A House Called Tomorrow

a writing prompt from the archives, for after an election

Welcome to Writing in Company. This is a community for you, whatever your experience with writing. It’s an invitation to write about what matters—grief, gratitude, grace, and more. Each week I share some words and a writing prompt, meant to be jumping-off points. Use the prompts however you like—to journal, to draft thoughts for your own writing project, as meditation or prayer ideas, or for another creative endeavor. You can always look back through the archive for more ideas. Grab your pen and paper, and let your words loose on the page.

I first wrote this post and shared this poem in 2022, the day after mid-term elections. I’m sharing it again today. Whatever we know now about election results, I didn’t know as I re-crafted today’s prompt. Whatever results are today, or to come, the only way is forward into the new day, and then the next new day tomorrow.

I’m guessing you feel some kind of way about today and whatever comes after. Let your thoughts loose on the page. Dream, wonder, celebrate, worry, wail—whatever words and emotions are swirling in you can be better dealt with once they are out of your head and heart, and are written down in front of you. Really, it’s true. Take a deep breath and try it.

Perhaps the poem below, written by the inaugural state poet laureate of Arizona will be a starting place.

a writing prompt from poet Alberto Rios

A House Called Tomorrow

—by Alberto Rios

You are not fifteen, or twelve, or seventeen—
You are a hundred wild centuries

And fifteen, bringing with you
In every breath and in every step

Everyone who has come before you,
All the yous that you have been,

The mothers of your mother,
The fathers of your father.

If someone in your family tree was trouble,
A hundred were not:

The bad do not win—not finally,
No matter how loud they are.

We simply would not be here
If that were so.

You are made, fundamentally, from the good.
With this knowledge, you never march alone.

You are the breaking news of the century.
You are the good who has come forward

Through it all, even if so many days
Feel otherwise.  But think:

When you as a child learned to speak,
It’s not that you didn’t know words—

It’s that, from the centuries, you knew so many,
And it’s hard to choose the words that will be your own.

From those centuries we human beings bring with us
The simple solutions and songs,

The river bridges and star charts and song harmonies
All in service to a simple idea:

That we can make a house called tomorrow.
What we bring, finally, into the new day, every day,

Is ourselves.  And that’s all we need
To start.  That’s everything we require to keep going. 

Look back only for as long as you must,
Then go forward into the history you will make.

Be good, then better.  Write books.  Cure disease.
Make us proud.  Make yourself proud.

And those who came before you?  When you hear thunder,
Hear it as their applause.

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Photo by Ahmer Kalam on Unsplash