Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for Tuesdays Slice of Life Challenge.
I am honored to be writing with friends. Recently I read the book My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout. I loved this book, but I am not going to write a book review. What I did was took a page, page 191 to be exact, and stole the first line along with the form. “At times these days I think of the way the sun would set on the farmland around our small house in the autumn.” The rest of the page is one long sentence beautifully flowing and drawing me in to the scene.
I am not Elizabeth Strout, but I can pretend for a moment that I am. I wrote.
At times these days I think of the ways the trees look in winter, all that bareness, the blue sky open beyond as wide as the ocean, and how birds are exposed on the branches, last year’s nest an unhidden cluster, and I search in my own life for meaning, trying to make a life when things are not as they seem, when all the leaves are gone, the quiet branches of a tree in winter, and the sky above, open and alive. –Margaret Simon
Then I invited some writing friends to write from the same prompt. Here are their responses.
At times these days I think about the ways the ocean invites my attention, as the cliff rises up to meet the road, looking down I feel as if I could reach out and touch the blue stillness, and yet below the surface the cold Pacific digs and pulls showing an endless uncontrollable power calling me towards its vast space that was, is, and will be, long after I am gone. —Julianne Harmatz
At times these days I think about how I will be remembered and if it will be because I made them laugh or because I made them think as I talked and talked and talked when maybe I should have been listening and I think it’s because I am changing into someone who needs more time to reflect and be purposeful instead of someone who needs to charge ahead and get it all done and I guess this makes me seem to be going off in a different direction and I guess I am because it not only looks different but it feels different like somehow I am becoming that person I should have been had other influences not forced me to develop traits for survival and strength instead of personal fortitude and introspection. —Kimberley Moran
At times these days I think about the ways my children’s arms and hearts reach out to me…once their hearts beat inside my womb and mine kept time and half time to theirs, I knew each beat and pull of muscle, each twitch of nerve. Now, they live apart from me, but every fibre of every nerve reacts and responds as it did so long ago when they call about heartbreak, loss, love, and hope. Again, in that moment, we are one body and our hearts beat in rhythm again. —Tara Smith
Then we talked about the process. The writing of it and how we each came to it with our own unique lens. The beauty of this. And how we can do this for our students. How when we write together in community, not only does our creativity flow, our connection is enriched.
But we also talked about trust. How we wrote and shared because we trust each other. When we write alongside our students and build a community of writers, trust must be present. The students need to trust each other, and they need to trust me. That I will honor their words and honor the place they came from. Real writing comes from a vulnerable place. We need to experience this vulnerability ourselves in order to understand it in our students. A teacher of writing must be a writer. This is what I believe and this is what my friends writing together proved.
Reflections on the Teche 
Honored to call you my dear friend and teacher.
Yes, Margaret, a teacher of writing must be a writer. It is voice that moves our soul to sing. Your prose piece on winter has such a poetic quality to it. I would like to place it in the gallery. Do you have a photo of one of your beautiful Louisiana trees to accompany it?
I’ll send it to you along with a picture. Thanks. I was a bit surprised at myself.
It is a post like this that makes me want to jot the amazing words that come from a conscious stream of thought and discover how I can create this same effect with my thoughts and words and who knows maybe even share those words with writers who I know will write something nice about how my words touched them or perhaps made them feel or think.
Awesome sentences came from that beginning!
I am just now beginning to understand how very important it is to write to be a writing teacher and feel blessed to find inspiration and wisdom in blogs like yours. The vulnerability factor is high and recognizing that has been so powerful to me.
What a great experience this was for our writing group – looking forward to many more!
Beautiful, Margaret. What a lovely beginning to a sentence. Funny how all the writing that came out of it was just as beautiful as the starter.
I’ve heard so much about that book. I’ll have to read it.
What a great share, Margaret. I loved that book! Always happy to share a writing life with you, my friend!
I loved the concept of looking for a great line and using it as a prompt. It worked so well for our writing group and I think it would be a great way for kids to find their own writing prompts–jumping off places.
Margaret, your sentence takes my breath away. I can see that “blue sky open beyond as wide as the ocean.” I loved My Name is Lucy Barton, and love the writing you, Tara, Julieanne, and Kimberley created in response to that opening line. I’m so grateful to be able to write and learn with you!
Sometimes when you’re writing, you find magic. This was that kind of magic. We all felt it. I wish I could make this happen every time, but as Elizabeth Gilbert tells us it’s not all big magic.
I was absolutely taken with this prompt and I had to stop before writing a comment to write to it myself. Thank you, Margaret, for this sharing. I guess I will tuck this writing away. It is not one I can share on my blog. I’m going to email it to you – just so you know what it is.
Thank you for honoring me with your writing.
I have the book, now want to put it higher on my list, Margaret. Your catching of that beautiful part, and using it as a prompt for your group is wonderful. I loved reading each one’s response. How nice to experience what you want your students to experience.
Linda, I hope you do pull Lucy Barton forward. I read it very quickly. Masterful craft of stream of conscious writing. Sometimes a prompt is magical.