Author Archives: Wizard Woodsy

For this exercise, I took excerpts from the first eight weeks of my journal, written months before this course started. Although months have passed, I have days when I feel exactly as awful as I did in those first weeks. There are days that I focus on surviving–making it to the end of school soContinue reading “Prompt #26 ~~ 01/31/21”

Today’s prompt: I’m only going to give you this one direction. Read this poem, and as quickly as possible, write. Write anything and everything that comes to you, rushes through you, enters your heart and your mind. Don’t think. Just write. I always encourage that – the ‘don’t think, just write” – but this particularContinue reading “Prompt #25 ~~ 01/30/21”

Today’s prompt: When have you felt yourself drop deeper, click in, to something larger than yourself? Were there moments when the pain of loss felt – different? Gentler, somehow? Can you describe the quality of difference? For some, it may be almost like your personal center of gravity shifts – something visceral happens. Have youContinue reading “Prompt #24 ~~ 01/29/21”

Today’s prompt: Today’s prompt has us borrowing love. If the one you love were still here, how would they love you in this? How would they care for you? How would they see you? Can you access their love for you in that way, to imagine how they would tend to you if they knewContinue reading “Prompt #23 ~~ 01/28/21”

Today’s prompt: At the end, there was a door . . . (Write as Cooper, from beyond.) At the end, there was a door . . . And through that door, I found myself. The Coop I knew. The Coop I liked. The gentle giant. The mountain man. The boy who knew pure joy. IContinue reading “Prompt #22 ~~ 01/27/21”

Today’s prompt: Choose something. Anything. The more ordinary, the better. Shoes. Kitchen table. Garden hose. Bookshelves or tea pots or underwear drawers. Choose anything as your subject. Write: I remember… I remember . . . what? Hands. Cooper was born with big hands. By the time he was two or three, his hands were bigger thanContinue reading “Prompt #21 ~~ 01/26/21”

Today’s prompt: Forgetting to remember. What does a shift in your grief, even a tiny, momentary one, mean to you? What does it say about loss? Or love? I’m pretty new to this process. Five months. Twenty-two weeks. I’m not sure I’ve had many times when I’ve forgotten to remember. There’s not been a weekContinue reading “Prompt #20 ~~ 01/25/21”

Today’s prompt: Begin your writing with the phrase: “I remember…” Or, alternately: “I want to remember…” Or, shift back and forth between: “I want to remember” and “I need to forget…” Just begin, and let the writing guide you.  Memories. Man, is that a loaded word. Today is five months since Cooper died by suicide. The memories–good, bad,Continue reading “Prompt #19 ~~ 01/24/21”

Today’s prompt: Today, I’d like you to craft a blessing for the others in this space. Knowing what you know about loss and about love, what blessing would you give to the others in this group? What do you wish for others who enter this path of pain behind you? Reflect on this for aContinue reading “Prompt #18 ~~ 01/23/21”

Today’s prompt: Grief is everywhere. Especially in early days, everything is connected to grief – whether it’s something they loved or touched, something that only exists now because they’re gone, or something seemingly random that stirs up a memory or ignites longing. Grief is everywhere. It comes attached to everything. Nothing is exempt. It’s theContinue reading “Prompt #17 ~~ 01/22/21”