One-liners from Your Reading

(A Vagabond Voices writing and living prompt)

Pachinko, our next book club pick and Mr. Pip (our last one)— sitting on a ratty rug I knotted together. Photo by the author.

One line from my reading…and my life.

I remember
holding my first
when he was a baby, how
happy

he was a white basket,
fresh
rice cakes on New Year’s —
soft as warm
dough.

— One line poetry adapted from a line from the novel

My challenge to you? Take a page…or a line from a book that gets you through it all.

How will you do this?

Perhaps with a one-line poem? A collage? A bit of blackout?(Just be sure to reference the book and author, please.)

Maybe you’ll write a story or poem where a book is one of the characters…or takes on a surprising role…

Maybe you’ve got the inklings of a creative essay or bit of nonfiction…what do books mean for you.

Maybe you take a favorite line from a favorite book and it’s the beginning of something new…

Whatever it is, I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Send me your stories…join the community.

If you haven’t written for us before, just or leave me a comment letting me know you’re interested here, so I can take a look at your writing.

When you don’t know how to live in these times? Turn to a book.

This is something I hold true, and dear.

Books are refuge in wrinkled and worn pages.

We are writers and creatives, so of course, we read because it teaches us to write the story each time we meet the author halfway.

Each time we remember our perfumed babies warm like dough…even if we never have eaten rice cakes on New Year’s…

But books are more than tools for learning to spin stories.

They are the small objects that get us through.

I’ve written recently on the Vagabond Blog about reading for resilience:

And we read a book a month — just in case you’re curious about our picks for the first part of 2021. If you’re curious to know what we’re reading:

If you’d like invitations to our upcoming book chats and writing workshops, and writing prompts…you can to stay in touch.

Beautiful stories from our community!

I have been so inspired this month by all you had to say. I’m honored to all of you who chose to bring your beautiful stories here. What can I say? It feels good to have a home among a wide world of writers…

By

Jonah Lightwhale

:

Mary Untier of Knots

By

Lee Ameka

From the Tips of the Eucalyptus

By

Carlos Garbiras

:

A Bee’s Daily Grind

By

Mary McGrath

: (that is her incredible photo, by the way).

The Factory

By

Marta Mozolewska

:

A Rite of Passage

By

Jen Kleinknecht

:

Poetry In Motion

By

Dr. Jackie Greenwood

:

Walking in Rhyme

By

James G Brennan

Enjoyable Repetition

Thanks for reading and supporting our community! Let me know what you’re reading these days. And if reading is one of the things that ‘gets you through.’

PS…

Lisa Bolin

I am thinking of you and your books…