Season of Mists

#seasonofmists #poetry15

Before I dive into this month’s prompt, I wanted to let you know that I’m teaching a generative poetry workshop on Zoom for the Writing Institute for five Thursdays this autumn. The class starts October 24, and if you’re interested, registration is still open! Here is the link. I love teaching this workshop; poets have often come to me afterward to share that poems they began and worked on in this class have been published. Publication is not the goal, but it’s nice to hear this news!

Now to the prompt!

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,” begins Keats’s “To Autumn.” The decaying leaves, overripe apples, and long shadows before the clocks fall back make me think of this poem. What does it mean to harvest something? Who has access to a harvest and who does not? How does the idea of a mist—a liminal curtain—carry over into how a poet might approach a poem?