7-7-7-7

This is the Open Write, a place for educators to nurture their writing lives and to advocate for writing poetry in community. We gather every month and daily in April — no sign-ups, no fees, no commitments. Come and go as you please. All that we ask is that if you write, you respond to others to mirror to them your readerly experiences — beautiful lines, phrases that resonate, ideas stirred. Enjoy. (Learn more here.) 

Our Host

Denise Krebs taught elementary grades, junior high, and college undergrads before retiring in 2021. She lives with her husband near Joshua Tree National Park and loves to spend time in the desert hiking and biking. She spends some of her time volunteering at the Friends of the Library, taking paralegal classes, and working on pro-democracy issues. She enjoys traveling to Minneapolis and Seattle to visit her grandchildren and their parents. She participates in The Stafford Challenge and blogs regularly at Dare to Care, 

Inspiration 

I discovered this sweet little prompt sometime in August, when I was reading a lot of poetry. (Have you heard of the challenge to read a book of poems a day in August?) I didn’t read a book a day, but I did have a pile of books on my end table. The seventh one this day happened to be 44 Poems on Being With Each Other by Pádraig Ó Tuama. I turned to page 7, which was in the introduction. Line 7 was finishing the first paragraph: “poetry to each other.”  

I invite you today to find a seventh book anywhere and join me in a fun discovery. 

Process

1. Find the 7^th book on a shelf or pile wherever you are, in a library, a bookshop, at home or school (any genre).
2. Turn to page 7.
3. Read the seventh line. 
4. Let that line inspire a 7-line poem. The line can become part of your poem, or just a muse.

Nikki Young at Storymakers Club shared this prompt. 

Denise’s Poem

you and I let’s reach
for the stars
let’s reach for the resilience
of the hope of this life
let’s make the world better
we are love and we’ll create
let’s be poetry to each other

Your Turn

Now, scroll to the comment section below to write your own poem. (This is a public space, so you may choose to use only your first name or initials depending on your privacy preferences.) Not ready? That’s okay. Read the poems already posted for more inspiration. Ponder your own throughout the day. Return later. And, if the prompt does not work for you, that is fine. All writing is welcome. Just write something. Oh, and a note about drafting: Since we are writing in short bursts, we all understand (and even welcome) the typos and partial poems that remind us we are human and that writing is always becoming. If you’d like to invite other teachers to write with us, tell them to subscribe. Also, please be sure to respond to at least three writers.