elizabethlevett

Hitting a wall is serious business. What to do? I decided to look for a challenge that would distract me from my usual preoccupation with searching for worthy subject matter, tiptoeing away from current events, and still giving the writing muscles a good stretch. Turns out the New York Times recently offered a five-day “Creativity Challenge.” The prompt for Day 2 suggests creating a poem with a limited list of specific words — kind of like using those refrigerator poetry magnets. It’s surprising and involving. (Not sure if you’re allowed to change tense or change a single to a plural so there were some rough spots.) Here’s my offering. If you’d like to try the five-day challenge, here’s the link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/well/creativity-hobby-activity-routine.html

If the stream wakes overnight

where all we might ever reach was once impossible

If our desert where once we trampled

scatters impossible,

where all we bear is never saved

we fold under all we believe.

We turn it to glass. We turn it all to fine gold.

We hold our candle. We reach home.