Welcome to Poetry Friday! I’m so glad you’re here! You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter
This month it was my turn to choose the Inklings’ challenge. “Make it easy!” someone pleaded, and I thought I did. But after fiddling around with it, I’m not so sure. I think it’s one of those prompts that sounds easier than it is.
Anyway, the prompt I chose was from Audrey Gidman’s advent prompts (here). She wrote:
“Write a poem after Wendell Berry’s “Like Snow” — word for word. Choose a subject: rain, a butterfly, granite, the ocean, anything. Berry’s poem is three lines long. Break down each line. In line one, replace the word “suppose” with something else: what if; in spite of; imagine etc., replace the pronoun and the verb, replace “snow” with your chosen subject. Do the same with the second and third lines. Be sure to write an epigraph that reads “after Wendell Berry”.” I added that everyone should feel free to interpret the prompt in ways that worked for them, including going rogue and writing to another prompt on the link.
As I intimated above, I found these tricky! Here’s Berry’s inspiring poem:
I definitely worked loosely with the prompt. I wrote quite a few of these and would love to keep fiddling and revising. But, it’s time to post, so here are two for today:
Like Rain
after Wendell Berry
Imagine if we fell together
like spring rain, gently, gently
nourishing everything around us.
©Molly Hogan
Like a bud
after Wendell Berry
Suppose we could still unfurl
like a bud, blossoming, blossoming
after enduring winter’s grip
©Molly Hogan
To see what the other Inklings wrote, click on their links below:
Mary Lee @ A(nother) Year of Reading
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Catherine @ Reading to the Core
Nix the comfort zone 
Thank you for a fantastic challenge! Both of your poems are dreamy and hopeful. Just what I need.
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Haha, Molly, I love that there was a plea to “make it easy!” : ) Your interpretations are gorgeous. No need for more tinkering!
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[…] And Molly has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Nix the Comfort Zone! […]
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[…] Hogan is hosting today’s Poetry Friday festivities at Nix the Comfort Zone, where she accepted an Inklings’ challenge to write a poem after Wendell Berry’s “Like […]
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It is only in the application that the true demands of the task fully present. This appears like a task with some clear constraints, but the good news, Molly, is that you successfully rose to the challenge. There is much personal satisfaction to be derived from persistence, Your poems convey a hopeful ,what-if feel to them. A great outcome.
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I think you rose to the challenge quite well, Molly! Well done. And thanks for hosting!
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Hello Molly, thank you for the deceptively simple prompt and for hosting this week. I’m having a grand time with my OLW for ’26…finding child everywhere! I need to update my link to my new PF digs. It’s https://open.substack.com/pub/mitchellhubeimom/p/hello-love?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
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Your poems are lovely, Molly. That sounds like a good prompt to me 🙂 Thanks for hosting us!
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We need those hopeful poems, Molly – thank you! I love the depth in deceptively simple verses. Thanks so much for rounding us all up this week!
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Oh, how beautiful these are, Molly! What a great prompt.
Thanks for hosting this week!
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Oh, boy, yes to that spring rain. Well done, Molly. Thanks for hosting.
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Your poems are Ah, like breathing in spring, they are lovely, bring spring on! Thanks for hosting! And Happy Birthday!!! 🥳 🌸 🎉
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So beautiful, Molly. Thank you for these. Winter’s grip has many meanings for me here…praying for blossoms in all of us. Thank you for hosting and for your generosity. xo, a.
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