Abridged List of Activites and Prompts

The following are things I’ve tried as I run or walk beside the gorge (with at least one about swimming in the lake too). The date in parentheses indicates the log entry in which I tried and/or came up with this experiment

When out running or walking by the gorge, listen to the “Look!” you are offered by another kind walker wanting to point out a soaring eagle or a drumming downy woodpecker. Later, offer your own “Look!” to someone else (see may 3, 2021).
Run or walk by your favorite parts of the path and pay attention to how they look as you glance at them quickly. Later stop, stand still, stare at the same spots. Now describe them. (How) have they changed from when you saw them while in motion?
Is there a certain spot (or time) during the run when you lose your unease? Describe it in as much detail as you can.
While you’re running by the gorge pay attention to the smells. Make a list of particularly pungent smells, pleasing smells, smells that trigger memories, smells that make you choke and cry out for better air. (see jan 20, 2020).
Write about thresholds–literal and metaphorical ones in your life and on your route.
Make a list of words for the sounds that birds make. Do not include chirp or caw or sing.
Instead of typing your thoughts about your run or walk, speak them into your phone. Try using an app that transcribes your speech. Also try transcribing your own thoughts.
Think about the outside space you’re moving through as a classroom–who is the teacher, the student? what is learned? Make a syllabus for the river.
Record yourself reading a draft of a poem/essay you are working on. Listen to it before heading out for your run, or during your run. Think about it as you run. Write a different version of it when you’re done running.
Write about your love of shadows and why you find delight in the shadow of a bird or a plane flying above you.
Think more about woodpeckers. Why do they peck? How do they peck? What does their pecking do to wood? What else do they peck on? Find a scientific-y article about woodpeckers and turn it into an erasure poem.
What does water coming out of the sewer pipes sound like? Make a list of as many versions as you can remember.
Make a list of the strangest, most memorable, people you have encountered while running, biking, hiking, or walking beside the gorge.
Write about something that happened during the middle of your run–not at the beginning or the end, but the middle (see nov 27, 2019)
What do you remember–other than how difficult it is–when you are running straight into the wind? Pick a windy day, run straight into the wind, write about it.
Pay attention to the interesting forms you see in the gorge: seeps, springs, eroding limestone, twisted and gnarled branches, water slowly dripping out of the sewer drain, mulching asphalt. Pick one and fit a poem or a lyric essay into it (see nov 11, 2019).
Think about how much you look forward to when the leaves are off the trees and you can see further. Why do you need to see to the other side? Write about it (see nov 1, 2019).
Run by the gorge. Write a log entry about it. Read the entry and pick out a letter that you used most often. Make a list of words related to the gorge that start with that letter. Edit your entry to feature that letter. Do not use a dictionary when creating your list, try to think up the words on your own. (see oct 30, 2019)
During your run (or walk) by the gorge, think about how you are outside and inside. What are you outside/inside of? How does being by the gorge help you to go deeper inside, further outside? Write about it when you return home.
Write about the color green. Why is it your favorite color? Why do you dislike its excess in late spring and summer? (see oct 28, 2019)
Think about layers, both literal and metaphorically. What clothes do you wear in the winter as you run by the gorge? How do those layers feel? What layers–in your mind, your actions–do you move through as you try to pay attention to the gorge and breathe without worry? Why do humans add layers just as trees lose theirs? Write about it.
Run beside the gorge. Afterwards, think about your run in terms of what wasn’t there, but usually is. Make a list of what you missed.
Create a map of gorge smells or the best places to see the river or trees that gossip and greet or every pothole and crack and fissure and dip and curve to watch out for when you have low vision (oct 11, 2019).
Make a list of all things you plan to do but forget while you’re running. Why do you forget? What do you do instead?
“A women walk-running or run-walking or walking but trying to run or running but trying to walk–some combination I can’t quite describe.” Try to describe it then use it in a poem (see oct 7, 2019).
What signals the change in seasons for you–a date? different colored leaves? School beginning or ending or being endured? Pick a season and write about how it begins. Or write about how it ends.
Go run in the rain. Compose a poem as you move (see sept 11, 2019).
Memorize Sharon Olds’ lines from The Gold Cell: “I am doing something I learned early to do, I am/ paying attention to small beauties,/ whatever I have–as it were our duty to/ find things to love, to bind ourselves to this world.” What small beauties can you find to love today? Make a list (see sept 5, 2019).
Describe what the sun looks like as it shines on the water. Do not use sparkle or shimmer or dance. If stuck, look it up. Explore how other poets write about the sun.(see sept 3, 2019).
What makes us human? How can you tell/see/know the difference between a tree and a person. Think about this as you run by the gorge and repeatedly mistake that far away trashcan for a runner, that brightly colored jacket spread across a rock for a walker. Write about it.
It seems that the parkway is more crowded with cars and people at certain times than others. Try starting your run at different times. In your log, list how many cars and people you encounter at each time. Do you see any patterns? When is it most crowded? Least crowded? When is the most interesting or least annoying or safest or most delightful time to run? Write about it.
Listen to music as you run south, up above near the road. Take out your headphones and listen to the gorge as you run north, down below on the Winchell trail. Think about how you experience running and breathing and paying attention differently when you listen to a playlist versus when you have no headphones in. Write about it.
Go to open swim at Cedar Lake, where the water, at its deepest point, is 88 feet. What do you think about when you are swimming with so much unknown below you? Does it bother/unsettle/excite you? Write about it in couplets. (see aug 21, 2019).
Green looks different right before (and right after) it rains (see aug 10, 2019). Write about it.
While out running or walking by the gorge or in the neighborhood, record some bird songs–maybe try to start with a cardinal. Listen to the recordings, paying close attention to the syllables the bird sings–how many? what do they sound like? Figure out words to match the birds syllables (people often think one cardinal song sounds like, cheer cheer cheer). Use your words in a poem. (see march 30, 2020).
While outside–by the gorge, in your backyard, around the neighborhood, find a new sound. Record it. Delight in it. Write about why you noticed it.
Write about irritating summer bugs–mosquitos, swarming gnats, big bugs flying in your mouth. Find a few poems that feature bugs and use them for inspiration (see june 15, 2019).