MONDAYS ARE FREE EXERCISES 196—200

[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!

Melanie Faith

Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.

Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.

The Society of Professional Journalists

In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.

I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.

Maxine Greene

Philosopher and Education Scholar

Enter your email here to receive Weekly Wide-Awake

back

MONDAYS ARE FREE EXERCISES 196—200

Flossing. Customer Service. Rage. Hope. Ducks.

EXERCISE 196: PUSH THE SUBJECT

you would never

Write a poem about an activity you engage in that you would never think to write a poem about.

Flossing

I recently read we should floss after every meal. The article claimed it could help you lose weight and save your life. My hygienists, and there have been many over time, say that daily flossing prevents gum degeneration and bad breath and yellowing (which is more common as I stretch into my fifties.) When I was a kid, I would get a milkshake after every dentist appointment. Chocolate was my favorite. That helped. Once, I went a few years without going to the dentist (in protest of a previous hygienist with a judgmental attitude and a harsh touch.) When I returned to the dentist, the pain was enough to make me never want to go back. The never-want-to-go-back instinct often happens to me in gyms and Ashtanga yoga studios and loud dance clubs with much younger people and gatherings where I don’t know anyone and the moment after I apply for a job I don’t want and the three in the morning panic attack in which every awful thing I have ever said about someone is on blast in my mind despite the cat licking my face trying to soothe me.

Weirdly. It all comes back to flossing. It comes back to starting small. It comes back to the incredible strength of small habits. It comes back to healthy pink gums and well cared for foundations. It comes to back to 6-month check ups that keep things from getting too out of line. It comes back to a gentle touch in all things, to ourselves and everyone. It comes back to listening and heeding wise advice. It comes back to finding milkshakes and whatever it is that helps us do hard things. It comes back to listening and understanding and honoring the never-want-to-go-back instinct. It comes back to repetition and habitual ease.

EXERCISE 197: REMOVE THE SCREWS

Write an unhinged poem.

To The Person I Become When Dealing With Customer Service

I am not proud, but I often lose my patience in customer service situations. When I am put on hold for more than 10 minutes. When the music during the wait sounds like a game show. When I get passed along and along and along. Which is related to, when I have to tell the same story repeatedly, over and over again. When I place the umpteenth call asking the same question. When I get conflicting answers from different people on each call. When I am in a help chat and realize I am getting the AI run around from a fake bot named James. When I get cut off after a 15-minute conversation and have to start the process over again.

May my breath always return quickly. May I remember they are someone’s mother or father or son or daughter or brother or sister or Sunshine or Boo or Punkin’ (except if they are a bot, and I simply just need to end the chat and not argue.) May I always keep my grievances in perspective. May I remember the years I waited tables at Olive Garden. May I “seek first to understand rather than be understood.” May I remember everyone is going through something. May I remember how ugly, ugly is. May I practice yoga. May I journal. May I soothe myself with fresh air.

EXERCISE 198: DON’T SELF-EDIT

get it all out

Write a screed or tirade.

You don’t have to be a supermodel/ To do the animal thing/ You don’t have to be a supergenius/ To open your face up and sing — Ani DiFranco

These precious things/ Let them bleed/ Let them wash away/ These precious things/ Let them break/ Let them wash away — Tori Amos

This girl is on fire/ This girl is on fire/ She’s walkin’ on fire/ This girl is on fire — Alicia Keys

I guess I just must be a daredevil/ I don’t feel anything until I smash it up/ I’m caught on the cold, caught on the hot/ Not so with the warmer lot/ And all I want’s a confident/ To help me laugh it off// And don’t let me ruin me/ I may need a chaperon — Fiona Apple

I’m gonna marry the night/ I won’t give up on my life/ I’m a warrior queen/ Live passionately tonight — Lady Gaga

My Song

To opening and singing and supermodels and supergeniuses and the animal thing. To washing and breaking and bleeding and precious things. To being on fire and walking through. To daring and smashing and confidence and laughing and being caught and ruining and chaperones. To passion and nighttime and not giving up.

EXERCISE 199: HOLD CONFLICTING EMOTIONS

rage and disgust and vision and hope

Write a poem that meets the rage and disgust and vision and hope.

Poem

Inspired by “Poem,” by Alice Notley

May the sunrise greet hope not despair or/ Peace flows like rivers that know downstream that wear fossils smooth/ that frame the journey. Seasons breathe. Moons know./ I’m going to live seeking joy’s salvation in connection choosing against pain’s isolation/ I’m going to die there like Lisa dancing to Bowie caring for the whole
snacking on stardust and taking naps when my body needs rest/ Hood refused to enslave from across the street/ I did not know him but carry his story/ May my work provide a structure for justice and embrace tides/ The problem is paying attention shakes me to my bones/ Solnit says change will come in the Sangha and it will look more like love than war/ I would though I know you want to crawl in a hole or move to the moon or/ Seek a sacred constellation to guide us home

EXERCISE 200: DEVELOP A SENSE OF HUMOR

try to

Write a poem about when you were clumsy in love. Try to make it funny.

Ducks

I remember asking you if you knew ducks mate for life. We search for houses. I am used to searching for houses because I have looked for houses and lined kitchen cabinets and selected bedding before. Dating men who are building nests and being knocked out of the tree as the twigs are assembled was familiar to me during that time in my life. Cue eye roll and sigh.// I don’t remember exactly how we met. I probably should. The cobwebs have formed./ I meet your mom and sisters. You are the eldest son. Molé and cabrito. Tequilla and tortillas. Office parties and college buddies. You leave before I am ready. I leave when I am ready. I move across the country. I finally get a cell phone and months later you call me.// I was clumsy not to understand that asking you about ducks was like turning the commitment screws. I was clumsy not to understand house shopping does not equal love. I was clumsy not to understand that timing is everything.

Thank you for reading MONDAYS ARE FREE. These exercises are explorations of poetry and language and joy. Subscribe to the Wide-Awakeness Project to share this journey.

Enter your email here to receive Weekly Wide-Awake

MONDAYS ARE FREE EXERCISES 196—200

Flossing. Customer Service. Rage. Hope. Ducks.

EXERCISE 196: PUSH THE SUBJECT

Flossing

EXERCISE 197: REMOVE THE SCREWS

To The Person I Become When Dealing With Customer Service

EXERCISE 198: DON’T SELF-EDIT

You don’t have to be a supermodel/ To do the animal thing/ You don’t have to be a supergenius/ To open your face up and sing — Ani DiFranco

These precious things/ Let them bleed/ Let them wash away/ These precious things/ Let them break/ Let them wash away — Tori Amos

This girl is on fire/ This girl is on fire/ She’s walkin’ on fire/ This girl is on fire — Alicia Keys

I guess I just must be a daredevil/ I don’t feel anything until I smash it up/ I’m caught on the cold, caught on the hot/ Not so with the warmer lot/ And all I want’s a confident/ To help me laugh it off// And don’t let me ruin me/ I may need a chaperon — Fiona Apple

I’m gonna marry the night/ I won’t give up on my life/ I’m a warrior queen/ Live passionately tonight — Lady Gaga

My Song

EXERCISE 199: HOLD CONFLICTING EMOTIONS

Poem

Inspired by “Poem,” by Alice Notley

EXERCISE 200: DEVELOP A SENSE OF HUMOR

Ducks

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

About Katie

Buy the Book!

Categories