Variation on What I Know For Sure

First Mentor Poem

Inspecting the Garden After Dark
BY JEANNE MURRAY WALKER

Poem Prompt #1

Write about what you know for sure.
Write about the“small things worn by the deep” (Mark Nepo)
Write what everyday things say to you.  
Write about the soul in the everyday. 
Write what you know for sure.  Write for 10 minutes.  Go!

Second Mentor Poem

​I still can’t get it right
BY KATHRYN STRIPLING BYER
 
I don’t know. I still can’t get it right,
the way those dirt roads cut across the flats
and led to shacks where hounds and muddy shoats
skulked roundabouts. Describing it sounds trite
as hell, the good old South I love to hate.
The truth? What’s that? How should I know?
I stayed inside too much. I learned to boast
of stupid things. I kept my ears shut tight,
as we kept doors locked, windows locked,
the curtains drawn. Now I know why.
The dark could hide things from us. Dark could see
what we could not. Sometimes those dirt roads shocked
me, where they ended up: I watched a dog die
in the ditch. The man who shot him winked at me.

Poem Prompt #2

Even in what you supposedly “don’t know” are the things you DO know.  Write about both of them.

For Discussion

I’m not a religious person but
BY CHEN CHEN

Source: Poetry Foundation