Welcome to Lagniappe! Let’s Write a Little Extra

Open Write is a community meet-up to write poetry on the third Friday of every month for four days—an invitation to write, read, and reflect together. You’re welcome to write a poem each day or to come and go as you need. You can also read and leave a brief note—a line you loved, an image that stayed, a feeling a poem stirred—as a way of participating. We’re glad you’re here.

Our Host: Leilya Pitre

 Hi there! I am Leilya Pitre from Ponchatoula, Louisiana, the Strawberry Capital of the World, and I feel fortunate to call this place home. I am an English educator, researcher, writer, and poet. This is my twenty-second year in the United States, and I am grateful for the work and life I have built here. I love to read, write, learn new things, travel, and spend time with my family and friends. I also love to cook and bake—my forms of meditation, relaxation, and recharging.

Inspiration 

In Louisiana, we often use the word lagniappe, meaning “a little something extra.” It is an unexpected gift offered in generosity. Today, I welcome you to a little lagniappe: one more space for conversation, reflection, encouragement, or an unexpected poem.

Process

Today, I invite you to look back or look forward.

Look back: If you wrote with Mo, Kim, Sarah and Alora during the past three days, revisit one of your poems—or a poem shared by another teacher-poet in this space. You might reflect on your response to the poem, discuss your writing process, explore a craft choice, or consider a challenge or unexpected inspiration that shaped the piece. Your reflection may remain prose, become a poem, or move between the two.

Look forward: If you didn’t have an opportunity to join us or simply feel ready to write something new, try a short poetry form called the Gogyohka. Developed by Japanese poet Enta Kusakabe, a Gogyohka consists of five lines. Each line holds one phrase or breath, but there are no syllable counts, required themes, or preferred topics. You may write about anything that calls to you. That’s it: five concise but free lines.

Here is an example by Robert Lee Brewer:

Halloween

Ghosts hang
from the willow
as the children run
from one door
to the next.

You may write a single Gogyohka or create a series of them to develop a longer poem.

As always, you may completely disregard these suggestions and write whatever wants to be written today. Thank you for sharing this little extra space with us!

Leilya’s Poem

This first poem I wrote when drafting the prompt for the Open Write:

In the gentle chirping of morning,
In a cup of freshly brewed coffee,
In a brisk walk through the neighborhood,
A new day arrives bringing
Today’s hope, born from yesterday’s scar.

The second Gogyohka came to me when I was reading the third book from Before the Coffee Gets Cold series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi before bedtime the same day. This made me realize that a Gogyohka form may also offer a creative way to capture the essence of a story in five lines, a kind of a poetic summary that highlights its setting and central idea.

Before Coffee Gets Cold

In a little café in Tokyo
antique clocks
show different times
people travel into the past
to make peace with the present

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.