Big Green Pen

Paula's Perspicacity

You are here: Home / Mama Kat Writers' Workshop / Where I’m From (A Mama Kat Writing Prompt)

Where I’m From (A Mama Kat Writing Prompt)

This week, random.org “assigned” me Mama Kat prompt number five: Your top ten Fall Fashion Favorites. BUT I am not writing to that prompt. I am out of town for a conference so I needed a prompt that did not involve a lot of pictures (and my clothes situation is so dismal right now that I can barely think of ten things to write about). I was pretty captivated, anyway, by prompt number two, the “Where I’m From” poem. The template for the poem can be found here (or at the bottom of this post)
.

Where I’m From
I am from other people’s words bound between covers, from Advil and vacillating between being incessantly driven and wanting to fall asleep …. RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW.
I am from caution.
I am from tulips, the crops my grandfather Johnny grew, plowing the land with his mule.
I am from persisting despite poor odds and trying to keep people I love from getting hurt, from Letha and Seabie and some microscopic amount of Native American ancestry.
I am from the faith bound and frugal.
From being too fat and being a school kid younger than everyone else but just as smart or smarter.
I am from being saved, thinking Hell was a definite possibility if I didn’t behave well and make pure choices.
I am from a Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida, stewed tomatoes over rice and collard greens.
From the hope that led my mother to keep trying to have me after losing a baby at term, the southern women who read the obituaries first, and the parents who wouldn’t buy something they did not have the cash for.
I am from people who used to grow the peas in the field, shell them while telling stories on the porch, and eat them together on Sunday afternoons.
I am from people who, if blogs had existed when I was a kid, would not have blogged about our family life.
*
Maybe my blog is my “porch” – a place where I come to share my stories – and hear yours.
Where are you from?
Mama's

Here’s the template:
The WHERE I’M FROM Template

I am from _______ (specific ordinary item), from _______ (product name) and _______.

I am from the _______ (home description… adjective, adjective, sensory detail).

I am from the _______ (plant, flower, natural item), the _______ (plant, flower, natural detail)

I am from _______ (family tradition) and _______ (family trait), from _______ (name of family member) and _______ (another family name) and _______ (family name).

I am from the _______ (description of family tendency) and _______ (another one).

From _______ (something you were told as a child) and _______ (another).

I am from (representation of religion, or lack of it). Further description.

I’m from _______ (place of birth and family ancestry), _______ (two food items representing your family).

From the _______ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the _______ (another detail, and the _______ (another detail about another family member).

I am from _______ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dianna says

    Visiting from Mama Kat's; this was also the prompt I chose today. I love reading everyone's story about what shaped our younger years.
    Thanks for sharing yours – you did a great job!

    Reply

  2. Diane says

    Love the idea about the blog being the porch, a place to share stories. And I think I am one of those Southern women who always read the obituaries first when I got the paper. Now I'd rather just read blogs!

    Reply

  5. Grams says

    I learned a lot about being a woman from women who talked while they sat on the porch and shelled peas.

    I'm so enjoying reading everyone's response to this prompt.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *