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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Bethany R. says
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.
Bethany R. says
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?
L.L. Barkat says
Love what you found! And how you wove it into this little light of a poem 🙂
Bethany says
Oh, thank you, Laura!
Donna Falcone says
So beautiful!
And, I did not know this about the cinnamon in candles.
Bethany says
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.
Sandra Heska King says
I love this! Sweet alliteration–and I wonder if it smelled like cinnamon?
Bethany says
I wonder that too.
Thank you for the kind words. 🙂
Laura Lynn Brown says
Handheld light. Love that.
Bethany says
Thanks for reading my poem and for the encouragement.
LINDA REID says
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!
Bethany says
Linda, thanks for sharing your Thank You Notes poem to candles. It’s fun to hear different voices express themselves in this space. 🙂
Sandra Heska King says
“Before the flick of a light switch, you were.”
Hi Linda… Thanks for sharing your words here. 🙂
Laura Lynn Brown says
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
Bethany says
Laura, “microhearth” is genius. Love the way you close this too.
Christina Hubbard says
Laura, the image of the cat turning around is fabulous!
Rick Maxson says
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.
Bethany says
“wondering in the still air
what makes the fire dance.”
Love how this question is left at the end. The quandry lingers…
Bethany says
and the magic.
Katie says
String in
Wax
Match to
string
Flame of
light
Piercing
night
Wax
drips
down
Smoke
wafts
up
Shadow
ceiling
Bouncing
’round.
Christina Hubbard says
Katie, I love the image of the light bouncing ’round on the ceiling. Great use of shifting perspective!
Katie says
Thank you, Christina:) I nearly said “Burning bright” instead of “piercing night” – but glad I didn’t – seemed kind of cliche.
Bethany says
Katie, I love the form you chose for this piece—fitting and charming.
Katie says
Thank you so much:)
Christina Hubbard says
This was such a fun challenge! Here’s my thank you: http://creativeandfree.com/dear-soy-candle/
Katie says
Really like the line: “A calendar of scent and showing up, lingering long, looking at life with desire.” !!
Bethany says
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.”