Tonight’s Writing club had a theme of The Great Outdoors as we were joined by Author and Naturalist Susie Spikol! Susie is the Community Programs Director and Naturalist at the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock, NH. Susie helped run the first half of tonight’s meeting. She talked to us about her experiences as a writer, and gave us an insight to the world of a Naturalist. She also told us about some of her upcoming works! She provided us with our first prompt of the night as well, and read to us from some of the books and authors that have inspired her, such as Annie Dillard and Sy Montgomery.
For our first prompt we had a choice between “What animal essence is in you?”, “Imagine a conversation with an animal”, or “I dreamed I was an animal.” These prompts got our writers to look into their wild side, and bring out their inner animal. Tonight’s featured poem, titled “Scarabs”, followed the “What animal essence is in you? ” prompt and was written by Senior Theo Cross:
Scarabs By Theo Cross I take refuge in the ash, sand, and dust. The dark tombs in the desert, long forgotten by man. I linger in utter black with others like me until we are disturbed by a fire in the distance. We scatter, congregate another day wait for when the man kneels, then he shall pay. At the hands of we the many, who feed from dying light. Brothers and sisters Let us feast tonight!
We then took a turn away from animals for our final prompt of the night “Write about something you do know or something you don’t.” In tonight’s feature you can read a poem inspired by this prompt!
I would like to give a special thanks to Susie Spikol for joining us tonight and for sharing with us her knowledge and experience! I would also like to give a shout out to all of the members of the Upperclassmen Writing Club for a great night of poetry!