Questionnaire
a writing prompt for you
I was listening to a podcast recently about meal-planning. I ended up down a rabbit trail in search of a shrimp and grits recipe, and in the process briefly broke my Lenten vow about avoiding trolls and not reading comments. Most of the commenters were grateful for the podcaster’s wisdom and methods. A few, though, were complaining about the podcaster’s political comments. On her own podcast. The complainers pulled the usual “I don’t come here for that…I’m leaving…etc. etc.”
I suppose some of you are here mostly for writing prompts, or thoughts on grief, or faith, or a combination of those, but I can’t seem to write about any of those topics lately without sharing something that the podcaster’s critics would call political, as they stamp their feet on the way out the door.
They are all entwined—faith, grief, politics, and what we learn as we write in response. I won’t stop sharing what matters to me. I hope you will keep reading and writing about what matters to you.
a writing prompt
The poem below was written by Wendell Berry, and first published in 2009. It’s been making the rounds ever since, more applicable than ever. Every question is haunting me this week.
Find a word, a phrase, a question, an image, or an idea in the poem below, and start there. Or use the form of the poem to guide your own.
Questionnaire
—Wendell Berry
1. How much poison are you willing
to eat for the success of the free
market and global trade? Please
name your preferred poisons.2. For the sake of goodness, how much
evil are you willing to do?
Fill in the following blanks
with the names of your favorite
evils and acts of hatred.3. What sacrifices are you prepared
to make for culture and civilization?
Please list the monuments, shrines,
and works of art you would
most willingly destroy.4. In the name of patriotism and
the flag, how much of our beloved
land are you willing to desecrate?
List in the following spaces
the mountains, rivers, towns, farms
you could most readily do without.5. State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes,
the energy sources, the kinds of security,
for which you would kill a child.
Name, please, the children whom
you would be willing to kill.
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Join in the conversation with others in the comments. Tell me what you think about the prompt, or where your writing takes you.
Know someone who might enjoy this prompt or others? Please share.
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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. In an off-kilter world, using our words can help us stay centered and move toward healing and wholeness. Writing in company with others saved me once. Let’s keep writing now, alone and together, and trust our words to help us see and say what matters.
Each week I share some ideas and a writing prompt, meant to be jumping-off points. Use the prompts however you like—to journal, to draft a writing project, as prayer ideas, or for another creative endeavor. If this one doesn’t resonate, look back through the archive for more. Clicking the heart to like this post helps keep my writing prompts visible and my own writer’s heart grateful.
because you share what matters to you, you remind me of what matters to me, and to the world and to humanity, and to the future for our children....and I am thankful for how you challenge me every week to THINK and then to WRITE. may you feel God's blessings on your writings and all you share with us. Laura Mann
Ah, Julie, how you continue to nourish and nurture us, even as you give us challenge and the best kinds of interruptions in thought-flow. Offering this particular piece from Berry at this very time: exactly what I need to both bring me up short--and then send me forward toward whatever justice-seeking actions I can manage. And it all starts with putting my pen to the page. Thank you.