And it's hard to choose the words that will be your own — from 'A House Called Tomorrow' by Alberto Rios

The child begins with confident marks, blue ink dripping off brush

Her audience revels in the way her words become art and her art, their story

the way the child ignores them all, their advice, drawing only what she knows

as she always will, if only given a large enough canvas and enough room to write

#nwp inspired by Deanna's Advent Poetry https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1COKCPmzuEXAjqNTBHw0NhHYHo0rOiW9X5kMbV9MHOEs/present?slide=id.g77aca2baa9_0_0

If the world truly ends here, Joy, at the edge of this kitchen table, then let it be laughter that fed us while our dreams drank coffee; love that nourished us at this put-together table pirouetting on broken legs; songs that connected us beneath twirling umbrellas; and words, and words, and more words beyond that, words that burrowed us deep into poems worth sharing

for #nwp, in response to a shared Joy Harjo poem https://poets.org/poem/perhaps-world-ends-here

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ga1CCCIbttDnq3kh0PjQ-0uKkSMMANQ5oNgFWGpa1mA/edit#slide=id.gad813c751f_0_19

We always imagined just one more jump, just one more leap, from this bog to that: trusting the solidity of experience

but not always finding our footing, this forgotten swamp seemingly forever ready to find us – grab us – pull us in

for ancient places still hold; deepened roots with murky remembrances; as we jump one more jump so we leap one more leap

for #nwp https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ga1CCCIbttDnq3kh0PjQ-0uKkSMMANQ5oNgFWGpa1mA/edit#slide=id.gad813c751f_0_5

Shadow Forms

You, with skinned chalked fingers, colored hues, scratching outlines upon an uncomfortable blacktop canvas

Me, in shadow form, standing just still enough to become outline for a vision of ephemeral art

Us, waiting days for the rains, to wash away these impressions, the sky's a critic, nothing else remains

for #nwp

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uB6wxyxa8k47n0zbnABUTcjXFi4pKy8da-kl-dv7jmo/edit#slide=id.ga2c541e1fd_0_27

Penumbra

Some pieces of all of us hide among the shadow spaces of the day

We are unintentionally obscured, filtered by inadequate words

awaiting the moment when light-time filters through and we see each other for the very first time

for #nwp

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uB6wxyxa8k47n0zbnABUTcjXFi4pKy8da-kl-dv7jmo/edit#slide=id.ga2c541e1fd_0_0

Gift

Here, take this note, this melody, this harmony this symphony, this sonata, these interlocking lines tangled in signatures of time, this musical string of something where once nothing was, a listening to your heart from mine

for #nwp

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15ZUuXvQItzworFQdVAOm1sHOK4-yqS4-2rw_Cmf1iuY/edit#slide=id.ga9d652d7da_0_0

Writing Our Way Out of Here

Breadcrumbs become such fragile things, more hope than help when confusion reigns

If this trail has been pecked clean by birds, twittering on the vine, all the time, with incessant noise

take the hand that holds you: each step is the way forward

for #nwp

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nugvl2LYdTikZjHdD82t9MRDyEy6XPEKNKvTYOm0MV0/edit#slide=id.g53e69d01db_0_33

A Writer in the Storm of Night

Awoken by words, the swirling possibilities of poems;

There's wonder in all that never gets scribbled as ideas rage

only catching the wind of night's slumbered musings:

this storm of stories; this lightning, to thunder

for #nwp https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nugvl2LYdTikZjHdD82t9MRDyEy6XPEKNKvTYOm0MV0/edit#slide=id.g53e69d01db_0_5

Look To The Stars

I want the ink that never fades;

to paint the lines, connecting days;

connecting nights, to where we are;

our shared stories:

painted, spoken, sung, wondered, remembered, written

somewhere in the stars

for #nwp writing marathon

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nugvl2LYdTikZjHdD82t9MRDyEy6XPEKNKvTYOm0MV0/edit#slide=id.g53e69d01db_0_22

Undertow

The most powerful currents often flow unseen, unknown, uncharted; its energy fueled by touch and memory, by vulnerability, the moment of our release buoyed only by a means of escape

for #nwp

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nugvl2LYdTikZjHdD82t9MRDyEy6XPEKNKvTYOm0MV0/edit#slide=id.g53e69d01db_0_14