Dirt Road Mystic

Verselove is a community celebration of poetry in April—an invitation to write, read, and reflect together. You’re welcome to write a poem a day or to come and go as you need. Reading and leaving a brief note—a line you loved, an image that stayed, a feeling a poem stirred—is also a meaningful way to participate. This is a generous, low-pressure space. We’re glad you’re here.

Our Host

Clayton Moon lives in Thomaston, Georgia and teaches for the Pike County School System. He is happily married to Melinda Moon. They have three children, Seth, Greylen, and Sara. Clayton and his daughter, Sara Moon, published a children’s book, Where Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches Come From, in 2020. He also has self-published multiple short stories and poem collections. His short story Oglethorpe Estates was mentioned in the Georgia Outdoor Magazine in 2022. He has hosted multiple book discussions and signings in local libraries, coffee shops and art galleries. 

Inspiration 

When I drive the rural Georgia dirt roads and look out my window, I see bobwhite quail, deer, squirrels, and daffodils waving by the road.  I see the spirit of the Creator, and life teeming everywhere.  I feel the dust sunburn of my left arm resting on the open window, the tears of ancestors gone, and the magnolia breeze.  I taste the salty sweat of chipping wood.  I smell the familiar scent of pine and cedars, sweetgum and rain.  And I hear the song of the whippoorwill, the screech of the red-tail hawk and the echo of the owl. All this because I’m a Dirt Road Mystic, rooted firmly in my ancestral heritage of the Georgia backwoods. 

And you, my writing friend, are invited to become a poetic cartographer as you travel your route today.  Get in your car and take a drive – in person, or in your mind’s eye. Invite us to come along to see your sliver of the map.

Process

Home is what we know.  It’s where we’re from, where we belong, where our hearts live.  Some of us are from one place, and some are from many places.  Today, show us your roots of your favorite place.  Using your five senses, write a paragraph of prose as I have done in the inspiration.  Then, use line breaks and poetic techniques – in any form you choose – to create your poem.  

Clayton’s Poem 

Drive 

Bobwhite quail,  

             daffodils,  

               and whitetails, 

        Gems of our, 

                Creator’s, 

                      Winding nature. 

Sunburnt spotted dust, 

                 Window down specks of rust, 

                  Magnolias dance to ancestral songs, 

                      A screaming red-tail carries me on, 

   Around curves of loblolly pines, 

       Drenched with sweetgum rain, 

                  Dried with cedar sunshine, 

       Within each hook of this washboard road, 

              Reveals the backwoods of stories, untold. 

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.