The Inklings prompt for this month came from Linda.
“This prompt comes from an Instagram post of the redroompoetry account:
“Find a poem you like, or one you don’t like. Write the first 6 lines of the poem. Under each line write your own response. Delete the original lines, use what you have as a beginning for your poem.” Tusiata Avia #30in30 writing prompt.”
I chose Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” as my core poem.
I have a small amount of trauma around this poem, caused by an English professor who used it to bully long ago me. That might account for the responses I wrote to each line!
I like how the final version turned out and I’d like to go back and tell that English professor that I stand by my belief that Frost’s poem is not sad, nor is it negative. Frost was simply telling it like it is: the things that are gold really cannot stay. But all is not lost — there are new “golds” just around the corner of every day and spring WILL come again.
Here’s what the other Inklings came up with (and Margaret has the Poetry Friday roundup this week):
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
I love this prompt and will definitely be experimenting with it. Glad you got your sweet revenge.
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Wonderful rebuttal to that English professor! And isn’t gold especially beautiful /wonderful BECAUSE it can’t stay? xo
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(True, Irene….) Way to make gold out of professorial lemons, Mary Lee. I do love your fighting spirit. (Your linocut “YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS” greets me each day in my studio, btw! ;0) )
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I’m loving seeing the Inkling variations on this form. So curious how each of Frost’s line inspired yours. I tried a few and felt like I was sort of copying or echoing the poet’s phrases as opposed to coming up with my own. Yours feels so cohesive. Thank you! I’ll keep trying.
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Linda’s prompt has been really fruitful for y’all. I’m kind of shocked that the professor didn’t let you have your own opinion in peace, Mary Lee. Education is the lighting of a fire, after all.
I’m especially struck by lines 5 and 6.
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How bold of you to try this challenge in rhyme and to work in a response for your English teacher! Wow! The line “Increase will always decrease” popped out for me.
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Thank you for showing the progression paired with the original poem. I will be trying this prompt.
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Such a wonderful prompt and I love how you responded to Frost’s poem (sweet revenge and all). I agree with Irene; whatever is transient is all the more beautiful and valued precisely because we know change is inevitable. Nothing pessimistic or negative about recognizing a basic truth about life.
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I’m looking forward to trying this. Thank you for showing the progression of your process. Do you wish you could send this to that professor?
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An admirable choice for a starting poem even without the added history, and you made something as pithy and powerful as Frost. “Acceptance is no cliche” is a reminder I need.
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Mary Lee, I have read your poem several times and really enjoyed the format and the way your thoughts flowed. It’s horrible that your English professor was a bully. Have a great Autumn day.
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