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 Creed

This is what I believe:

That I am I.

That my soul
is a dark forest.
That my known self
will never be more
than a little clearing
in the forest.

That gods,
strange gods,
come forth
from the forest
into the clearing
of my known self,
and then go back.

That I must
have the courage
to let them come
and go.

That I will never
let mankind put
anything over me,

but that I will try
always to recognize
and submit to the gods
in me and the gods
in other men and women.

There is my creed.

D. H.Lawrence

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 7/9/26 at
5:00 PM PDT — 8:00 PM EDT

My Thoughts

D. H. Lawrence crafted his creed after reading Benjamin Franklin's 13 virtues, which Franklin formulated when 20 years old and used as guiding principles to live a good and moral life. Lawrence, like Franklin, was keen to the contradictions and complexities of heart and soul that we must navigate throughout our lives. A line Franklin wrote was of particular inspiration for Lawrence in composing his own poetic creed: “the soul has many motions, many gods come and go.” How are we to know ourselves when we are host to a multitude, when we are composed of multiple intelligences operating independently, when we are so often unaware of our deeper fears and desires? One way of thinking about these volitional forces operating outside or beyond our conscious control is to consider them as (little “g”) “gods.” Lawrence’s poem, My Creed, expresses this idea beautifully and describes the kind of relationship we might have to the all unknown parts of ourselves as gods that come and go.

How we deal with the forces imposed on us both from within and without is even more critical in the dawn of artificial intelligence—AI. So, lately I've been exploring a different kind of AI – Authentic Intelligence. The word authentic comes from the Greek origins meaning original or genuine and specifically to act on one's own authority. Authentic Intelligence is a kind of intelligence that allows us to act in a way that is true to ourselves as a whole. To do so, we must sometimes navigate inevitable conflicts between our head and our heat, between the needs and desires of ourselves and the needs and desires of others; between safety and risk, between fight and flow, between living in the present and building for tomorrow. These are rarely easy matters and often serve as the grindstone against which we come to know who we are and sharpen ourselves. These are the times when the gods within and around us come with their demands. We must learn to receive them, honor them, pay tribute when necessary, and then to let them go.

Prompt Ideas

1. Journal or write a poem about your own Creed. Title it My Creed or start with the line: This is what I beleive…

2. Lawrence uses the metaphor of a dark forest for the soul. In what way is your soul (whatever that may mean to you) like a dark forest? What other metaphor might serve you relationship to the soul (or whatever you consider you larger or whole self)

3. Consider a time or experience where others judged you or “wagged their tongues” at you. Write about that experience and how it effected you, especially if you did not let it stop you or bother you.

4. Consider a time or experience where others praise you. Write about that experience and how it effected you.

5. Journal or write apogee about solitude. In what way is solitude a lasting friend?

6. In my own life, I have had fleeting moments of being in my own quiet center. But holding to that center, and living from it, seems to require a dedicated practice. How do you stay put in your center? Journal or write a poem about that idea, where you might be in that process, or what you think dn feel about it

7. Ha Jin ends his poem with the idea of having the world revolve around you, which usually has the pejorative connotation of a selfish narcissistic person. How might it be interpreted in the context of the poem? Journal or write a poem about this phrase, wherever it might lead you.

8. As usual, write about whatever else inspires you form the poem or from life.