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

Dear Longing

I have seen the marbled halls of antiquity
in your blood-orange eyes,
the bronze gods and goddesses,
polished to a sheen, glinting in the sun
on the dogeared-brown earth.

I have felt you slither up the vine,
the shimmering summer heat
warping the landscape, waving
a long goodbye to the world,
because you always wanted more
than the world could offer, more
than a silk cocoon could transform,
more than a quantum leap
to the promised land.

And yet you won't leave me;
you gurgle with water each time
I turn on the faucet; you drift
with the wind each time I walk
the hallowed grounds, you call
my name from the shadows,
leading me to believe
there are whispered secrets
just beyond the reach of my ears,
that there is another kind of awakening
in the smell of fresh ground coffee,
that the carnival-green leaves
really are acrobats going out on a limb.

And you always take me, right there
to the liminal edge of the precipice,
the place where new life buds:
equal in your final fall to the ground
as you were when you first burst into life.

—Nick Leforce

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 2/12/25 at 5:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

Now that we are crossing the midpoint of Winter (in the northern hemisphere), the days getting longer and the weather warmer, we can feel the seasonal shift thawing what was frozen in us because frigid circumstances and harsh consequence required us to pull in and find places of safety inside. But slowly now, we can feel ourselves turn with longing toward a spring where new life will once again sprout. In Western Cultures, mid-February has been a time for fertility festivals going back to Pagan times before early Christian’s supplanted the Roman festival with Valentine’s Day, which has evolved into the current form as a day for couples, for lovers, and for wanna-be partners. In our modern world, we have mostly narrowed love down to romantic love, with all its passion and eros. But love is much deeper and richer than our idealized version of romance, which we put on a pedestal culminating in Happily Ever After, and which, inevitably, comes crashing down. There are many forms of love. But perhaps one ingredient that underlies all forms go love is longing: the longing for a deep and abiding connection with others, whether it be romantic, platonic, manic, unconditional, enduring, familial, or friendly. So I offer my poem, Dear Longing, as a prompt for this week, inviting you to step into your own longing for deep and abiding connection with someone or something, including yourself. Write your own letter to Dear Longing or Dear Love or any other aspect of love that you wish to address.

Prompt Ideas

1. Journal or write a poem addressed to longing or love or some particular aspect of love.

2. Journal or write a poem as if from Love, or Longing, or some quality of love — The patience of Love, the Kindness of Love, the Demands of Love; The Purity of Love, The Joy of Love, The Foolishness of Love, the Playfulness of Love , The Disappointment of Love, The Allure of Love, etc.

3. Write a series of short messages or poems that might be found on Valentine’s Cards addressed to various people of your choosing, whether you know them or not.

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