All that you hold dear

/ Fran Haley

Fawn in hands

A new idea is fragile, fleeting

capture it as soon as you can.

Find the meaning

what it makes you think

how it makes you feel.

Nurture it

as you nurture the artist within you

so the idea and the artist will grow.

Play with the words

the images will come.

Play with the images

the words will come.

Trust your inner writer

to find a way

of conveying that idea, that image

so that others think and see

and feel.

There’s power in that fledgling thought

in every feeling connected to

 all that you hold dear.

More power in sharing it

than in holding it tight, unspoken.

Let it breathe

let it live.

It wants to.

It is precious.

Even

priceless.

Inspired by my writing workshop with teachers yesterday on “creating the magic”  – first as a writer, then for your writers.

slice-of-life_individualEarly Morning Slicer

19 thoughts on “All that you hold dear”

  1. The deer is so dear! It took me a moment to get past the gif and into the poem. I then realized that I had done just what you wrote about with my post yesterday. I tried it in prose first and it just wasn’t working. I rewrote it as a poem and found the power that was waiting. Just as you said, “Trust your inner writer to find a way of conveying that idea, that image so that others think and see and feel.”

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  2. The idea of trusting your inner writer is so important … even when you don’t know where to start, start somewhere. Even when the writing zigs, zag with it. Sometimes, the writing ends and never goes anywhere. Sometimes, it heads out on its own into the world.
    Kevin

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  3. Trusting the inner writer may be the very thing that holds so many back from writing. I was lucky in my first few years of teaching, we focused on the teacher as a writer. I’m intrigued by your writing workshop for teachers.

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    • Yes – that was valuable support you received. We must be real writers to grow real writers. Our work needs to live and breathe if we want students’ to. We create the writing atmosphere. I said in the workshop yesterday that writing is putting your soul on the page – it’s deeply personal. It takes courage. I imagine the inner writer leaping for joy at the freedom!

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  4. I’m intrigued by your writing workshop for teachers! This poem gets to the very heart of writing–“More power in sharing it than holding it tight, unspoken.” Slice of Life gives so many of us a purpose for sharing our voices–the nudge a lot of us need to just sit down and let the words flow. Thank you for capturing the power of writing so beautifully!

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    • Thank you so very much! That’s the truth from my own heart, what I know and believe – and have experienced. Teachers need to claim – or reclaim – the power and joy of writing and to carry that forth to the kids. SOL is a perfect venue – I need it myself.

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  9. This is beautiful and such an inspiration for teachers who are afraid to write. Becoming a teacher writer is a message I try to spread. I only wish more would be brave.

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