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Poetry Prompt: Simple Poems for Frustrated Writers

By Callie Feyen 1 Comment

robin bird wood fence

Simple Poems for Frustrated Writers

“It’s no easy business being simple,” writes Gustave Flaubert. He is referring to the kind of writing he wants to do for what will eventually be Madame Bovary. I learned about him and his perspective on writing in a book called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey. I found the book (or did the book found me?) in Literati, a local bookstore where, once upon another time I read from my first book to a lively and friendly crowd. In fact, I found Daily Rituals just a few feet away from where I stood that August night. The facts surrounding this meetup seemed like an invitation to open the book and read for a minute.

I read about William Faulkner and Miles Davis and Jane Austen too, and what I found strangely encouraging is that nobody in the book knows how to go about the business of chasing, following, wrestling, and dancing with the beast that is creativity, but they all tried anyway.

It is simple, really. It is never easy.

I carried Mr. Flaubert’s words with me throughout a particularly hot and busy day last week. They kept me company while I attempted to revise a portion of my manuscript I’d set out to revise and ended up staring out the window, watching the sky brighten and listening to the birds chirping, and I was jealous of their ability to rise and to sing. They were with me at work while I analyzed courses at universities and colleges in order to match them to what our school has to offer, so that students who are transferring in don’t have to repeat a course. (The school I work at offers a course on monsters, and so far I’ve not found an equivalent. It’s comforting to me to know that while students are in this institution, there is an opportunity to learn to handle monsters. This seems like a necessary life skill.)

My office does not have air-conditioning, and I don’t mind all that much, mostly because I have my own office, and I’ve never had an office before. But that day it was hot, and it became hard to focus on anything save for the sweat dripping down various parts of my body. One person brought in a fan for me. Another person opened her office door so that her A/C would blow into my office. My boss said, “Let’s go for a walk. I need to show you the rose garden.” And although it was hot, but I’ve never been to a rose garden, and I love that I get to work in a place that literally insists on its employees taking time to smell the roses. Which is what we did that day.

Finally the words were with me when I biked home from a meeting that night. The committee I am on is one where I am wrestling to find my bearings and my voice, and so often I show up insecure and I leave frustrated and overwhelmed. That night I rode home under a sky that was a dusky grey-blue, even at 9:30 at night, and here is something simple that made me happy. I could still see the green on the leaves, and I could still see cracks on the streets. I could see the white of my handlebars and the new red on the tomato plants that were growing in the front lawns of homes where, in a couple of months, college students would live.

“I adore this town,” I thought as I pedaled home.

It was a simple thought, but it kept me company on the uphill ride, to home.

Try It

What simple poems can you write from the stuff of your days? Here’s one I wrote that was inspired by my day and by the piece above:

Monsters are everywhere
waiting.
They point to the tomatoes
growing in the dark.
They peek at me
behind the trees
while I crouch closer
to the roses
because the pedals’
mosaic of color–
jagged and crooked–
like the rose
on my finger
that hurts
to hold my pen against it,
reminding me that nothing is wrong,
but as long as I write,
that mark
will never go away

Photo by Garry Knight Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Callie Feyen.

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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
Latest posts by Callie Feyen (see all)
  • Poetry Prompt: Courage to Follow - July 24, 2023
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  • Poetry Prompt: Monarch Butterfly’s Wildflower - June 19, 2023

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. Dave Malone says

    June 21, 2022 at 7:38 pm

    Love the vivid detail of your bike ride home! I’ve been reading William Stafford, so I really appreciate the notion of simplicity in poems but yet such great power in them!

    Reply

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