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

Selecting A Reader

First, I would have her be beautiful,
and walking carefully up on my poetry
at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,
her hair still damp at the neck
from washing it. She should be wearing
a raincoat, an old one, dirty
from not having money enough for the cleaners.
She will take out her glasses, and there
in the bookstore, she will thumb
over my poems, then put the book back
up on its shelf. She will say to herself,
“For that kind of money, I can get
my raincoat cleaned.” And she will.

—Ted Kooser
https://www.tedkooser.net

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 8/13/26 at
5:00 PM PDT — 8:00 PM EDT

My Thoughts

It's no surprise that the blank page is often so daunting for poets, especially if we sit down for our designated time with a blank mind; especially if we have no particular topic, no starter seed to plant on the page, no “opensesame” to access the cave of stolen treasure. Sometimes all our anchors for writing simply hold the ship steady in the harbor, waiting to hear the heave-ho, to feel the lift of unmooring, to hear the call of the open sea. That's the thing with creative writing. It’s just you and the page (or for the poetic two-timers…the pad or the screen). Part of the lost and found of poetic writing may be settled by writing to an imaginary reader. Ted Kooser does so in his poem, Selecting A Reader, although the reader he selects simply thumbs through his work and goes back to more pressing matters in life. Who is your reader? How might they engage with your writing?

Prompt Ideas

1. Journal or write a poem titled Selecting A Reader and write whatever pleases you.

2. Do you have a specific person in mind, real or imagined, when you are writing? If so, describe the reader.

3. Use the prompt, I write for… and describe the type of person, the group, or the cause, etc. that you might generally address in your writing or pick one to address in a new piece.

4. Kooser’s description of his reader is an anonymous woman, relatively impoverished, and his characterization, in just a few lines, brings her to life. Follow Kooser’s model in describing an everyday person (whether or not they might be a reader of poetry) in an everyday moment.

5. Kooser has his reader enter the bookshop at the loneliest moment of an afternoon as if it arrives like clockwork daily. When is that moment? Journal or write a poem about the “loneliest moment” of an afternoon or day. What makes it so?

6. Kooser’s reader chooses cleaning her raincoat over buying a book of poetry. Journal or write a poem about the value of poetry in light of everyday needs. What makes poetry worth the time and energy to read (or write) it in our lives? What other matters, however seemingly trivial, take precedence over poetry when faced with the opportunity to read (or write) a poem.

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