Take a few minutes to picture a familiar place, preferably outdoors, that you consider special or meaningful.
Picture yourself in this location. Write a line or sentence that describes what you are doing and exactly where you are.
For example, “sitting on a sandbar on the banks of the Calcasieu River in Indian Village, Louisi- ana.”
Try to describe it, using an unusual or vivid verb in the line.
Shift your perspective and your position—stand up, flop down, walk
away—and notice another detail in the landscape: the quality of light,
the time of day, a seasonal plant or animal, for example.
Finally, read over your images and see if you can conclude with a
reflective line that somehow captures how you feel about being in this place.
Remember to take your time with this line, it may occur to you later as you work on your poem.
The activity for this prompt was drawn from "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” by James Wright that has helped many students write about their own favorite places.
When you finish freewriting you can:
Submit your writing to potentially be published in the River of Words Anthology.