Starting Out

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 Poets and Storytellers United 

Friday Writings #209: Start Where You Are

 ... take inspiration from this quote by Arthur Ashe,

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."

At the moment starting and using and doing sounds like more that I am capable of.  Here's a sort of stream of consciousness, word association thing.  



Starting out.
A starting line.
A line in the sand.
Don’t cross the line.
Wait here in line.
Lines of latitude.
Lines of longitude.
Line up.
Single file, don’t jostle,
keep your hands to yourself.

What do you have?
Show me.
Open your hands
and let me see.
You want me to guess?
A coin? A rock? A lizard?
No, a promise!
Close your hands! Don’t drop it,
promises are fragile,
easily shattered.

What can we do?
Not much can be done.
Time will tell.
Time’s on our side.
Time heals all wounds.
No, that’s not right, not all of them.
Some wounds never heal.
We scar over them,
pretend they aren’t there.
Throw our hands in the air, give up.

©2026 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  


Comments

  1. RommyJanuary 10, 2026 at 2:06 PM

    It's so much fun to see what we can fish out of our stream of consciousness

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rosemary Nissen-WadeJanuary 10, 2026 at 5:13 PM

    Brilliantly done! Starting out (sic) it seems like a bit of fun, then gets ever more serious.

    ReplyDelete
  3. colleenJanuary 11, 2026 at 6:52 AM

    I'm thinking about the word "line" as soundbite rhetoric used as part of an agenda cause that's where we are. And I've been thinking how close I've been to throwing up my hands.

    ReplyDelete
  4. SumandebrayJanuary 11, 2026 at 10:51 AM

    I felt like moving through the ages - from childhood to adulthood! brilliantly done.

    ReplyDelete
  5. purplepeninportland.comJanuary 15, 2026 at 5:32 PM

    Brilliant stream-of-consciousness!

    ReplyDelete

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