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Thank You Notes: Candles

By tspoetry 29 Comments

candles-and-candle-poetry
Thank You Notes is a monthly prompt that focuses on expressing our thanks to a particular person, place, or thing—in poems, paragraphs, or pictures. This month, we’re crafting thank-you’s to candles.

Prompt Guidelines and Options

1. Be specific. Think nouns instead of adjectives. If you are crafting a pictorial thanks, show us something unusual or intriguing that we might not have otherwise noticed if we hadn’t seen your picture.

2. Consider fitting the form of your poem, paragraph, or picture to mirror the nature of the person, place, or thing to which you are expressing thanks. A sonnet is different from a villanelle, for instance. Maybe one would be more fitting than the other.

3. Consider playing Taboo and try writing without using the words and phrases thanks, thank you, gratitude, or grateful.

4. Consider doing a little research about your subject: its history, associated words (and their etymologies), music, art, sculpture, architecture, fashion, science, and so on. Look for unusual details.

That’s it! We look forward to your creative thank you notes.

Photo by Markus Grossalber, Creative Commons, via Flickr.

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Filed Under: Blog, poetry prompt, poetry teaching resources, Thank You Notes, writer's group resources, writing prompt, writing prompts

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Comments

  1. Bethany R. says

    January 6, 2017 at 2:39 pm

    I love these Thank You Notes prompts. I did a little online digging about candles, and now I’m processing. Looking forward to reading others’ responses.

    Reply
  2. Bethany R. says

    January 6, 2017 at 8:57 pm

    I enjoyed reading this today: “…in India, candle wax was made by boiling the fruit of the cinnamon tree.” —National Candle Association http://candles.org/history/

    I’ll post my poem below.

    ***

    How long must you simmer
    the purple-black fruit
    of the Ceylon cinnamon tree—

    before it yields        handheld light?

    Reply
    • L.L. Barkat says

      January 7, 2017 at 11:52 am

      Love what you found! And how you wove it into this little light of a poem 🙂

      Reply
      • Bethany says

        January 7, 2017 at 1:19 pm

        Oh, thank you, Laura!

        Reply
    • Donna Falcone says

      January 7, 2017 at 3:31 pm

      So beautiful!
      And, I did not know this about the cinnamon in candles.

      Reply
      • Bethany says

        January 7, 2017 at 5:06 pm

        Thank you, Donna! I didn’t know this about candle-history either. (I think the modern day cinnamon-smelling candles are using something different than the fruit mentioned here–maybe the bark or something completely different–but this tidbit of history was something I never would have known if the prompt hadn’t mentioned looking up history on the topic. 🙂

        Thanks so much for your sweet words and encouragement about the poem. 😉 Your kindness is such a gift.

        Reply
    • Sandra Heska King says

      January 8, 2017 at 11:52 am

      I love this! Sweet alliteration–and I wonder if it smelled like cinnamon?

      Reply
      • Bethany says

        January 10, 2017 at 1:57 am

        I wonder that too.
        Thank you for the kind words. 🙂

        Reply
    • Laura Lynn Brown says

      January 9, 2017 at 9:41 am

      Handheld light. Love that.

      Reply
      • Bethany says

        January 10, 2017 at 1:58 am

        Thanks for reading my poem and for the encouragement.

        Reply
  3. LINDA REID says

    January 7, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    BEFORE THE FLICK OF A LIGHT SWITCH
    YOU WERE.
    YOU WERE THERE WAY BACK-SO FAR AWAY
    WHEN PEOPLE WANTED TO READ-HAD NO TV.

    NOW YOU ARE WITH US STILL-WHEN STORMS COME
    AND WE LOOSE WHAT WE ARE SO USED TO.
    YOU ARE THERE FOR US-ON A SHELF, ON A MANTEL
    JUST WAITING TO BE LIT.

    WE USE YOU IN OUR RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES
    AND WE USE YOU FOR ROMANCE-YOU GIVE
    THAT SPECIAL FLICKER OF LIGHT
    THAT PLAYS SO INTRIGUINGLY ON THE WALL.
    AND WHEN HALLOWEEN COMES WE PUT YOU
    IN OUR PUMPKINS
    AND ON BIRTHDAYS ON OUR CAKES.

    WHAT ELSE COULD DO ALL THAT FOR HEAVENSAKE!

    Reply
    • Bethany says

      January 8, 2017 at 1:30 pm

      Linda, thanks for sharing your Thank You Notes poem to candles. It’s fun to hear different voices express themselves in this space. 🙂

      Reply
    • Sandra Heska King says

      January 8, 2017 at 9:11 pm

      “Before the flick of a light switch, you were.”

      Hi Linda… Thanks for sharing your words here. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Laura Lynn Brown says

    January 9, 2017 at 10:04 am

    Thanks to the writing community where we both were in 2008 but didn’t meet
    Thanks to the mutual friends who connected us
    Thanks to the city of Pittsburgh for luring us both to move within weeks of each other
    Thanks to my Thanksgiving table for having a couple of empty seats
    Thanks to saying yes to my two-days-before invitation to fill one of them
    Thanks to the candle people who decided Moss & Thyme should be scent companions
    Thanks to Target for selling them
    Thanks for bringing one to my home as a hostess gift
    Thanks for the cremini mushrooms in your green bean casserole
    Thanks for a reason to cautiously try burning a candle even with a cat in the house
    Thanks to the cat for about-facing every time she detected a flame
    Thanks to the candle for the scent, the warmth, the glow, the flicker, the microhearth
    As autumn turned to winter

    Reply
    • Bethany says

      January 10, 2017 at 2:00 am

      Laura, “microhearth” is genius. Love the way you close this too.

      Reply
      • Christina Hubbard says

        January 18, 2017 at 4:29 pm

        Laura, the image of the cat turning around is fabulous!

        Reply
  5. Rick Maxson says

    January 9, 2017 at 2:34 pm

    Votive

    The silhouettes,
    changing with the light
    that burns them softly,
    weeping faces in wax
    that live in the chantry,
    brows misshaping eyes,
    narrow with heavy lids,
    a liars nose grows out
    folds and grows again.

    They have no mouths
    they burn in silence

    —the ones for the dead,
    clear pools in red glass—

    brune shapes pulse
    against the walls,
    receiving my prayer
    and wondering in the still air
    what makes the fire dance.

    Reply
  6. Bethany says

    January 10, 2017 at 2:04 am

    “wondering in the still air
    what makes the fire dance.”

    Love how this question is left at the end. The quandry lingers…

    Reply
    • Bethany says

      January 10, 2017 at 2:47 pm

      and the magic.

      Reply
  7. Katie says

    January 15, 2017 at 5:21 pm

    String in
    Wax

    Match to
    string

    Flame of
    light

    Piercing
    night

    Wax
    drips
    down

    Smoke
    wafts
    up

    Shadow
    ceiling

    Bouncing
    ’round.

    Reply
    • Christina Hubbard says

      January 18, 2017 at 4:28 pm

      Katie, I love the image of the light bouncing ’round on the ceiling. Great use of shifting perspective!

      Reply
      • Katie says

        January 18, 2017 at 6:03 pm

        Thank you, Christina:) I nearly said “Burning bright” instead of “piercing night” – but glad I didn’t – seemed kind of cliche.

        Reply
    • Bethany says

      January 19, 2017 at 1:37 pm

      Katie, I love the form you chose for this piece—fitting and charming.

      Reply
      • Katie says

        January 24, 2017 at 9:08 pm

        Thank you so much:)

        Reply
  8. Christina Hubbard says

    January 18, 2017 at 4:27 pm

    This was such a fun challenge! Here’s my thank you: http://creativeandfree.com/dear-soy-candle/

    Reply
    • Katie says

      January 18, 2017 at 6:05 pm

      Really like the line: “A calendar of scent and showing up, lingering long, looking at life with desire.” !!

      Reply
    • Bethany says

      January 19, 2017 at 1:44 pm

      Christina, I’m so glad you shared your piece. 🙂 I love this thought:

      “You give us a childhood forest we never wandered but suddenly remember from
      a storybook.”

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Dear Soy Candle - Creative and Free says:
    January 18, 2017 at 4:25 pm

    […] object, until now. This weekend Tweetspeak Poetry’s newsletter popped in my inbox with the Thank You Note challenge, to a candle, no less. I sent it to my poetry buddy Emily Conrad. She shot back this cool word-nerd […]

    Reply
  2. A Basket of Favorite Thank You Notes - says:
    April 7, 2017 at 8:00 am

    […] Thank You Notes: Candles […]

    Reply

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