Writing From the Inside Out 2022 Week 47 Prompts
based on Michael T. Young’s Advice From A Bat
Read the poem
Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you
Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…
Use the selection of prompts below the poem
Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…
Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes
Advice From A Bat
Hunt only at night. Fly erratically.
Defy even your own expectations.
Feed on beetles, moths, and mosquitoes,
whatever is small and annoying.
Cultivate the myths about you
until every predator fears your legend.
When hunting, be guided by a language
only you can hear. The same is true
when courting the one you love.
Clean fangs and fur nightly. Crawl
or climb to confuse the observant.
Retreat to a cave no one believes in.
Let the day and the world pass
while you sleep, and sleep upside down,
ready to wake and fall into flight
Michael T Young
http://www.michaeltyoung.com
NOTE: There will not be a read-around this week. Next Read-Around will be Thursday, December 1, at 5:00 PM PST
Please join Writing From The Inside Out by attending the read-around sessions on Friday afternoons. It’s free, fun, a great way to share, and reading a poem is optional. If you have not registered, click the button below; and if you have registered, you do not need to register again, simply use the link sent to you in your confirmation email. Register Here:
Please Note New Read-Around Day and Time:
Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 5:00 PM
All Future read-arounds will be on Thursdays at 5:00 PM PST
There will not be a read-around for Thanksgiving Week
My Thoughts
Personification is one of the most useful techniques for poetry. It can be used to animate the inaminate, to give non-human beings and things a presence we can learn from, a presence we can engage with, a presence we can become by occupying the Other’s inner space and way of being in the world. Such a feat, if done well, can take us further beyond ourselves in highlighting our limits, challenging our boundaries, and widening our embrace of life than does a cross-culture encounter. Michael T. Young’s poem, Advice From A Bat, published in Diane Lockward’s book, The Crafty Poet replies to a prompt to pick a creature, research its behavior, then personify it by giving advice on how to live from the creature’s perspective. Young does a fine job of turning bat behavior into a stream of rules and guidelines for living. This is nothing new. Indigenous people around the world have done something similar—from Animal Powers in Native American traditions to martial art styles in Asian tradtions. When you apply the same idea to plants and objects in nature, everything becomes a teacher. But only if you are willing to be a student; to study the Other enough to enter its world, to see through its eyes, and share its insights.
Prompt Menu
Reply to Young’s poem as if you are a young bat taking on the advice.
Journal or write a rebuttal to the advice. Take any piece of advice in the poem and respond to it. You can use the prompt, “I tried that (the piece of advice) once and…
Do as Lockwood suggests in the Crafty Poet: Pick a creature, research it’s behaviour, then personify it by giving advice on how to live from the creature’s perspective.
Pick a creature, research it’s behaviour, then personify it and have a dialogue with it.
It’s Thanksgiving week, consider personifying the turkey. But beware—it might ruin your taste for the poor thing.
As usual, write about anything else that inspires you from the poem or from life.