A Place to Breathe

This is the Open Write, a place for educators to nurture their writing lives and to advocate for writing poetry in community. We are organizing 30 days of poetry in April for National Poetry Month: Verselove. Pledge here to write one or more poems with us.

Our Host

Sarah J. Donovan, PhD, is a former junior English language arts teacher of fifteen years and current Associate Professor of Secondary English Education at Oklahoma State University (since 2019). She wrote the young adult novel, Alone Together (2018) and is the co-author on several books on poetry Rhyme and Rhythm: Poems for Student Athletes, Teachers Writing to Bridge the Distance, 90 Ways of Community, and Words that Mend. Two forthcoming books include Teaching Poetry in a Digital World: Inspiring Poetry Writing through Technology in Grades 6-12 and Writing to Learn Across Content Areas: Poetry as Formative Assessment. Sarah is the founder of Ethical ELA, a free resource for ELA educators to write poetry in community.

Inspiration

Citizen of Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Christine Hartman Derr writes in “A Place to Breathe” (see the original poem for spacing and italics):

Off the path,
behind some trees,
a clearing sits
and waits for me.

A forest symphony,
a place for finding tohi.
Here
I can simply be 

(Click the link above for the full poem and listen to Christine read the poem with Cherokee language in the interview below.)

Process

Sometimes I find that I am holding my breath throughout the day or in certain situations. I have to actually remind myself to exhale to breathe, to take a deep inhale and feel my lungs filling up. I can do that anywhere, but there are places where I just know I will be alright and don’t have to remind myself to breathe.

• Where or what are the places that wait for you?
• Where are the places and who are the people around which you can simply be?

Write in any form you wish or borrow Christine’s first lines to get you started. You can try some rhyme in the first stanza if you want to see how it feels in your writing today.

Sarah’s Poem

In the dark
under covers
a stillness holds
and waits for me.

Behind my eyelids
a place of darkness
I choose to travel
with my blood.

Here
I can follow the flow
inhaling rhythms
muscling toward toes

Those partial thoughts
that whisper of doubt
drown in the streams
carrying life

The tour of fingers
writing fiction tingles
blades pulling down
shouldered worries

One more breath
catches in my throat
and I turn over
for rest.

Your Turn

Now, scroll to the comment section below to write your own poem. (This is a public space, so you may choose to use only your first name or initials depending on your privacy preferences.) Not ready? That’s okay. Read the poems already posted for more inspiration. Ponder your own throughout the day. Return later. And, if the prompt does not work for you, that is fine. All writing is welcome. Just write something. Oh, and a note about drafting: Since we are writing in short bursts, we all understand (and even welcome) the typos and partial poems that remind us we are human and that writing is always becoming. If you’d like to invite other teachers to write with us, tell them to subscribe. Also, please be sure to respond to at least three writers.