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 5/29/25 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

Wrting From The Onside Out will be on break as I am traveling over the next few weeks.  The next set of prompts will be issued on June 30 and the next read-around will be on July 3.

I offer Dianne Suess’ poem, Sometimes I Can’t Feel It, What Some Call, to encourage you to find the beauty around you and keep writing even if you don’t feel it.

Sometimes I Can’t Feel It, What Some Call

Sometimes I can’t feel it, what some cal
beauty. I can see it, I swear, the conifers
and the fat bees, ferns like church fans, and then
the sea, it’s flatness as if pressed by stones
like witches were, the dark sand ridged
the stranded mesoglea of the moon jellyfish,
transparent blob, brainless, enlightened in its clarity.
I stand there, I walked the shore at low tide, the sky,
fearless, not open to me, just open, there it is,
the wind, cold, surfs, boom drowning out
thought, I can photograph it, I can name it
beautiful, but feel it, I don’t know that I am
feeling it, when I drown in it, maybe then.

Dianne Seuss
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/diane-seuss

Prompt Ideas

  1. Write about anything in the poem or in life that inspires you.