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

TO PI SSU YAO

We have talent. People call us
The leading poets of our day.
Too bad, our homes are humble,
Our recognition trivial.
Hungry, ill clothed, servants treat
Us with contempt. In the prime
Of life, our face is a wrinkled.
Who cares about either of us,
Or our troubles? We are our own
Audience. We appreciate
Each other’s literary
Merits. Our poems will be handed
Down along with great dead poets’.
We can console each other.
At least we shall have descendants.

Tu Fu (AKA Du Fu)
Translated from Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth
— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_Fu
— https://poets.org/poet/tu-fu

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:

The next Read-Around is 4/16/25 at 5:00 PM PDT

My Thoughts

Poetry can be a solitary occupation. The tax on poetic writing is finding the time, the place, the moment, and the spirit to move us. Inspiration may be all around and we miss it in the daily distraction of dull eyes or bury it under doubt or distress and other misplaced urgencies. We may have become so practiced at thwarting the flow of creative life that we forget where the tap is and how to turn it. And the rewards may be mostly limited to the immediate delight in a turn of phrase or the acrobatic joy of sticking the landing. If we dare to share, we may get flashing moments of recognition in a publication or knuckle snaps from the audience at an open mic. Tu Fu’s poem, TO PI SSU YAO, translated by Kenneth Rexroth, laments the lack of recognition for poets, even the best of an era, who are likely to achieve renown only after death. But poetry has entered a kind of renaissance. Universities are now throwing out the red carpet for MFA's, giving legitimacy to those who pay that particular piper. Who among those on the now crowded dance floor shall be remembered after leaving?

Prompt Ideas

1. What is your particular talent (as a poet, a writer, or a creator)? Do you imagine yourself in a lineage of writers? 

2. If so, who are your literary and poetic ancestors? Pick a “leading poet” and write in the style of that poet.

3. Journal or write a poem about the experience of writing: Do you have a particular writing space; a regular practice, preferred instruments? Do you have a ritual for writing?

4. Journal or write about your relationship with recognition as a writer or poet. Is it important for you to be seen or honored as a poet? Who would you like to be recognized by as a writer or poet? 

5. In Tu Fu’s poem, the poet is seen with contempt even by those of lesser social rank. Journal or write about the experience of not being seen or recognized or perhaps even shamed (as a writer or poet or however the experience has shown up for you).

6. Tu Fu notes that poets are their own audience. Who do you write for or to? Who would be your ideal audience?

7. Imagine your writing is passed down to a descendent (a grandchild or great grand Chile) or to someone in the lineage of pets that you identify. in Journal or write a poem addressing the receiver or create an imaginary scene in which you are a future recipient of your own poetry. What would you hope that person might think, feel, learn, or receive from your work? How might that person describe the author (You) purely from the writing?

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