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Poetry Prompt: Stoop Sitting

By Callie Feyen 3 Comments

“Harlem is opening its eyes to September,” observes Xiormara Batista, the heroine in The Poet X. It’s not quite September when she sits on her stoop on a late afternoon and takes in her world before her mom comes home from work.

Xiormara’s mom wants to protect her daughter from the world. Her mother’s experience has taught her that the world is a stifling, unfair, and dangerous place (especially for a woman), so Xiormara must be kept safe from it. No stoop sitting allowed.

Because the world is the apple — crispy, tangy, tart, and ready to taste — that Xiormara is not allowed to eat in Elizabeth Acevedo’s YA novel, which is told entirely in poetry.

We might think that Xiormara is disobeying her mom by sitting on the her stoop, watching Harlem open its eyes for autumn. After all, in the last line of this first poem, Xiormara tells us she must “sneak upstairs” so her mom doesn’t know she’s been outside listening to “the old church ladies” gossiping in Spanish, or watching Peep Papote opening the fire hydrant for the kids to run through, or hearing the thunk of basketballs or the click of the viejos playing dominoes, or noticing the smiles of the drug dealers as the girls pass by in summer dresses. She’s not supposed to be out here.

Xiormara watches for the “long shadows” to let her know it’s time to sneak inside so her mom doesn’t know what she’s done. This is the beginning of her story, the first poem in the book. And in the beginning, Xiromara calls this place home. How can she begin if she doesn’t know where she is? How can any of us?

These days the world is opening its eyes. Since March it seems something great and important has emerged that desperately needs everything we have. Whether Xiromara’s mom is right or wrong (or a bit of both), I think it behooves us all to do some stoop sitting, to observe our world and claim it as our home so that we can begin.

Again.

Try It

On a late afternoon’s summer day, perhaps when you are supposed to be doing something else, step outside and do some stoop sitting of your own. Give yourself five to ten minutes. What do you notice? What do you wonder? Write a poem about your observations.

Featured Poem

Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. Here’s one from Richard Maxson we enjoyed:

Do Not Despair

The trace of pearl that remains
in the bulk of you will fail, in the curl
it will shatter, the curl can drown you,
or you will lose your footprints
in the moist sand of nostalgia.

Your tears have made an ocean
where pirates have stolen everything
from you, and steal it now.

So walk.

There is only salty water behind you;
love may not come from what you love;
you cannot always choose
the doorway that opens your life

 

Photo by zolakoma Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Callie Feyen.

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Twirl is writing magic.

“This book is writing gold. This book, like all of Callie’s writing, makes me sit up and pay attention to my life. She reminds me why I write my own stories—fiction and non-fiction—to make sense of the world, my thoughts, my dreams, my reflection, etc. She reminds us that real life, our every day ordinary lives, are beautiful and worth taking a closer look. There’s always more to learn about ourselves and not everything has to have a bow tied on top. We don’t always have to arrive when we think we’ve reached the end, and TWIRL is such a beautiful reminder of that. There’s magic in this book.”

– Tracy Erler

 

 

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Callie Feyen
Callie Feyen
Callie Feyen likes Converse tennis shoes and colorful high heels, reading the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the Twilight series. Her favorite outfit has always been a well-worn pair of jeans and a white T-shirt, but she wants hoop skirts with loads of tulle to come back into style. Her favorite line from literature comes from Sharon Creech’s Absolutely Normal Chaos: “I don’t know who I am yet. I’m still waiting to find out.” Feyen has served as the At-Risk Literacy Specialist in the Ypsilanti Public Schools and is the author of Twirl: my life with stories, writing & clothes and The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet.
Callie Feyen
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Filed Under: Blog, Poems, poetry, poetry prompt, poetry teaching resources, writer's group resources

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About Callie Feyen

Callie Feyen likes Converse tennis shoes and colorful high heels, reading the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the Twilight series. Her favorite outfit has always been a well-worn pair of jeans and a white T-shirt, but she wants hoop skirts with loads of tulle to come back into style. Her favorite line from literature comes from Sharon Creech’s Absolutely Normal Chaos: “I don’t know who I am yet. I’m still waiting to find out.” Feyen has served as the At-Risk Literacy Specialist in the Ypsilanti Public Schools and is the author of Twirl: my life with stories, writing & clothes and The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet.

Comments

  1. Richard Maxson says

    August 4, 2020 at 12:17 pm

    Thanks for featuring my poem, Callie.

    I really liked this post, the way it ties together stoop sitting with awareness. A person can learn a lot stoop sitting or porch sitting. Stoops in the city teach that world at a faster pace than porches in the country, where everything seems to move slower.

    I like the ending thoughts you have, particularly the phrase begin again. Eddie Glaude Jr. has a book out now with that title on the social messages gleaned from James Baldwin’s writings, so pertinent to where we find ourselves at this time in our nation.

    Reply
  2. Michelle Ortega says

    August 4, 2020 at 7:09 pm

    I just read this book Sunday night and loved it (when I saw the title of your post, I was thinking, “where did I just read about stoop sitting?”). I’ll return here with a response to the prompt. 🙂

    Reply
    • Michelle Ortega says

      August 8, 2020 at 1:00 pm

      I live in a condo and if I sit on the stoop, I won’t really see anything, so I sat on a bench in the courtyard at my office. It’s something I don’t do frequently, but am always glad when I do.

      It’s quiet in the courtyard this afternoon,
      the day after Isaias. You’d never imagine
      how yesterday the rain whipped, branches
      flew low through green-leaf confetti, except
      the heat and humidity broke– outside,
      I can finally breathe. Overnight the sun
      has shifted, still warm, but the breeze
      is cooler, shadows sharper, birds already
      making plans that we can’t, flying south,
      while the tops of the trees buzz with
      cicadas in the afternoon. It’s quiet here
      without the daycare kids, the developmentally
      disabled adults who walk the square
      for exercise after lunch, even the others
      who come to the pain clinic on Tuesday
      evenings. Everyone home, waiting for power
      to be restored or still hiding from The Virus.
      Even the people who want to move are stuck
      behind tree limbs that block roads.

      Reply

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