My friend, Lori Pohlman, wrote a beauty of a post recently and I felt my heart zing and sing as I read. If you’ve missed it, I won’t mind if you pop over right now to take a look.
Lori’s post is about “I am From” poetry (also known as “Where I’m From”) and her descriptions of George Ella Lyon’s work took me back to my teaching days and my love of six-word stories, and evocative, narrative poetry.
I don’t think I could describe the allure any better than Lori did when she wrote that her poem was …”about beginnings, and the echoes still heard, the lessons still being learned.“
Precisely how I feel about a prompt that never disappointed. Even the most reluctant students – those unsure about poetry and even less sure about personal expression – took risks and joined me. In the process, I learned about them and darn if I didn’t learn about myself. Every time. Making soulful connections will do that. That’s how I felt when I read Lori’s poem. The best thing about blogging is the connection-making with friends around the globe. I learned that Lori and I have more than a few things in common: Midwestern barefoot summers, navy bean soup and polished maple tables.
Two years ago – almost to the day – I wrote about the The Power of Poetry and Place and included George Ella Lyon’s original “Where I’m From” poem:
Where I’m From
By George Ella Lyon
I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush,
the Dutch elm
whose long gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.
I am from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.
I’m from the know-it
-alls
and the pass
-it
-ons,
from perk up and pipe down.
I’m from He restoreth my soul
with cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.
I’m from Artemus and Billie’s Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures.
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments —
snapped before I budded —
leaf-fall from the family tree
I’ve written many variations of my own over the years – demonstrating the power of the prompt to my students. Reminding them that free verse – avoiding the inner editor – was key.
Inspired by Lori’s poem, I think I’m ready to write another. Here’s a version I wrote two years ago:
I am from affluence and poverty,
From tenderness and torment
I am from loving reminders that life is good
And the prickly thorns of a mother’s regrets
I’m from strength, thanks to my father and
Oodles of vulnerability, courtesy of mom
I’m from truth telling – but only when I’m careful
And distortions to ensure safety
I’m from sister love and laughter with
Side orders of secrecy because I SEE everything
I’m from trying and trusting, caring and scaring
Tip-toeing and denying
I’m from ME because I am strong
I am my father’s daughter after all
He who is tall and foreboding, loving and kind but
Unlikely to be fooled forever
I’m from adversity, yet I am resilient
I survive
Another favorite prompt? Six-word stories, inspired by Larry Smith’s “Six Word Memoirs“. Of all the things I’ve written since the publication of my book, “Surviving Sue” the six-word synthesis of my mother’s dysfunction, She Wore Her Regret Like Armor is still a description that readers identify with the most. I think it’s because the distillation – those six words – tells the story of Sue.
I feel the same way about “Where I’m From” poetry and you can use all sorts of prompts to take you there. Follow George Ella Lyon’s lead, or the template in Lori’s post or sit back and consider your life across stages and phases, bringing forth what comes to mind. What matters most – past present and future – about love, loss and triumph is often a good starting point.
Lyon’s advice? I love this – from her website:
Where to Go with “Where I’m From”
While you can revise (edit, extend, rearrange) your “Where I’m From” list into a poem, you can also see it as a corridor of doors opening onto further knowledge and other kinds of writing. The key is to let yourself explore these rooms. Don’t rush to decide what kind of writing you’re going to do or to revise or finish a piece. Let your goal be the writing itself. Learn to let it lead you. This will help you lead students, both in their own writing and in their response as readers. Look for these elements in your WIF poem and see where else they might take you:
- a place could open into a piece of descriptive writing or a scene from memory.
- your parents’ work could open into a memory of going with them, helping, being in the way. Could be a remembered dialogue between your parents about work. Could be a poem made from a litany of tools they used.
- an important event could open into freewriting all the memories of that experience, then writing it as a scene, with description and dialogue. It’s also possible to let the description become setting and directions and let the dialogue turn into a play.
- food could open into a scene at the table, a character sketch of the person who prepared the food, a litany of different experiences with it, a process essay of how to make it.
- music could take you to a scene where the music is playing; could provide you the chance to interleave the words of the song and words you might have said (or a narrative of what you were thinking and feeling at the time the song was first important to you (“Where I’m Singing From”).
- something someone said to you could open into a scene or a poem which captures that moment; could be what you wanted to say back but never did.
- a significant object could open into a sensory exploration of the object-what it felt, sounded, smelled, looked, and tasted like; then where it came from, what happened to it, a memory of your connection with it. Is there a secret or a longing connected with this object? A message? If you could go back to yourself when this object was important to you, what would you ask, tell, or give yourself?
Remember, you are the expert on you. No one else sees the world as you do; no one else has your material to draw on. You don’t have to know where to begin. Just start. Let it flow. Trust the work to find its own form.
Many thanks to Lori for helping me reconnect with a tool I’ve let languish. I’m ready to dive in again. Maybe you’ll join me? If so, let me know. Tag me in!
Vicki 💕
Polished Maple Tables | LakeArrowheadLadyWriter
The Power of Poetry & Place – The Heart of the Matter
Episode 49: Six-Word Stories with Dr. Victoria Atkinson – The Heart of the Matter
Hi – I’m Victoria, Vicki, Dr. Vicki. I hold a doctorate in Adult Education and I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), and author of Surviving Sue | Eckhartz Press.
Check out this link to learn more about my book “Surviving Sue” – all about resilience and love.
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Victoria Ponders 
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