Write a List

CREATIVE CLOSENESS

Write a list of 7 things you are worried about right now.

Choose one of your worries and write an ode to it. An ode is a poem that praises or glorifies a person, event, or object. You can also write an ode to a feeling, or a memory.

Here’s an excellent example of an ode by the grandmaster themself—Shira Erlichman 👇

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Ode to Lithium #9

Our first kiss wasn’t behind the high school. Not in the movie theater’s back row. Not after the first breakdown. It went like this: Me, released from the hospitaljail with a fresh prescription, one bag packed, staying at a friend’s house, with no exit plan or exist plan. Walking the length of a concrete road, I turned & asked: Has it been cloudy for days — ­ & the sun just came out? She said: No, Shira. It’s been sunny all week. So then. It was your sudden mouth. Your broom that swept the sky of its minor chord. There’s no metaphor here. When I looked up, I saw the sun.

Shira Erlichman. Odes to Lithium. Alice James 2019.
Originally published by The Offing