Poetry and Prompts

As I learn to let go of stress, I've made an interesting discovery that is so good, I want to share.  Speaking for myself, I've realized that much of my stress comes from things that happened in my past (which are finished) or things I anticipate happening in the future (not yet in reality).  The more I can stay in the present moment, the less stress I feel.  For many of you, this may be a 'duh' statement, but for me, it is a revelation. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth. 

And, now, for today's prompts: What do you want to remember? What small glimpses of the day do you want to remember?  What riches does this NOW moment contain for you?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed.

I've been experimenting with the state of 'flow', attempting to create/enter it more deliberately instead of waiting for it to happen. Flow has been described as 'the optimal state of consciousness'  when 'action and awareness merge' and everything else falls away. Thomas Merton is describing flow in a larger context with his poem.

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem, followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth. 

And, now, for today's prompts: How often do you experience 'flow' in your life? Are there special conditions that assist you in experiencing flow? Are there conditions that inhibit you from experiencing flow? How can you enhance the conditions for flow?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

When we lose something, forget something, or miss an opportunity, we sometimes spend all of our energy grieving. What if we learned to praise the opportunities the emptiness made space for?  It is said that nature abhors a vacuum. Certainly, something will come to fill the space. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem, followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth. 

And, now, for today's prompts: Have you learned to praise the spaces where something is missing in your life?  Have you learned to see the blessings in the empty spaces? The opportunities that space has opened for? Where have you gone and what have you done with those empty spaces that have come before?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

My internal clock now wakes me at 2 or 3am every morning. Instead of lying in bed fretting that I am no longer asleep, I get up, get dressed, make a cup of coffee or tea and begin my journaling for the day. Oddly, I find I'm filled with joy as I move through these 'getting ready' tasks. I celebrate these new feelings. I am content.

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: What joys greet you each morning?  Do you recognize these simple things as joy? How might your life change if you did recognize these gifts each morning? How will you share your joy today? In the future?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

Stress is very much a part of our lives. The emotional or mental strain and tension when we are faced with adverse or demanding conditions.  One antidote to tension is to breathe. Today's poet brings us some helpful advice. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem, followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: Are you one of those people who hold their breath or breathe shallowly? What happens if you consciously take a deep, slow, breath all the way down to your toes? How do you feel?  What changes for you in knowing that breathing is always available to you in times of stress?  How can you remind yourself throughout the day to take regular pauses for conscious breathing?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

Today marks 16 months since my partner's passing. We had 15 years together. There was no planning in the numbness of the last new year. It was too soon. This year, I'm planning a new year without him. First on the list is whale watching (there is a limited window). It will be my first time without him. Who will I turn to share the magical moments of a whale breaching? Instead, I will gather in the joy and hold it close to comfort me in the coming year.

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem, followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: Have you ever felt the grief that made you think 'I can't go on'? And, then you found yourself living, making meals, running errands, living life? Have you ever made the active choice to continue, to love life, in the midst of grief? Did you mark the slow progress of momentary choices to love yourself? How did you care for yourself? How did you love yourself again?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

Part of celebrating things in our life that we love is remembering how they came to us. There is often a story, or serendipity to remember and savor. Today's poem talks of how things are introduced to us.

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem, followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth. 

And, now, for today's prompts: What have you stumbled upon that you came to love and incorporate into your life? What has come to you while you were searching for something else? And, what has been brought to you as a gift?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

We are trained to be social, even  'social' media encourages our continuous engagement. This instant availability is seen as a virtue. But, this openness leaves no time for thought, reverie, daydreaming or listening to the still small voice within. This constant interaction takes something from us. With no time to refill, reimagine, and reclaim ourselves, we can forget who we are.

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem, followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth. 

And, now, for today's prompts: What does your sociability look like? How much solitude do you need? What happens if you don't get it? What do you discover about yourself in solitude?  How can you ensure that you have enough solitude in your life? How will your life change when you have incorporated your necessary dose of quiet time and solitude?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

Whether acknowledged or not, we are all on a quest. Some of us hit the thoroughfare and shoot forward in a seemingly straight line - beginning to end - only facing the occasional slowdown or roadside rest. Others meander down the side roads, checking them out, backtracking, and looking for another. That way also moves, but one has to trace the trip on a map, in hindsight, to see the incremental forward movement. Neither way is wrong, each is different. Below is an epitaph for William Goode from one of my favorite, and highly recommended, collections, Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem, followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: What does your quest look like? Is it a meandering path or a straighter line?  Have you ever lost your way and flailed about trying to find the path? How will you move forward on your quest in this coming new year?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

Sometimes the best advice about living comes from those who left too soon. Planning for the next year, I ran across this poem by Mattie Stepanik who passed at 14 from muscular dystrophy. In his short time, he published 5 volumes of poetry, was an author, an active advocate for world peace, and a spokesman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. May we all take heed.

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem, followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: What does it mean to you to spend your life living rather than dying? Would you change your actions? If so, how? What would you choose to treasure? How would you celebrate? If you chose to 'live' each day, how might your life change?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

What do you give when you have nothing to give? One year, as a very poor single parent, my gift was showing my daughter how to cut snowflakes from typing paper and how to make paper chains.  We hung them everywhere in the apartment and that was our Christmas.  Take this poem as Jimmy offers it and know that you are loved and appreciated more than you may know. Have a blessed day today.

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: Can you accept that words may help you get through this world? When you have those days when it seems that the world outside no longer cares, will you let these words, this gift, keep you warm, feed you, and help you find your direction? What words might you offer to others? How will you offer them? What might happen if you commit to offering words of love to others in your world? Every day?  How might your world change?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

Since the Solstice our days are getting lighter by infinitesimal amounts. Still, we have entered our winter period of hunkering down, dreaming, and envisioning what we hope will come. During this necessary time of gestation, every bit of light is a gift. Let us treasure it and be grateful.

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth. 

And, now, for today's prompts: What will you dream of during the darkness of winter? What do you envision for your future? What will you do with the light you are gifted? How do you celebrate the light?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

Words have power. A simple example is the difference between "I choose to..." or "I intend to..." and "I should..." or "I have to..." The former feels optimistic, powerful, and expansive. The latter feels binding and constricting. And we know all too well these days the power that words have to hurt and heal. I'm choosing to use words to heal and expand in this coming year.  What is your choice?

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: How would you remake the world?  What words would you choose? What would the world look like to you if "the dust of custom" is removed? What steps will you take to  'remake the world with words'?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed 

I've been practicing the art of reframing an apparent negative happening to find the good in everything. It is an interesting exercise and I invite you to try it.  As serendipity does, this poem came to my awareness. It is a master lesson in finding the good. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth. 

And, now, for today's prompts: In what situations could you benefit from reframing to find the good? What good might you find?  How can you incorporate this habit of reframing and looking for the good into your life?  How might your life change if you focused on the gifts rather than the challenges?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

How much wisdom do we lose when we don't pay attention to the world around us? Today's poet writes about learning to listen when her 6-year-old son gave her this 'found poem'. Think of the answers, inspirations, and guidance that might be available to us if we choose to pay attention.

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth. 

And, now, for today's prompts: Have you ever 'found' wisdom in something you saw or overheard? How did it make you feel to receive this gift?  How do you feel about Finn's statement that "Sometimes nothing can be true"? What would it mean to you to adopt the 'truth' "The world changes"? If you fully embraced this last statement, what changes might you make in your daily life?  Why or why not?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

Do you have hope for the future? As we enter a new year and plan for the future, hope is a key ingredient.  Why would we plan if we didn't expect the possibility of positive things?  Someone asked poet Robert Frost our opening question. Here, poet David Ray addresses Frost's reply.

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: Do you have hope for the future? How about hope for the past? Your past? What have you gained from your past, no matter how easy or challenging it was? Does thinking about the casualness of Frost's answer affect how you receive his words?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

With all the divisions among us today, I believe it is even more important to think of others. As John Donne wrote, "no man is an island unto himself."  Even if we cannot take action, we can hold others in our thoughts and in our hearts. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: Do you think of the 'others' listed in this poem? Do you think it makes a difference to keep 'others' in your thoughts as you go about your daily tasks?  What would you do, how would you act each day, if you were "a candle in the dark"?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

I've been thinking a lot about spirituality, faith, and practices, as I outline my spiritual study plans for next year. I believe we cannot have faith without practices, or works, as the Bible calls them. Things like kindness, love, and compassion (for ourselves and others) are ways that our faith and beliefs come alive. They are how we show ourselves and others what we truly believe. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: What is your faith? Does it require you to reject those who do not believe as you do? How do you respond to the poet's assertion that his heart had to grow capable of taking on all forms?  Does accepting the faith and belief of others diminish your faith or strengthen it?  What is your true religion?  How will you follow this path in the future?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

We've all heard the quote, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Today's poem, attributed to Rumi, speaks to that idea. Although it is focused on love, it can work for any attribute we might look for. What are our inner barriers to love, kindness, compassion, acceptance, etc.?

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: What positive attributes have you built barriers against? Rumi speaks of love, but what are other qualities might you be seeking? Are you blocking your good?  Chances are that any barriers you have were built to protect you.  How might you dismantle these barriers? How might your life be different if you do so?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

Those of us who want to save the world often overlook the value of day-to-day tasks. Doing the dishes or the laundry, planning and cooking a meal, and making the bed - these are necessary tasks that ground us in the fundamentals of being in this world. Before we can help others, we have to be able to help ourselves. These ever-present mundane tasks remind us of that. As the monk said, "Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." Today, I'm bring you  an excerpt from a longer piece reminding us of this necessity. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: What do you learn from the menial tasks in your life?  What could you learn? How do these daily tasks ground you? Do you feel how doing these tasks connects you to the entire Universe? How do you feel about the idea that the same mundane tasks will be there even after your enlightenment?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

I'm a big fan of fresh starts. It's one of the reasons I love mornings. Each day is a new opportunity to do what couldn't be done before. We cannot change the past (unless we learn more about what is being discovered in quantum physics), but we can make a fresh start with every breath we take. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth. 

And, now, for today's prompts: What has happened that you must let go of? What fresh starts would you like to make?  What might change in your future if you make these fresh changes? How do you feel knowing that you can begin again, fresh and new, at any moment?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

We are wired for the negative. It is a survival technique from eons ago, no longer so relevant. Ask someone (or yourself) what do you want. The mind immediately begins to list what we don't want. It is the same with love, often easier to say what we don't love. Here's a poem by Linda Pastan about things she didn't know she loved. She models the poem on a beautiful poem by Nazim Hikmet who spent much of his life in prison.

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: What do you not know you love? What do your senses love to embrace that you take for granted? What might change if you become aware of what you love? Could you bring more of these things into your life? How might that change your daily experience?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

There's a funny contradiction that many of us have experienced. In a moment of frustration or irritation, we blurt out, "I could care less." What we don't or won't acknowledge is that this outburst comes because we do care. We care a lot. Our outburst helps us mask the truth and vulnerability that lie down next to the bones. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: Where have you said you could care less?  How true was it? What do you care about that you might have been masking? What do you care about in this world?  How might you collaborate with the world?   That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

This is a time for reviewing and evaluating the past year. It is a time to look at the life we made this year.  This involves taking a longer look which means stepping back a bit. Here's a poem that talks about how we might do that. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

 And, now, for today's prompts: What do you see when you look at this past year? What did you make of your life this year? What might you let go of?  What will you replace it with?  What might you reclaim that you set aside earlier in your life? That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

Most of us are taught to look outside for learning, for habits to cultivate, and for futures to move toward. I think it is only as we grow older that we remember how much we came here knowing. We discover how much innate wisdom and truth we contain. Today's poem from Gil Hedley asks us to think of ourselves as embodying a living testament. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem, followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And, now, for today's prompts: What wisdom is embodied in you?  How much of it have you forgotten? If you haven't thought of this, what wisdom might you find when you look? What truths do you contain - about love, mercy, kindness?  What divine inspiration do you contain?  How might your life change if you were to act upon what you know?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

In this world of noise and cacophony, silence is a luxury to be celebrated. There are gifts within the silence if we are still enough to hear. The Divine often speaks and we exit wiser than when we first sat. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem, followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth. 

And, now, for today's prompts: When was the last time you celebrated the silence? Have you ever perceived the 'undulations' in the silence? What gifts have you received from the silence? How might your life change if you built a period of silence into each day?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

The urge to escape a present moment comes to each of us sometimes. How do we do this? How do we do this in a way that still supports us?  Today's poem brings us some instructions for those moments.

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth. 

And, now, for today's prompts: Have you ever wanted to escape?  Were you able to do so? What was on the other side?  Did it serve you well? Enhance your growth? Or did you find yourself wanting to escape again?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed 

Friends and I were chatting about how often we do things the same way, because that's how we've always done it. We also spoke of how all the learning we were collectively doing was making new pathways in our brains.  I remembered this classic. Although my take is slightly different from the poet's, and the poem is longer than normal, I still think it is worth sharing with you. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth. 

And, now, for today's prompts: How many crooked neural paths have you carved into your brain by repeating old behaviors that no longer serve you? How much time have you lost living your life by rote? What gifts might you have deprived yourself of by doing what others expected of you? What might change if you become more intentional about your life? What might your new path look like?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed

During this time of reassessment and choosing intentions for the New Year, I find myself reminded again of the need to incorporate leisure into my schedule. If I don't set a deliberate intention and calendar the time, I will work from rising to exiting the day. Even knowing the importance of play, old habits die hard.  Today, I bring you a reminder from Rumi about the importance of non-work time. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.  

And now, for today's prompts: What might happen if you made play your first item of business each day?  What would your life look like if you spent your time doing the things that you loved? What would happen to your productivity if you put your soul first? How do you feel about the freedom Rumi gives you to do you your way in his last line? Does it scare you? Or make you feel more secure?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed. 

We've just finished Whale Watch Week here on the Southern Oregon Coast. As I write this, I'm listening to whale song (courtesy of Spotify). There is such joy in knowing these magnificent creatures exist. Seeing them is a lovely way to end the year. They will be back again in March heading north after birthing calves and spending time outside of Mexico. It is a quarterly circuit unmapped by calendars and just as certain. In honor of the whales, all of them, today's poem is Humpbacks. It was my introduction to the poetry of Mary Oliver. 

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem, followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth. 

And now, for today's prompts: What will you try to do with your life in this coming year? What are the dreams of your body and spirit? How will you bring the joy of the whales with you into your endeavors? Will you remember to sing as you move through the year? How will you nourish and nurture your "original fire" throughout this coming year?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed.

The New Year is finally here, full of possibilities. Some have made detailed plans for the future, while others come with a 'wait and see' attitude. However you reach this day, know that you have 365 days of potential, of sunrises and sunsets, and seasons of potential. How will you label them? How will you live them?

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day I'll be bringing you a poem followed by some questions to ponder. Use them as journaling prompts or think about them during the day. My hope is that they serve as tools for insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

And now, for today's prompts: What knowledge from the last year are you bringing into this year? What untouched and still possible hopes are you bringing with you? Will you plan new adventures for this year or wait to see what happens? How will this year be different from last year?  Who do you want to be at the end of this year?

That's all for now. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, Be Blessed.  

We often speak of life as a journey, but that is taking a longer view than reality allows. The truth is that life is a series of moments we label "here and now". This is where changes are made. This is where we decide to move forward, take a step to improve, and redouble our efforts (or not). Poet David Wagoner points out that it's the decisions we make in the 'Getting There' that determine who we are and from where we will start again.

Hello and Welcome to Poetry and Prompts.  This podcast began in November during National Podcast Post Month with a challenge to post 30 podcasts in 30 days.  I took a break in December and I'm  thrilled to be back with this first offering of the New Year. I hope you are too.

Here are your prompts for the day. What did you want to be by the time you reached this day? What have you learned so far? What do you hope to accomplish on this new year's journey? What will you bring with you - hopes, fears, intentions? What regrets will you leave behind? They say that NOW is the only moment of clarity and power - what clarity and power are you experiencing in this moment? What do you know to be true as you enter this New Year of possibilities?

That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more Poetry and Prompts. Until then, Be Blessed

Welcome to Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica, and I'll be bringing you a poem every day (old and new, known and unknown)  followed by writing prompts. Use the prompts for your journal or ponder them throughout the day. You are likely to find insight, new awareness, and personal growth.

This podcast grew out of my decades-long experience as a writer who frequently finds journaling prompts in poems; and the two and a half years that I have been sharing poems with a group of friends and followers via email. 

Poetry and Prompts began as a 30-challenge for National Podcast Post Month. After completing the challenge, I took December off, and now I'm back for the new year. I hope you enjoy both the poems and the insights you are likely to get from the prompts. Thanks for joining me at Poetry and Prompts.

Sometimes, when I get a case of the 'sorry's" and begin to think I got the short end of the stick, I like to remind myself how lucky and rich I am to be living in our world today. I begin to look at all the support and resources I have in the here and now. Poet Gregory Orr has written a poem reminding us "This is What Was Bequeathed Us." Today's questions: What might it look like to sing your life awake? What changes might have to happen? What can you do right here and right now to make changes? What can you do to remember that this is all you have?

Thank you for joining me on  Poetry and Prompts. My name is Jessica and each day during the month of November, I have brought you a poem followed by some questions that I hope prompted you to think about your life in a different way. This is the last in our current series. We began this podcast as part of the  National Podcast Post Month (NaPodPoMo) Challenge to post 30 podcasts in 30 days. I liked this so much that I will be continuing. I'll be taking December off and I'll be back on January 1, 2023 with new selections. If you would like to be notified, send an email to PoetryandPrompts@gmail.com 

That's all for today. And that's all for this month.  Until the New Year, Be Blessed.

Often, we go through our mundane days seeking understanding, insight, and knowledge.  In short, we seek enlightenment. We strive and we drive and we are often disappointed. Poet, John Welwood has a different take. He urges us to 'Forget about enlightenment'.  Today's questions:  What might your life look like if you "opened your heart to who you are, right now"?  What might you hear if you listened to 'the wind singing in your veins'?  Is it possible that you are right where you need to be and in the condition you need to be in?  What might happen if you saw that 'all of you is holy'?  How might your life be different?  Tune in tomorrow for more Poetry and Prompts. Until then, Be Blessed.

It is a gift to learn to be quiet in a world full of noise. Especially, when you are often part of that noise as you work to 'save the world' and 'make things right.' Meditation helps. Setting up the structure of time and saying 'I will sit here and breathe'  is helpful, even if done inexpertly. I find that silence and breathing are teachers when I learn to listen. Martha Postlewaite tells us about the importance of making a space in her poem "Clearing". Today's questions: How might you create a clearing in your life?  What might you hear if you were to sit and wait patiently? What could you learn about how to give yourself to this world?  Tune in tomorrow for more Poetry and Prompts. Until then, Be Blessed.

 Many of us are collectors. We collect stuff and store stuff.  This included tangible items such as vinyl records, cookbooks, tools, things we really like and feel good about having around (even when they are in storage). And then there are the feelings, all the times we were wounded, or felt we had failed, or when things didn't turn out the way we expected.  It fills our hearts and minds like our stuff fills our houses and our storage units, until we cannot pack one more thing inside.  Maybe, like Jeffrey Harrison's poem, we have had "Enough".  Maybe it's time to let it go. Today'  questions: If you were to let go of things that no longer serve you, what would you put on the list?  What feelings, hurts, old memories would you let go of?  What might happen if you let them go, just for today?  And, if each day you made the decision to let those hurtful feelings go, what might the outcome be?  Is it worth experimenting?  Tune in tomorrow for more Poetry and Prompts. Until then, Be Blessed.

Do you have days where you think you have too many problems? How many of those problems are you hanging on to? What else are you clinging to? So much of moving forward is about letting go.  Letting go of problems, stuff, attitudes, assumptions, and ways of thinking is often done with great reluctance. We hold them close because we know them and we fear what may take their place. We use them to fence ourselves off, protecting us from the world. Greg Kimura addresses this issue in the poem "Too Many Problems". Today's questions:  Can you list the 'magnificent problems' that make up your life? What might happen if you let them go? How might your life change if you accepted that you were made of pure love?  Tune in tomorrow for more Poetry and Prompts. Until then, Be Blessed.

Do you have hope for the future? For the past? Someone asked poet Robert Frost that question. His answer, I think, came from the wisdom of years.  Today, I'm bringing you a poem by David Ray who wrote  "Thanks, Robert Frost" in appreciation for Frost's answer to that question. Today's questions: Do you have hope for the future? How about hope for the past? Your past? What have you gained from your past, no matter how easy or challenging it was? Does thinking about the casualness of Frost's answer affect how you receive his words?  Tune in tomorrow for more Poetry and Prompts. Until then, Be Blessed.

 I make it a practice to collect words that inspire and comfort in hard times. Words that can serve as a mantra or a blessing as I walk through my days. Plenitude is one such word. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary identifies plenitude as Completeness, the quality or state of being full,  and Abundance, 'a great sufficiency'.  It's good that this fullness is not limited to the physical as there are many ways of the soul feeling full. I dream of living a life filled with 'a great sufficiency.'  Today's questions: In what ways do you make a retreat from the world? What would 'a great sufficiency' mean for you? How can you find moments to feel 'full'? Where might you find a benediction in your day? Take note of your answers and savor them. Tune in tomorrow for more Poetry and Prompts. Until then , Be Blessed.

Studies have repeatedly shown that Gratitude increases our immunity among other health benefits. It is good to find gratitude, even in hard times, even for those gifts that were not intended to help.   Here is an ironic poem from Kim Shuck, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma talking about finding gratitude in harmful 'gifts', including the smallpox-laden blankets that were given to Native Americans.  Today's questions: What are the gifts in your life from "those who didn't intend to give anything at all"?  How have you benefited from their care? Who would you list and how would you thank them for the gifts you received?  How might you carry this into the wider world in our current circumstances?  Tune in tomorrow for more Poetry and Prompts. Until then, Be Blessed.

When we meet with obstacles in our lives, we have a choice.  We can let ourselves be stopped or we can figure out a way over, under, around, or through the obstacle. We can also learn to treat the obstacle as a gift that is there to help us advance. What stands in our way becomes the way and moves us forward. Today, Alison Luterman reminds us 'Because Even the Word' obstacle is an obstacle. Today's questions: What is an obstacle in your way?  How can this obstacle help you advance? How can this obstacle become the way?  When have you created an obstacle by thinking "obstacle"?  When have you used an obstacle to advance on your path? Tune in tomorrow for more Poetry and Prompts. Until then , Be Blessed.

It feels good to be right. Full, whole, with no cracks of uncertainty, we stand unmoveable, like an ancient vase on a pedestal, daring others to admire us. What new truths might we be missing? What knowledge are we keeping out? As Leonard Cohen famously sang, "Cracks are how the light gets in." Today, Yehuda Amichai talks about The Place Where We Are Always Right.  And today's questions are: Where, in your life, do you know you are right? What flowers and whispers in the world might you be missing? What might happen if you allowed cracks for deep listening to those you have deemed 'wrong'? What new knowledge might you gain? How might your heart expand?  Tune in tomorrow for more Poetry and Prompts. Until then , Be Blessed.

It seems odd to think that in sitting still, we may find everything. Yet, this theme shows up over and over to those of us who listen. Here, poet Jennifer Paine Welwood has another take on the issue. Today's questions: What if you took the time to sit with yourself today? What if you stayed open to whatever messages you received? How might your understanding change?  How might your life be different? That's all for today. Tune in tomorrow for more Poetry and Prompts. Until then, Be Blessed.

Do you look outside yourself for answers? I'm guilty of sometimes doing that? Asking myself What would other people do? What does the media tell me? The is not a new phenomenon.  Today, I bring you a message from the 6th Century, penned by Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher, founder of Taoism and  author of the Tao Te Ching.  Questions:  How do you feel when you hear that no one has the answer but you?  What might be keeping you from recognizing or acknowledging that you have the answer? Social pressure? The way you were raised?  Community expectations  such as school, workplace, church, or volunteer organization?When you look to the center of your being, what is your answer?  That's all for today.  Please join me tomorrow for another poem and another set of prompts.  Until then, Be Blessed. 

Have you always known that you would end up where you are right now, right here?  Neither did I.  But, I'm grateful for all the turns and false starts, I've traveled. I've ended up here with a richness of experience that I couldn't have imagined in all my predictions for my future.  I know that I'm in good company.  As poet Mary Oliver once said in an interview, "Things take the time they take. How many roads did Augustine follow before he became St. Augustine?"  Today's poet, Ruth Feldman,  brings us some thoughts  about the results of getting lost now and again in her poem, Detour. Today's questions:  Are you where you expected to end up? What adventures have you found when your life took a detour?  What might you discover outside of maps?    That's all for today.  Please join me tomorrow for another poem and another set of prompts.  Until then, Be Blessed. 

Author and former nun, Karen Armstrong says that Compassion is a practice. We do it over and over again, gaining an understanding of the nuances with each go-round. Merriam-Webster describes compassion as the  "sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it." I'm learning that alleviation sometimes means to simply give the other person the space to express; to listen deeply.  As today's poet, Miller Williams, tells us, sometimes that means listening deeply with an open heart, to what cannot be expressed. Here are today's prompts:  Do you give yourself the gift of compassion? What might happen if you took time each day to listen to yourself via journaling, drawing, or simply sitting in silence? How might your life be different if you learned to be softer in a hard world?   That's all for today. Until tomorrow, Be Blessed.

Long, long ago, in class far away, I heard a professor say that people act on the truth and that "the truth is what it is perceived to be". I've been thinking about this a lot in the past couple of years hearing people deny facts, science, and what is clear to others. It is also an apt phrase for our private lives. If we perceive the world as hurtful, we have the opportunity to experience more hurt. The same is true for love and kindness. Today, I'll share poet David Whyte's take on the topic in his poem, Sweet Darkness. Today's questions: What might happen in your life if you let go of everything "that does not bring you alive"? What would you let go of first? With what that is enlivening would you fill the empty space? What could you let go of today?  That's all for now. Until tomorrow, Be Blessed.

It is natural for us to search for guidelines for our life. Some find it in the Golden Rule, the Boy Scout Oath and Scout Law, a specific religious doctrine, a guru's guidance, or some googled "Essential Rules for Life". But, what if all the guidance we needed was to remember to love? Today's poem is Guidelines by Rhina Espaillat. Today's questions: What are your guidelines for living?  Did you choose them or simply fall into the guidelines that someone else had? What would you actively choose as guidelines? What might happen in your world if love became your only guideline?  That's all for today. Until tomorrow, Be Blessed.

This poem by Julia Kooken has been one of my favorites since the 80's. I invite the men to consider what their version of this vision of "I want to live to be..." would look like. Here are today's questions:  How do you want to be? How do you describe 'sheer joy'? What would you choose to do that would make you an "outrageous old woman" (or man)?  How can you incorporate more of these into your daily life? If the poet's descriptions of how she wants to live don't suit you, what would you replace it with?     Until tomorrow, Be Blessed.