Poetry Superhighway April 2023 Poems

I am From Berkeley

I am from Berkeley PSH

I am from Berkeley, California
From a town in the east bay
I am from the thousand oaks neighborhood
And the Berkeley hills

I am from a garden
Whose fruit trees bloom

I am from a university city
Filled with radical ideas

I am from my father and mother
I am from a German family
And a Cherokee family
And from a dysfunctional family
From the 196os

I am from an atheist family
I am of Scandinavian and Jewish ancestry
From a southern family

Growing up in southern food
Including grits and southern greens
From a mother who did not suffer fools gladly
And from a father
Who was a crusader for justice

I am from those moments in time
The 60s in Berkeley
Forever shaping me __________
April 14, 2023: poetry writing prompt from Julie Standing
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Julie Standing:
This prompt is a favorite and is often used to show students that we are all poets if I train our minds to think like one. I became aware of it during a Zoom workshop when I was blown away by someone’s poem. And then searched the format on the internet with the result that the poem I created was the poem used to end my recent poetry collection and one of my favorite poems.
This poem template is inspired by george Ella Lyon’s “Where I’m From” poem.


If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the poetry super highway Facebook group.
#napowrimo #poetry
April 13, 2023: poetry writing prompt from Joan Lotta