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THEMES by PROMPT
We publish writing using a series of prompts as an entry point for exploring emotions, personal histories, shared truths, joy, grief, shame, and those themes that matter most to us in our hearts.
Explore the themes by prompt below:
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Jan 28
The Love of Words
By Leslie Fiering — You loved words. You loved reading them, writing them or using them to teach. Whether you passed that love on to me
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Dec 21, 2024
LESSONS TAUGHT
By Galya Bacheva — Through the haze of my memory, I see bunches of them. Five girls, two boys, another three in the corner. Day in, day out,
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Nov 8, 2024
Barns End
By Rick Bailey — I’ve got barns on my mind. I’m driving across Illinois on 88 West. This is corn country. On this bright sunny afternoon,
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Oct 22, 2024
THE CULTURE OF PEACE
By Dr. Ashok Chakravarthy Tholana — Discrimination and intolerance cannot strengthen peace. They are enemies for destabilizing the culture
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Aug 7, 2024
Wisconsin Passages
By Darrell Petska — Like reclining bodies these Baraboo hills lie, where Sauk and Ho-Chunk, Fox and Kickapoo tribes weaved earth and
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Jul 28, 2024
Today, at 70
By Lee Ann Stevens — I am grateful for my parents. Sane, steady, able to let go. I am grateful for the body I was born in. Healthy.
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Apr 19, 2024
The Man in the Blue Cadillac
By Wayne Russell — It was just a short walk, about half a mile, but I was only five and the distance seemed much further. Out of nowhere
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Feb 14, 2024
For Dad
By Taylor Kemp — There will come a time when my dad is no longer on this Earth. He will no longer be there to calm my anxieties, give me his
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Nov 25, 2023
My cat Baloo
By Laura Schaefer — I never knew how to love until you taught me with every sandpaper kiss on my cheek. I feel like my whole world is
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Nov 4, 2023
Safety and Home
By Mary Bone — We are staying safe in a world of chaos ,seeking justice on a daily basis. Supporting each other helps us heal. It is great
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Jun 29, 2023
Bilingual
By Deborah Diemont — To float between expressions, hummingbirds beat manic verses, testing sentences, parents' dreams. Carnival gunpowder
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Jun 23, 2023
The night will be for day dreamers
By Brian Michael Barbeito — A band I never saw, not w/my eyes anyhow. I was sitting at the top of a large ship, a ship that was around seven
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May 12, 2023
Catching Up with Millie
By Alex Carrigan — I didn’t cry when I heard you had passed away. I wouldn’t until three months later when we placed
your urn in the ground
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Apr 5, 2023
WHERE DOES WATER COME FROM?
By Angela Ezekiel — At this bank with hasty plopping water came a walking thought into a little mind, where life
is jolly and play, a world
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Feb 18, 2023
AGAVE
By John Grey — I am grateful that a country puts on an unconscious show for me. What if my coffee drinker shouts to me, "Yankees in five"
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Jan 9, 2023
On reaching old age
By Colin Ian Jeffery — Time is fleeting in its passing and does jolt the memory,
recalling images of long ago when life seemed to stretch
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Dec 1, 2022
The Setting Sun
By Rupsingh Bhandari — Cold breezes inaugurate their evening rally. Shadows gather to incubate night. The sun withdraws its light. Blankets
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Nov 19, 2022
Grandma Lives With Dead People
By Susan M. Vilardo — Grandma could weave magic with her words. One minute we were all outside with smeared PBJ faces and the next minute we
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Oct 19, 2022
Friend
By Michael H Brownstein — When I first saw you, you felt like a breeze on a hot summer's day and I knew I had to stay in your way. You had
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Sep 21, 2022
Group Photo.
By Oladejo Abdullah Feranmi — On days when grief was so hard to scrub off time's face, I crawled into the mug shot where happiness tore the
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