"This work is unlike any other, in its range of rich, conjuring imagery and its dexterity, its smart voice. Carroll-Hackett doesn’t spare us—but doesn’t save us—she draws a blueprint of power and class with her unflinching pivot: matter-of-fact and tender." —Jan Beatty

Posts tagged ‘writing prompts’

Daily Prompt <3 Yogananda on Opportunity

18 June 2016

“Opportunities in life come by creation, not by chance. You yourself, either now or in the past (including the past of former lives), have created all opportunities that arise in your path. Since you have earned them, use them to the best advantage.” ― Paramahansa Yogananda

Make art about opportunity, about creating your own opportunity. 

yogananda

Daily Prompt <3 What You Would Have Said

17 June 2016

“They don’t teach you what to say to someone who’s dying.”~Neil Gaiman

Make art about what you wish you had said before they died. 

talking to the dying

 

 

Daily Prompt <3 What We Believe

16 June 2016

“I believe there is a song that is stranger than wind, that sips the scald from the telling…”~Karen Volkman

Make art about the first thing that comes to mind with the phrase I believe….

flowers-1680-1050-wallpaper

flowers-1680-1050-wallpaper

Daily Prompt <3 The Smallest Masterpiece

15 June 2016

We’ve had a sick kitty cat. Ulli, our twelve-year-old rescue, a tiny delicate graceful gray creature who, because of the trauma she experienced before we got her, even after all these years, still jumps at loud sounds and runs from strangers, who will panic herself into an asthma attack  in one minute, then turn and stalk a deer in the next. Ulli is definitely one of those cats who make you feel awed and grateful when she stops for that second to allow you the privilege of petting her, or when she musics the air around you with the low distant train rumble of a contented purr.

My oldest son, a large bearded Viking of a man, is completely devoted to this animal, and as age inevitably creeps into her bones, slowing and thwarting some of the natural processes, he becomes the one anxious, determined to give her the best care and most love he can. We both went to the vet to pick her up from a required hospitalization for twenty-four hours, and he loaded her little bitty crate into the car, saying, “It’s okay, Ulli. You’re all better now. No more tummy trouble. No more doctor. We’re headed back to Mimi’s for a little bit.” 

I laughed, at being Mimi to this grand-cat, and in relief that our Ulli is okay, and in gratitude that my own child is so relieved to have his beloved old lady cat back in good health. The blessings of family, y’all. That’s what it is today. 

“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

Make art about animal family. 

IMG_4940

 

 

Sometimes the Prompt is Your Own Pain, and Growth

14 June 2016

Five years ago today, my beautiful funny sexy irreverent brilliant soulful husband, John Little Bear Eaton, walked on to the next life. 

“what remains with me vividly to this day is my recollection of a circle of light that shone out from Rafe and enfolded us both, and the deep sense of comfort and familiarity between us, as if we had somehow always known each other and were merely resuming a conversation that had gone on from eternity.”
― Cynthia Bourgeault, Love is Stronger than Death: The Mystical Union of Two Souls

 

Make art about the eternal nature of Love. 

 

FullSizeRender
 

Daily Prompt Catch-Up <3 Family, and Heartbreak, and Fragility

 

Daily Prompt Catch-Up 

6/11/2016

Beautiful day with family today.

From “On Family Regathering Seen One Night Through a Window” by George Moor

All flows; the person has no permanence.
The children will grow up, the parents die.
For each precarious present the past tense
Is waiting; all is sort of a lie.
The clean cut fruit in dingy crystal bowls;
The fading chairs; the family sitting down.
For reassurance meet these traveling souls,
Each with an intimate sadness of his own.
Old habits calm. Old stories of old days….

Make art about family.

family

 

6/12/2016

Just don’t have words. Heartbroken.

orlando

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6/13/2016

My son and I found this tiny nest yesterday, tumbled on the grass beneath the Guardian Oak. No babies, wounded or otherwise, in sight, just this miracle of weaving, bits of bark and straw and leaf and string. Inside the tiniest shards of shell left behind, thin and white as paper. I was struck at how delicate—and how strong—it is, kinda like Love.

Make art about the fragility, about the persistent strength, of Love.

nest

Daily Prompt <3 When the Ancestors Are Us

10 June 2016

Your ancestors will surround you as you sleep
             keep away ghosts of generals presidents       priests
             who hunger for your
             rare and tender tongue
             They will keep away ghosts
             so you have strength
             to battle the living
from “Tal’-s-go Gal’-quo-gi Di-del’-qua-s-do-di Tsa-la-gi Di-go-whe-li/ Beginning Cherokee” by QWO-LI DRISKILL

Make art about ancestors, about what we can do to be good ancestors. 

ancestors

 

Hundreds of Prompts! Right Here! :-)

Finally got around to getting this website updated 🙂

Including all those Daily Prompts! Right here! 

Check em out and get your creativity flowing! 

Mary Carroll-Hackett Daily Prompts!   

01cf22f

Daily Prompt <3 "I'm nobody. Who are you?"

9 June 2016 

Having a bit of an identity crisis 🙂 Maybe not a crisis LOL 😀 but definitely a shift, some kind of transition, reinvention maybe. 

“I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line.”― Jeanette Winterson

Make art about changes in identity, about shifting views of the self. 

door face to face

Daily Prompt <3 On Boys and Men

8 June 2016

This was one of my mama’s top favorite poems. I have so many memories of her reciting it, again and again. Thinking a lot lately about the sons I’ve raised, about the young men I teach, in a culture where there’s so little guidance, so many confusing messages, on what it means to be a man. 

Make art about boys, or about what it means to be a man. 

If

 

Tag Cloud