If you wish to attend the read around (t’s free, fun, a great way to share, and reading a poem is optional). Note: If you registered already, you do not need to register again, simply use the link sent to you in your confirmation email. Register Here:

Next Read-Around is 4/11/2024 at 5:00 PM PST

How It Works:

  1. Read the poem 

  2. Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you

  3. Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…

  4. Use the selection of prompts below

  5. Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…

  6. Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes

My Thoughts

David White’s poem, The Opening Of Eyes, is one of my all-time favorites. I’ve already aired at least once before in this series. Whether or not you were in on the prior prompt and even if you have read it before, it’s worth a periodic revisit because it gets at the heart of poetry, which is an act of revelation. If a poem doesn’t surprise me, or at least teeter on the edge of almost, then I probably won’t remember it. And, for myself, if my own poems don’t surprise me or teeter on that edge, I likely won’t include them in the canon my work. There are several surprises in Whyte’s poem: first, he strips away past and future and, instead of inserting the obvious, the present, he jumps to the phrase “the opening of eyes.” He then goes on to explicate the eventualities of that opening, each one itself a revelation of the hidden; each move bringing the unknown or unrecognized to attention. And though it may be over the top to cast our tiny revelations alongside something biblical, like Moses and the burning bush, the imagery highlights a deep truth: every revelation worthy of the name has that potential to change us and, yes, to change our lives.

The Opening Of Eyes

That day I saw beneath dark clouds
the passing light over the water
and I heard the voice of the world speak out,
I knew then, as I had before,
life is no passing memory of what has been
nor the remaining pages in a great book
waiting to be read.

It is the opening of eyes long closed.
It is the vision of far off things
seen for the silence they hold.
It is the heart after years
of secret conversing
speaking out loud in the clear air.

It is Moses in the desert
fallen to his knees before the lit bush.
It is the man throwing away his shoes
as if to enter heaven
and finding himself astonished,
opened at last,
fallen in love with solid ground.

—David Whyte
https://davidwhyte.com

Prompt Ideas

  1. Identify some revelatory moment of your own, even if you don’t know what the revelation was, and describe the trigger: the environment or circumstances in which it happened. You can use the prompt: It was a moment like no other…

  2. Journal or write a poem, starting with the prompt: I heard the voice of the world speak out…

  3. Journal or write a poem starting with the promp:, I knew, then, as I knew before life is…

  4. What do you close your eyes to (for instance, violence in movies)? What do you open your eyes to (for instance, a smiling baby)? Journal or write a poem on the opening and closing of eyes.

  5. What is your heart secrelyt conversing about? What content of that secret conversing in your heart are you ready to speak outto the world?

  6. Journal or write a poem about a moment that astonished you or that opened you in some way.

  7. Journal or write a poem describing an experience akin to  to falling in love with solid ground. Or explore what the phrase means to you. What is your “solid ground” in life?

  8. As usual, write about anything else in the poem or in life that inspires you.