💚 When poems help you pray

Email Read Time: 50 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes

Announcements:
—Want to create a nourishing and sustainable writing practice?
—There are a few spots left in each of the Narrative Writing Cohorts:
Friday Cohort | Saturday BIPOC Cohort
—Join us for the Thoughtful Readers Gathering with Cole Arthur Riley and Black Liturgies on Sunday, 1/21

If you aren’t sure how to pray, maybe a poem can help you fill in the blanks.

Pause.

Rest for three minutes. While seated or lying down in a spot in that feels safe and comfortable, set a timer, close your eyes, and rest. If you like, begin this time of rest with six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale and/or read Matthew 11:28-30.

Prompt.

Listen to What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade by Brad Aaron Modlin.

Then set a timer and write a response for seven minutes. (There are so many things to respond to in this poem!)

Journal, pray, take notes, or start a new poem, essay, story, or letter to a friend.

Practice.

Here’s a quote from Pádraig Ó Tuama about the poem above:

“And I found myself, when I read this poem, thinking, what was the day we were taught that gay boys are boys too? What was the day that you were taught that loving poetry was enough? What was the day we were taught that feeling desperately lonely, even when you’re 10, was OK? How could we be brought into the consolation that as you looked at your own family and felt like everybody else’s family is more together than mine — that that’s OK? How could any of these things be wrapped into the story of a life?”

Keep a running list throughout the rest of the day of the things no one taught you but are wrapped into the story of your life.

Want More?
Listen to the entire Poetry Unbound podcast episode that discusses “What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade.”

Reminder

Here are a few different things you can do with the Daily Nourishment email when it arrives in your inbox each morning:

Save it for later
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Send it to trash because another one will come tomorrow!

Charlotte Donlon

Writer, Spiritual Director, & Founder of Spiritual Direction for Writers

spiritualdirectionforwriters.com

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