Part of my morning check-in with myself is to freewrite for about ten minutes sometimes using the writing prompt in the image below. This is taken from Gail Sher’s zen-inspired essays in the book One Continuous Mistake: Four Noble Truths for Writers

 

I write in my writer’s notebook, scribblings in image below.  You will note that I have also highlighted my scratchy cursive. Consider this a first and a second draft.

 

 

I pull out the yellow highlights in a third draft and then highlight again for a fourth draft as seen below.

 

I write another draft using a very simple word processing tool, IAWrite, then copy and paste below:

 

Thought Crossings

I stop for those trains

railcars of thought freight:

Spring in 3 months–
I am retired–
I need cognitive sinks–
I was a very complex child, violent and afraid all the time–
I still live in fear.

That’s a supply chain that keeps on rolling
<clank, clank, clank>
without interruption.

 

And lastly, an image to accompany the text:

Poetry is constructed and then rewilded thought. It only appears to run smoothly down the rails.