While the challenge is usually to read new books for August, it is also good to go back and reread great books, such as this one by the great writer Clint Smith. I find more to learn and to admire in each reading. If you want to read his essays and buy his books, please check out his website, https://www.clintsmithiii.com.
For the first prompt, write about your own playground experiences and connect them to your life now in a poem or essay.
The second prompt is to write an elegy for your childhood innocence or a parent’s regret.
For the third, write about a world in which raised hands lead to answers, to another hand pulling them to safety, to life for all hands.
The last prompt is to write a poem or story using the following list of words from “Playground Elegy”: “slide,” “hold,” “gravity,” “weight,” “ripple,” “defiance,” “answer,” “growing,” “raised” and “live.”
Bonus prompt: write about flight and safe landing.
Good luck. Have fun reading and writing this month!