Writing Prompts: I Am Waiting

Free Write Prompt

Make a list of all the things you are waiting for.  Describe the circumstance, or describe none of the circumstances.  Write for 10 minutes. 

Poem Prompt

Using information from your free write, compose an anaphora poem, exploring what you are waiting for.  Use the phrase “I Am Waiting” repeatedly (but not all of the time). Arrange the “I am waiting” statements thematically, or choose a different organizational pattern, but consider how each grouping of “I am waiting” builds urgency. Where do the stanzas/or list of  ‘waiting’ lead us by the end of the poem?

Example Poem

This prompt is inspired by Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem "I Am Waiting." Ferlinghetti 100 years old, the poem 52 years old -- and still relevant.  
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 I Am Waiting
By Lawrence Ferlinghetti 
(The poem is displayed in two columns, but originally written in one.  Read down left side first.)
​
​I am waiting for my case to come up   
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting   
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier   
and I am waiting   
for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting
for the Age of Anxiety
to drop dead
and I am waiting
for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe
for anarchy
and I am waiting
for the final withering away
of all governments
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
 
I am waiting for the Second Coming   
and I am waiting
for a religious revival
to sweep thru the state of Arizona   
and I am waiting
for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored   
and I am waiting
for them to prove
that God is really American
and I am waiting
to see God on television
piped onto church altars
if only they can find   
the right channel   
to tune in on
and I am waiting
for the Last Supper to be served again
with a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
 
I am waiting for my number to be called
and I am waiting
for the Salvation Army to take over
and I am waiting
for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth   
without taxes
and I am waiting
for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am waiting
for a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms
without killing anybody
and I am waiting
for linnets and planets to fall like rain
and I am waiting for lovers and weepers
to lie down together again
in a new rebirth of wonder
​

I am waiting for the Great Divide to be crossed   
and I am anxiously waiting
for the secret of eternal life to be discovered   
by an obscure general practitioner
and I am waiting
for the storms of life
to be over
and I am waiting
to set sail for happiness
and I am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower
to reach America
with its picture story and tv rights
sold in advance to the natives
and I am waiting
for the lost music to sound again
in the Lost Continent
in a new rebirth of wonder
 
I am waiting for the day
that maketh all things clear
and I am awaiting retribution
for what America did   
to Tom Sawyer   
and I am waiting
for Alice in Wonderland
to retransmit to me
her total dream of innocence
and I am waiting
for Childe Roland to come
to the final darkest tower
and I am waiting   
for Aphrodite
to grow live arms
at a final disarmament conference
in a new rebirth of wonder
 
I am waiting
to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again   
youth’s dumb green fields come back again
and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long careless rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn   
to catch each other up at last
and embrace
and I am awaiting   
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder

​Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “I Am Waiting” from A Coney Island of the Mind. Copyright © 1958 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. 

Something Extra

100 years ago (okay 1995)   UNITED STATES OF POETRY was a PBS mini-series of poems about "the diversity of American culture."  Putting poetry in motion and relating it to the stories of everyday life, the series featured video clips of mostly the poets (!) performing their poems (and sometimes Johnny Depp performing one). 

​There is music, fast moving "cadence clips" between episodes, and  BARBARA KRUGER graphics.  (See below for more on Kruger)   Overall, good stuff, but will undoubtedly appear dated in the clip.  Above right is FERLINGHETTI himself, reciting excerpts from his poem.  Bottom right are the credits between episodes--still got some love for its energy.

---

Untitled (Your body is a battleground), Barbara Kruger, 1989

KRUGER is still an active artist  because, as she says in an ART 21 interview:
​​

"Issues about power [and] value unfortunately do not grow old" 
​--Barbara Kruger

How about your writing?  Did the "I am waitings" turn into action? Was your waiting sarcastic? Humorous? Meditative?  Let us hear from you in the comments.