Writing Prompts: Prayer to the Four Directions

Image by Ray Shrewsberry

Free Write Prompt

Tell me about the four directions from your vantage point.  What is north of you right now? East of you? And so on.  What would you like to summon from each direction? Add a fifth and sixth direction if you like (sky, earth, etc).  Write for 10 minutes.

Poem Prompts

• Using details from your free write, compose a poem that is a prayer to the Four Directions.
• Find your “true north,” meaning orient yourself, and write a poem that lights up the four directions—or just one of the directions. 
• Write a poem summoning something, honoring something, remembering something from each of the directions.

​Write for 15 minutes

Example Poems

Though "Remember" by Joy Harjo does not specifically mention the four directions, it does place the reader in the center of things, and commands the reader to "remember" in multiple directions.  Remember in the direction of the sky, in the direction of your ancestors, in the direction of the earth, the wind, the languages. The speaker's voice is authoritative, so we experience what the speaker says to be true. And we wish we had heard this in the church of our youth, as it is the perfect text to teach the concept that. you. are. the universe. You are within the sacred hoop.

If you have forgotten where you are. If you are lost and seeking true north, this poem (indeed each of the example poems) will help you "echolocate" once again. 

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Remember by Joy Harjo

"Remember." Copyright ©1983 by Joy Harjo from She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo. 
​

Stone Rose by Denise Low

Lost by David Wagoner

​Share your lines in the comments about due north, south, east or west--about ancestors, sky, earth and language. 
Cheers, friends!

Six Prayers by Ralph Salisbury

Thunderer     God of the turbulent sky     may
my turbulent mind shape
for my people
rain clouds
beans
pumpkins
and yams.

East Spirit
Dawn Spirit     may
birds awaken in
the forest of teeth
whose river     your color     must say
frozen mountains’
prayer that you
will loosen them.

Spirit of the North
whose star is our
white mark
like the blaze we chop in the black bark
where the trail home
divides
even in
our homes
we need
you to guide.

Spirit of the Sunset West
may gray clouds
hiding friends from me
glow
like yours
that we grope
toward each other through
a vivid rose.

Spirit of the South
direction of
warm wind
warm rain
and the winter sun
like a pale painting of a morning glory
help me     Spirit     that in my mind humble things
a man may give to his child may grow
the blue of berry
orange of squash
crimson of radish
yellow of corn
when the green of even the tallest pine
is wolf tooth white.

Spirit of the Earth
keeper of Mother Father
Sister Brother
loved ones all
once praying
as I pray
or in some other way
Spirit     the black dirt
is like the black cover of
a book whose words
are black ink I can
not read
but I place my brown hand
on snow
and pray that more than snow
may melt.

Ralph Salisbury, “Six Prayers” from Rainbows of Stone. Copyright © 2000 by Ralph Salisbury. ​