The variety and depth of these prompts is beyond astonishing. I will pick and choose the ones that most resonate for me to start but am grateful to have such a rich river to pan through in the coming month(s).
Thank you for your generosity in getting 2025 off to a powerful start.
#10: This prompt reminded me our lantern walks in years' past when our children were in elementary school:
We walk through the open field, the pathway, the woods and circle back again. We carry these lanterns, tin, paper, glass we made together in little groups of two or more. We sing This Little Light of Mine in soprano, or alto or bass. We move in groups or wander ahead or behind, alone.
We search in the darkness for our companions, the lanterns illuminating their faces, their voices, their hearts. We crunch through leaves and snow. We sing through cold. We find ourselves circling back again, our lanterns mostly snuffed out by the wind, or our frosty breath or the fullness of a candle's wax.
We find ourselves one by one gathered in darkness but illuminated. We find ourselves cold but thoughtful. We find ourselves in harmony and find our self in the silence.
I'm newish here as I want to hone my writing by being more deliberate. I had been ruminating on your previous post on how to be clear on what I want and not just "write more", and now you've provided the answer. I'll be using your 31 prompts each day this month to write something. I am posting this comment here as a form of accountability for myself, as I log off to write using prompts 1 & 2.
Thanks for these wonderful prompts, Maya. Seriously considering doing my sums to see if I can become a paid up member. Here is what I wrote for today's prompt/
Distant with each other
Durban summer, we sweated in the lukewarm pool,
drinking white wine with ice and trying not to lie.
Out of things to say, I pulled my goblet by its glass stem
until the rim plopped under the water,
with a funny little ‘O’, like a frog, jumping in.
I wanted to give you that letting go – as I
floated like a starfish, looking up to see a limpid sky;
your hands at the base of my skull
enough to keep me from drifting.
The weeds growing between the paving stones
still smelt rank as unwanted sweat;
but laughing with you, your stubble tickling my neck
until it was nearly painful, brought a kind of relief,
Hi! Welcome! Spend some time getting to know the platform—there are SO many different sections, forums, and classes there. There is an entire New Member area that explains all of the sections to you and how to use them (including all of our meeting formats, how to get feedback, the rules for posting, etc!).
No, I just provide some inspiration, hopefully, and a space for people to be accountable to their writing practice. I only offer feedback in actual workshop within CWC, my online writing platform.
These prompts are SO rich! I’m excited to slowly work my way through and allow them to generate unexpected writing I would not have otherwise ventured.
Maya
The variety and depth of these prompts is beyond astonishing. I will pick and choose the ones that most resonate for me to start but am grateful to have such a rich river to pan through in the coming month(s).
Thank you for your generosity in getting 2025 off to a powerful start.
Thanks so much, Laura. Really, really glad they speak to you. Let me know how it goes working on them!
I've been reading without joining for weeks. These prompts pushed me to become a paying member, finally. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Joanne! I really appreciate your support.
O, this is great. I might have to do 31 in 31 days!
Please sign me up to read all of them!!!
I’ll make them a post at the end of the month!
This is SO EXCITING. Can’t wait for this!!! x
Trying this too!
#10: This prompt reminded me our lantern walks in years' past when our children were in elementary school:
We walk through the open field, the pathway, the woods and circle back again. We carry these lanterns, tin, paper, glass we made together in little groups of two or more. We sing This Little Light of Mine in soprano, or alto or bass. We move in groups or wander ahead or behind, alone.
We search in the darkness for our companions, the lanterns illuminating their faces, their voices, their hearts. We crunch through leaves and snow. We sing through cold. We find ourselves circling back again, our lanterns mostly snuffed out by the wind, or our frosty breath or the fullness of a candle's wax.
We find ourselves one by one gathered in darkness but illuminated. We find ourselves cold but thoughtful. We find ourselves in harmony and find our self in the silence.
✨✨✨
Well isn't this a generous offering.
Thursday, January 2, 2025 has turned out to be a stellar day!
Love to you, as ever!!!
Fabulous. Excellent use of the platform. Thank you for your generosity.
Thanks so much for reading. Hope they serve you!
Texto maravilhoso que motiva e nos injeta a vontade de tentar escrever essa tão difícil e facinante arte: Poesia!
Thank you for sharing this Maya.
I'm newish here as I want to hone my writing by being more deliberate. I had been ruminating on your previous post on how to be clear on what I want and not just "write more", and now you've provided the answer. I'll be using your 31 prompts each day this month to write something. I am posting this comment here as a form of accountability for myself, as I log off to write using prompts 1 & 2.
Thank you once again for your generosity.
So glad to hear it!!!!
Night bloom
You and I, we were light and umbra;
wounded boxers sparring in the ring./
Jekyll and Hyde, you held me close,
while keeping me far, shadow dancer./
Small violence, miracle, a sperm for an egg,
our baby emerged from our bruised love./
Fragile as a night bloom, his pale face
resting in my womb’s writhing black./
As orchids birth beauty, I bore him;
pain of the calyx bursting into life./
Flailing wings of the almond blossom,
a son losing his way in his father’s dark./
As fading flowers relinquish their petals,
make peace with your demons –/
Chiaruscuro, find your bright angels,
so that we may feed our child’s hungry light./
Beautiful!!! (hope you found the feedback forum in CWC! Let me know if you need any help and I’ll connect you with our tech specialist! 🫶🏼)
Muse
‘Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged.
Missing me one place, search another.
I stop somewhere waiting for you.’
- Whitman, Song of Myself
It must have been raining while I slept,
the light knocking, stooped old man at the glass,
the back of his head waiting grey-blue as the dawn./
Like catching mercury with my hands,
I searched for my dream, rivulets running
down from the roof of the morning and away./
My father had brought me a present, I remembered,
a book; giving it to me in my childhood's house,
by the deep-silled window looking onto the grass./
Important as love this memory, him writing in
the fly leaf the words I needed to read. But now
the dream fades like invisible ink, leaving only the blank./
Morning doves wept, as I failed to retrieve it,
bright silver key hidden from sight.
I closed my eyes as if to summon the dark./
The dark, the dark, my father feared it –
in my sleep, he'd warned me of the coming storm,
bolting the doors so the weather could not get in./
Lost fragment becoming mist, I turned on my side,
to listen to the doves and rain. There’d been a child,
writing as he told her, titles he’d wanted her to find./
Thanks for these wonderful prompts, Maya. Seriously considering doing my sums to see if I can become a paid up member. Here is what I wrote for today's prompt/
Distant with each other
Durban summer, we sweated in the lukewarm pool,
drinking white wine with ice and trying not to lie.
Out of things to say, I pulled my goblet by its glass stem
until the rim plopped under the water,
with a funny little ‘O’, like a frog, jumping in.
I wanted to give you that letting go – as I
floated like a starfish, looking up to see a limpid sky;
your hands at the base of my skull
enough to keep me from drifting.
The weeds growing between the paving stones
still smelt rank as unwanted sweat;
but laughing with you, your stubble tickling my neck
until it was nearly painful, brought a kind of relief,
the taste in my mouth faint as diluted chlorine.
So glad you're finding the prompts generative, Sarah!!!
Where can we submit our poetry for comment? If we have joined CWC?
Hi! Welcome! Spend some time getting to know the platform—there are SO many different sections, forums, and classes there. There is an entire New Member area that explains all of the sections to you and how to use them (including all of our meeting formats, how to get feedback, the rules for posting, etc!).
Are you going to grade all these papers, ha, ha? Quite a diverse list. "First time" here. I wonder what will happen.
No, I just provide some inspiration, hopefully, and a space for people to be accountable to their writing practice. I only offer feedback in actual workshop within CWC, my online writing platform.
Can one just put your name on the Wait list to join CWC, Maya? Which I have done.
Yes! I just sent you an enrollment link :) we still have 4 spots in the poetry branch (8 in fiction!). Enrollment closes on 1/11. xx
Thanks, Maya - I have enrolled for January xx
These prompts are SO rich! I’m excited to slowly work my way through and allow them to generate unexpected writing I would not have otherwise ventured.
Can’t wait to read you, Lee! Please be sure to share what you write!
Thank you for these, Maya! 🙏🏾
You are welcome, Mona! Happy new year!!
and to you too!
What a wonderful way to start the year! Thanks Maya for these amazing prompts, and happy new year!
And happy new year to you!!!!
Maya! Thank you so much. These are wonderful!
Huge compliment from the queen of fiction prompts!!!!!! Thank you!!!!!! I hope we can get you to visit CWC Fiction this year!
thank you for that, my sweet one. Hopefully, 2025 will be a simpler year... xo
🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼