Welcome, new members! I’m so glad you’re here. In the midst of life’s noise, of everything that is clamoring for our attention, you have committed to your writing life. To the special part of your mind and heart that makes poems.
While my handcrafted monthly prompts are for subscribers (and my prompt will arrive shortly, on 3/15 if you joined the monthly Poetry 15 plan!), I’m happy you are here. The analogy I like to think about is that the handmade prompts are like a fancy coffee drink with all the bells and whistles. (Or maybe you’re like me and like a tiny cup of bitter espresso!) But before I embark on a tempting coffee meditation (I could go on and on!), I’ll return to my analogy and say that whether or not you are a paying subscriber, everyone is welcome in my café to smell the coffee beans roasting, to hear the playlist, to warm up or cool off, to talk and work and laugh. To be inspired. Welcome! I’ll send you little notes like this one on occasion, and I’ll share resources and writing opportunities with you as well from time to time. If you subscribed to the Poetry 15 prompts, you’ll sometimes get little messages like this one in between your prompts.
I have a question for you. Where do you enjoy doing your writing? I don’t mean a place. I mean where do you like bringing your words into the world? Where do you write your ideas down? Do you have a favorite pen, a favorite kind of paper? I write in a sketchbook. I like the slightly rough pages:
And I like these cheap and uncomfortable pens. (I really don’t know why—I just do.)
Actually, writing that down made me remember that in sixth grade, a friend and I would scour the hallway floors after Science class for pens that slipped out of pockets and backpacks. Our quest was for a blue pen that wrote with ink the color of our jeans. (We found one eventually!) Maybe these pens remind me of this.
And that is how writing even one sentence can open up spaces for memories to return to us.
And my secretly loved font? Cambria. I never show anyone anything I write when it’s in Cambria. Cambria is where I type out my rough ideas before I begin shifting them around and adding some spice. My letter to you, for example, began in Cambria.
What would happen if today you took even fifteen minutes for yourself and spent it holding your favorite pen, opening your favorite notebook? Go ahead, set your timer. This month’s color meditation is blue (more on that in my Poetry 15 prompt that’s arriving tomorrow). Here is Pantone’s Classic Blue as inspiration:
But for now, what would happen if you riffed on the color blue in your notebook?
What does this color make you think of, and why?
Where does your mind take you when you give yourself the gift of fifteen minutes of time to spend with the color blue?
Subscribers, your Poetry 15: March 15th prompt is coming soon! Happy writing, poets!
Yours,
Tyler
Book recommendations: Though not at all a new craft book, I go back to this one again and again: The Practice of Poetry, ed. Robin Behn and Chase Twichell. And of course, for all things blue, Maggie Nelson’s gorgeous book of lyric essays, Bluets, is a must read!