☀️ The Daily Boost #842

Survival can be like this + A BONUS DIG

The Daily Boost (published weekdays) is one of the newsletters of The Raft, the online community of author Phyllis Cole-Dai. We Rafters ride the river of life buoyed by music, poetry, and other arts, along with open spiritual practice. Most everything here is free, but patrons (paid subscribers) get some special perks because Phyllis is extra grateful for their support. Sign up here:

Photo by Parker Gibbs on Unsplash

BEFORE
Ada Limón

No shoes and a glossy
red helmet, I rode
on the back of my dad’s
Harley at seven years old.
Before the divorce.
Before the new apartment.
Before the new marriage.
Before the apple tree.
Before the ceramics in the garbage.
Before the dog’s chain.
Before the koi were all eaten
by the crane. Before the road
between us, there was the road
beneath us, and I was just
big enough not to let go:
Henno Road, creek just below,
rough wind, chicken legs,
and I never knew survival
was like that. If you live,
you look back and beg
for it again, the hazardous
bliss before you know
what you would miss.

(My thanks to Ada Limón, via Poetry Foundation.)

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BONUS DIG: Here on The Raft, a Dig is a creative writing prompt (though you could tweak it for other creative media too). You never know when a Dig is going to pop up.

Today, let’s follow the lead of Ada Limón. See how she uses the repetition of “before” to create a wide chasm between the innocence of childhood and the knowledge of “now”?

Using the same preposition (“before”), or choosing a different one from this list, write a poem or other text that makes use of that repeated word to achieve a desired effect.

If you’d like, share your creation in the comments.

The Gentle Nudge

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