Poetry Prompt Journey: Rosh Chodesh Nisan

Poetry + a sample Prompt Journey for the new moon 🌙

Chodesh Tov. Happy New Moon!

Also, Ramadan Mubarak.

And I hope that Nowruz was beautiful.

I thought it might be nice to share one more Prompt Journey and make it available to all subscribers before the Maker Mondays Series begins this Monday, March 27th.

If you’d like to join me for just one Maker Monday via Zoom, rather than signing up for the whole series, you can register here.

The Prompt Journeys from Maker Mondays will be available at the Creatives’ Circle subscription level.

While this Prompt Journey differs from Maker Mondays Prompt Journeys in that it is aligned with the energies of the Hebrew Calendar specifically, it is my hope that all people—from all walks of life—will be able to have a meaningful experience engaging with it. May it be fruitful for you. Poetry is for everyone.

Please feel very welcome, encouraged even, to share your resulting creations in the comments. Bear in mind, however, that unlike the Maker Mondays Prompt Journeys, which will be private, this Prompt Journey is public. If you post your work in the comments, it will be available for all to see.

**Please support the artists shared in these Prompt Journeys. Next time you need to buy a gift for someone, consider purchasing a poetry book by a poet whose work moved you, or supporting a musician whose offering resonated within you. And, as always, remember you are also “someone” worthy of gifts.

In this Prompt Journey, we will be inspired by:
Sarah Matthes
Bev Yockelson
Stuart Kestenbaum

And we will receive sonic spaceholding from:
Laura Melnicoff

Carve out some time and space for yourself to embark on this.

Maybe, before beginning, if it is possible for you, it could be nice to take a moment to go outdoors and commune with the Nisan moon.

Create some privacy so you can hear your inner voice, even if it speaks in whispers.

Consider providing yourself with the right tool, or tools, for you. Possibilities include: a favorite journal and pen, an old-school composition book and pencil, a word processing program on your laptop, talk-to-text on your phone (yes, this still counts as writing!), paints, crayons, a frame drum, simply a cozy place to curl up…have available whatever feels playful and easy and supportive for you.

There is no wrong way to explore this.

Once you click “play” on the video, you will receive the prompts both visually and aurally, because we all have differing neurologies, and different ways of best receiving information.

First, the inspiration. Let these poems enter you as if by osmosis.

**If you are reading this on a phone, please turn your phone to landscape mode to preserve the integrity of the poets’ enjambment (line breaks).

If it feels good in your body, you might want to read the poems aloud. Do what works for you.

***

The Burning Bush is a Blackberry Bush
By Sarah Mathes

I wrote the poem. And then I rewrote it, and made it worse.
I thought time would heal it. Time passed. I did research: Exodus,
midrash, my mother. I rewrote the poem. I ate fistfuls of soft berries. Navy
lips. Purple lips. Juice bursting out of black balloons. I made it worse.
The poem knocked around my mind like unlabeled preserves darkening in the fridge. Outside the page: tableaus of simple beauty.
Three different trees in one line of sight—plum, pear, palm.
Inside: A hand runs under a faucet, the soap stinging invisible cuts to life.

Have you seen a blackberry bush at the exact moment of its blushing, 
when its tight little spheres bleed the green seeds bloody—
have you walked by shoeless on the way to the lake,
the sun lifting the hairs on your cheek,
no matter where you turn, something you love coming after you, 
the bush burning in the stripped light,
unripe, alive, surviving—

***

The Trans Haggadah Companion
By Bev Yockelson

On this night
             I remember Nachshon
             who was not Moses who
                          walked into the Red Sea
                          and called for God
                                                   to meet him there

On this night
             I am only a body and you
                                                 are only a body

On this night
                          nothing is hidden
                          only the afikomen

On this night
                         God was here and I
                                                             I knew it

***

Holding the Light
By Stuart Kestenbaum
for Kait Rhoads

Gather up whatever is 
glittering in the gutter, 
whatever has tumbled 
in the waves or fallen
in flames out of the sky,

for it’s not only our 
hearts that are broken, 
but the heart
of the world as well. 
Stitch it back together.

Make a place where
the day speaks to the night
and the earth speaks to the sky. 
Whether we created God
or God created us

it all comes down to this: 
In our imperfect world 
we are meant to repair 
and stitch together
what beauty there is, stitch it

with compassion and wire. 
See how everything
we have made gathers
the light inside itself
and overflows? A blessing.

***

And…with deep gratitude to these poets for filling our cups to overflowing…

…and to the moon for renewing—and allowing us to renew—in its cycles…

…(a real dayenu)…

…let yourself be inspired…

…take this journey…

…you have everything you need to do so. Trust the process, be easy with it, go as deep as feels right for you.

Let your unique expression pour forth.

Click “play” on the video below, and take the Prompt Journey with me:

And take all the time you need.

.

.

.

.

To spend more time with the music you heard from Laura Melnicoff: