Your maroon nails accent the new blue pen
as it scoots across the pages of a petite

notebook, one each for you and your
classmates brought by two visiting

writing ladies who have set you all
to making lists of possibilities.

You do not hesitate; you dive into
the cool water, into that bubble

where all sound vanishes and almost
without effort, letters spill from

your fingers, turn into words, into
sentences, stories, poems. What

you see on the page surprises you.
Creativity pulses to the surface like

lava, burbling hot as the sun, explodes
with joy, sometimes fountains with rage,

rising and falling, eventually settling,
cooling into rugged mountains of

potential that call you to explore
with pen in hand, to trust this

endless source always within you,
with luck, for the rest of your

wonderfully wide-eyed writerly life.

•••

(for the writing workshop students at Bradshaw Christian High School,
Sacramento, California—from the writing ladies, Jan Haag and Jill Batiansila)