Would it have made a difference?

collaborative prompts--with poems by Nikita Gill, Jamaica Baldwin, Sharon Olds & JKG

Who hasn’t wondered at some point, whether their actions might have made a difference in their past? And who hasn’t tried to imagine a different narrative, a gentler history, a version of a loved one who would not cause that suffering?

This photo, with a caption in my mother’s handwriting, is circa the summer of 1976 in Milwaukee. My mother is heavily pregnant with me & seated beside my father, my grandmother (holding my older cousin) & one of my aunts. When I look at this photo I want to tell the histories of everyone in it. But more than that, I want to go back in time, before my birth—and try to prevent so much of the suffering that is coming—I want to be time traveler, poet, historian, curator & meddler.

I read the Nikita Gill poem (below) online soon after Father’s Day & it struck me as an example of how powerful poetry can be in giving us emotional, artistic & psychological agency. Then, I crowdsourced writing prompts by asking friends on social media to give me ideas.

How might we perform revisions of personal histories in our writing? How might curiosity & imagination play into writing the grief poem?

(Interested in taking a workshop, poetry feedback, manuscript guidance or mentorship?)

Okay! Ready to write?