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

The Window

A storm blew in last night and knocked out
the electricity. When I looked
through the window, the trees were translucent.
Bent and covered with a rime. A vast calm
lay over the countryside.
I knew better. But at the moment
I felt I’d never in my life made any
false promises, nor committed
so much as one indecent act. My thoughts
were virtuous. Later on that morning,
of course, electricity was restored.
The sun moved from behind the clouds,
melting the hoarfrost.
And things stood as they had before.

—Raymond Carver
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Carver

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:

No Read-Around This week. The next Read-Around is 11/6/25 at 5:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

We are deeply dependent on energy, especially electricity, in our modern world. Consequently, it can be quite disruptive and disconcerting when a storm knocks the power out, shutting down our appliances, cutting off lights, and interrupting digital access. We are suddenly cast out the world, left with only ourselves and those nearby. But if we side-step the trouble of it, we may actually find it liberating as Raymond Carter does in his poem, The Window. A window is a way of looking at the world and is often used to describe temporary opportunity. After a storm knocks out the power, the poet looks out the window to a vast calm that lay over the countryside and the experience, mirrored inside of him, is transcendent, lasting only until the power is restored.

Prompt Ideas

1. Journal or write a poem about weathering a storm

2. Journal or write a poem about a power outage.

3. What about a window, either an actual window with a specific view or a metaphorical window that provides a point of view.

4. Journal or write a poem about a window of opportunity that opened for you and how you responded.

5. Carter’s poem is written in a matter-of-fact style. Even the innocence of the transcendent experience is described simply. Write about an extraordinary experience using ordinary, mater-of-fact language.

6. Journal or write a poem about a transcendent experience (whatever that might mean to you).

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