sunday poem walk 5

a secular meditation on flash nonfiction

Every Sunday, I’ll publish a poem walk - or other activity that brings flash nonfiction to the front.

In a poem walk, the writer engages in an activity and “writes” and memorizes a poem, then puts it to the page when they arrive home. The prompt for this week is: the after.

While strolling, imagine your scene from this month’s writing and ask yourself: What does the after mean? Describe it in as many sensory details as you can remember.

When you get home, you can use your “poem” as a stand alone piece or use it to begin writing a page. For this one, I suggest capping at 250-500 words.

Your “poem” can be anything between one line and a whole paragraph - whatever you can memorize.

I’ll always post my version of the prompt. Mine is below:

The after was all about degrees. I still don't feel like those minutes in the gym with those boys should mean anything. It's nothing compared to death or even injury. It was just - discomfort. I know the experience has weight inside of me, but I also want to erase it. It's easy to erase because it's easy to dismiss, compared to all the big hurt that came later.

And remember - poem walks are free once a month, but paid subscribers can access them weekly.