Writing From the Inside Out 2024 Week 7 Prompts
based on my poem, You’ll Be Gone
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 2/14/2025 at 5:00 PM PST
How It Works:
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
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
My Thoughts
I got a letter from my 89 year old uncle Carl yesteday. I’ve had almost no contact with him over the years and was touched that he wrote. It reminded me of the opening line of my poem, You’ll Be Gone, which is included in my latest Valentine’s Day series, The Lovesick Sea. The first line of that poem reads: Someday you’ll be gone and I don’t want to regret not knowing you.
We’ve been given all the warnings. Family, friends, everyone we know will one day disappear. It’s a sad moment when one of them does and we realize we’ve lost the chance to hear their story. A phone call, a letter are easy things. But our distracted heart still wanders off into familiar corners. We’ve got our workload and house chores and screens with a million diversions. One day becomes another and then weeks, months, and years go by. Even if we have the occasional chat, we may never venture into the heart of what matters. And there are those we meet whom we would love to get to know. Perhaps it is someone we admire or a person who fascinates us or someone that catches our eye. But the reticent heart holds us back and they disappear. Fortunately, there are conventions, like Valentine’s Day, when we are given an opportunity to share our affections for others. When we were young, we wrote Valentine’s Day cards to everyone. Why not send someone a note to say that you appreciate them in your life, that you would love to connect and have a good chat. .
You’ll Be Gone
Someday you’ll be gone
and I don’t want to regret
not knowing you.
We can talk the every day,
share our tastes, our fears,
our dreams.
We could go to Mallorca on holiday.
We could leave our troubles
at the doorstep of the devil.
He’ll be fat and happy
feasting in the dark dungeon
while we go day tripping.
I admit it: I need the world
poured into my cup.
I need to know you,
the bones of you, the wild
beating heart of you. I want
us to open the treasure chest
we’ve each hidden and share
all the love we’ve lost
and found in our lives.
—NIck LeForce
© 2024 Nick LeForce
In keeping with my annual tradition of sharing an e-book of love poems, my latest edition, The Lovesick Sea, is out. Click the button to hearthe title poem and learn how you can grab your free copy:
Prompt Ideas
Journal or write a poem about someone you regret not knowing (or knowing better) before they disappeared. Have an imaginary conversation with them.
Journal or write a poem about someone with whom you “talk the everyday” but do not talk about personal matters. It could be a neighbor, an acquaintance, a work mate, etc. Would you regret not knowing them better if they disappeared?
How do you move a conversation beyond the everyday (the weather, sports, news, etc)?
In what way does the specifics of a person’s everyday conversation reveal the deeper self?
Describe a time when you got to know someone because you were serenditously together. Maybe you met them at an event or you happen to ride together somewhere for a while.
Write a (poetic) Valentine’s Day card to someone.
Use the poem’s line, “I need to know you, the bones of you, the wild beating heart of you” as your prompt.
Journal or write a poem about the treasure chest of all the love’s you have lost and found in your
As usual, write about anything else in the poem or in life that inspires you.