"Her soft. Low voice. / Builds a replica in my throat."
a Little Loves prompt inspired by K. Iver's "Family of Origin Rewrite: 1982"and written by Eugenia Leigh
Hi there! Below you’ll find a new little love, a brief piece of writing I love, followed by a suggestion for how that might launch you into your own writing. Today’s little love was shared by Eugenia Leigh, whose Bianca remains one of my very favorite books of poetry. I saw her read at AWP a few weeks ago and was reminded that she’d generously shared this prompt for the newsletter, inspired by a stunning piece by the poet K. Iver. If you’d like to learn more about Eugenia’s writing life, you can read her good creatures interview here.
Do you have a little love you’d love to share? Feel free to email me with a suggestion!
Today’s writing prompt, shared by Eugenia Leigh, is based on the poem “Family of Origin Rewrite: 1982” by K. Iver, first published in The Common. Iver’s first book, Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco, was selected by Tyehimba Jess for the 2022 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry and published by Milkweed in January 2023.
Family of Origin Rewrite: 1982
My father teaches ethics at a university.
My mother teaches ethics at a university.
They save. Their money. Buy
a large bungalow in Connecticut.
They continue. Saving. Enough
to support the San Francisco AIDS
Foundation and their baby.
They read the news and wish kindness
into our laws. One of them will say
Sweden hasn’t been to war since 1812.
The other says you can start a business
in Sweden and get free healthcare.
They’re excited. About my arrival.
They remain. Calm. When
midnight cries wake them.
My father waits. For my mother to heal.
Before asking for sex. She’s good.
At saying no. She throws meditation
and exercise and intense therapy
at her trauma. Still goes to AA.
When wrong. She promptly admits it.
Every night she arrives home from
the university. Her soft. Low voice.
Builds a replica in my throat. She wears
minimal. Makeup. Cuts her nails down
because who needs the fuss. When I walk.
Into a room. And see my father.
I continue walking in. When my father
and I leave. The house. Lots of women
introduce themselves. When we get back
he tears. Their numbers over the trash.
On weekends my father and I dig
in the dirt. I watch him plant
lilac bulbs around the spruce. He lets
my small hand pack the ground.
Affirms it as help. When my father puts.
me to bed with true stories of him
sewing clothes for new mothers
in Ukraine. I fall asleep fast.
In this poem, Iver reimagines their family narrative into a more positive one. In a tweet about this poem, Iver introduces their poem with these words: “Wrote an opposite-day poem about my family. A kind of wish-list for less queerphobia, more money, another landscape, more tenderness.”
a prompt for you: writing an opposite-day poem
Write your own “opposite-day” poem that completely flips and reimagines a narrative that is familiar to you. Consider especially the specificity in Iver’s poem: the parents’ professions, their income and class, what they do with their money, what they support with their money, their politics, their attitude toward the speaker or child, their relationship to each other, the power dynamics in their relationship, the way they cope with trauma, what they do at night, their physical appearance, how the speaker or child interacts with them, how they interact with others outside the house, what the speaker does in this family unit.
What would you want to rewrite? If this sparks something for you, I’d love to know where it takes you.
even more to love, from the Write More archive
on “real things, rock-things and proton-things” as a way into writing
repelling the mosquito of self-judgment, with inspiration from Jesse Q. Sutanto, Annie Dillard, and Chloe Benjamin
quick tips for writing when it’s hard
Write More, Be Less Careful is a newsletter about why writing is hard & how to do it anyway. I’m so glad you’re here.
If Write More has helped you in your creative life, I’d love it if you would share it with a friend.
A really interesting poem and prompt, challenging and stimulating. Thank you for sharing.