saw on my walk. I could then think of a specific detail of that flower and use the line, ‘The lupin raises her sleepy head, towards the hot summer sun’, as mine. See the photograph I took of it above. Then begin writing from there.
Or, another option, is to read the poem below by Mary Oliver, entitled ‘Gratitude Poem’, and use the questions within the poem as prompts to answer, and to pen your own gratitude poem from. If you do choose this option be sure to include, ‘After Mary Oliver, ‘Gratitude Poem’, beneath the title.
Please feel free to share thoughts on this prompt and poems in the Subscriber Chat, or the comments below.
Until tomorrow, happy scribbling.
Kelly Louise xx
Mary Oliver – Gratitude Poem (first published, 1986, Atlantic Monthly Press) Available to buy here What did you notice? The dew-snail; the low-flying sparrow; the bat, on the wind, in the dark; big-chested geese, in the V of sleekest performance; the soft toad, patient in the hot sand; the sweet-hungry ants; the uproar of mice in the empty house; the tin music of the cricket’s body; the blouse of the goldenrod. What did you hear? The thrush greeting the morning; the little bluebirds in their hot box; the salty talk of the wren, then the deep cup of the hour of silence. When did you admire? The oaks, letting down their dark and hairy fruit; the carrot, rising in its elongated waist; the onion, sheet after sheet, curved inward to the pale green wand; at the end of summer the brassy dust, the almost liquid beauty of the flowers; then the ferns, scrawned black by the frost. What astonished you? The swallows making their dip and turn over the water. What would you like to see again? My dog: her energy and exuberance, her willingness, her language beyond all nimbleness of tongue, her recklessness, her loyalty, her sweetness, her strong legs, her curled black lip, her snap. What was most tender? Queen Anne’s lace, with its parsnip root; the everlasting in its bonnets of wool; the kinks and turns of the tupelo’s body; the tall, blank banks of sand; the clam, clamped down. What was most wonderful? The sea, and its wide shoulders; the sea and its triangles; the sea lying back on its long athlete’s spine. What did you think was happening? The green beast of the hummingbird; the eye of the pond; the wet face of the lily; the bright, puckered knee of the broken oak; the red tulip of the fox’s mouth; the up-swing, the down-pour, the frayed sleeve of the first snow— so the gods shake us from our sleep.