Gratitude and Grit
A couple of years ago, I had one session of Bewilderness Writing focused on poems related to “grit and gratitude,” remembering that not all gratitude is the same. Sometimes, it comes long after an event we would never deem worthy of our thankfulness at the time, or sometimes, it comes from a simple shift in our perception of things.
Below are some poems with writing prompts that I hope might help you through whatever is challenging you. I’m a big believer in working it out on the page, hoping to come out on the other side with a sense of renewal.
Describe a time in the past when you “lost heart” and yet were eventually able to return to the moment at hand. What brought you back? See if you can describe it with strong sensory detail.
Chore by Angela Narciso Torres
How might you bring a sense of the sacred and reverence to your everyday activities? Is there a chore that has changed, or might be changed, into an act of mindfulness or devotion?
The Grove by Michael Kleber-Diggs
Notice how, as Kleber-Diggs speaks in the voice of trees, he seems to be speaking for all of humanity at the moment as well. Choose some group of living things from the natural world and write in their voice, describing how it feels to be them in a world like this.
By Ellis Elliott, Bewilderness Writing, https://bewildernesswriting.com/
Writer. Poetry Collection, Break in the Field, Devil’s Party Press, 2023. A Fire Circle Mystery: A Witch Awakens cozy mystery novel coming in 2025.
OLD SCRATCH PRESS 
I like the title of this article because it suggests that villains may have at least 1 good quality (may not be all bad). I wrote a poem about Bonnie Parker, a notorious US bank robber/murderer “empty your thanks into Bonnie’s feed bag” for Thanksgiving where Bonnie is grateful for the money the bank gives her. My poem imagines that while Bonnie is a villain she has 1 virtue, the ability to feel gratitude. Writing a villain with at least one virtue makes it easier for the reader to view them as credible and connect with them.
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