WRITING PROMPTS TO BENEFIT CHILDREN IN GAZA
UNICEF reports that in Gaza, “hundreds of thousands of children and families are caught in a catastrophic situation” and that, as of November 14th 2023, over 4200 children have been killed and more than 7000 have been injured “due to unrelenting attacks”, while over 1300 others are missing. According to the World Health Organization, one child is killed in Gaza every 10 minutes. Outlining the charity’s Appeal for Children in Gaza, UNICEF spokesman James Elder explains: “Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.” Elder has also called for “children held hostage in Gaza [to] be immediately reunited with their families and loved ones”. Recent updates state that “hundreds of thousands of children … remain trapped in a war zone with little or no access to food, water, electricity, medicine or medical care”.
For the duration of NaNoWriMo, we will be posting a writing prompt every day and in doing so, we are hoping to encourage our community to donate to charities providing medical aid to children in desperate need in this unprecedented crisis.
These prompts have been created by writers from Wales or with a connection to Wales and its magazines and presses. The prompts are on all kinds of subjects, but many are related to anti-violence and the work of empathy, and they are offered with the simple hope that they might encourage people to donate in support of medical aid in Gaza. We include a list of suggested charities to donate to below, highlighting the Appeal to Children in Gaza.
UNICEF “continues to call for an immediate ceasefire as 1.1 million people — nearly half of them children — in northern Gaza have been warned to move out of the way of a widescale military assault, but with nowhere safe for them to go”. Elder concludes: “The humanitarian situation has reached lethal lows, and yet all reports point to further attacks. Compassion – and international law – must prevail.”
DAY 15: GLYN F. EDWARDS
Repetition or Repetition
‘This in Land’ is taken from Zaffar Kunial’s England’s Green. The poem’s structure involves repeating the opening words from each line ‘that way’ / ‘is this’ to form five rhythmic couplets that could have been sustained for much longer.
Either change the focal point ‘land’ from the title to another feature of the living world (This is Coast / This is Storm / This is Drought) and explore the effect of repeating the opening first and second line of five couplets. Or, abandon Kunial’s structure altogether, and repeat only the words he finishes each line with.
Thus the task is repetition but it is your choice whether to repeat the openings, or the closings.
(Remember to attribute Kunial in the poem that emerges, for example by having an epigraph: After Zaffar Kunial’s ‘This in Land’.)
A POEM BY ZAFFAR KUNIAL
THIS IN LAND
That way a butterfly lifts an edge of world
is this horse chestnut tree going nowhere.
The way thunder feels bright and dark
is this moss, lit from under earth up.
That way the tip of a rosebud buries the future
is this stone smell unpronounced before rain.
That way a star’s ground is mineral
is this steeple pointing down in the pond.
That way this ends, or doesn’t with the word
is that way I am earthed by hand.
Thanks to Zaffar Kunial for allowing the reproduction of this poem, which appears in England’s Green. Please consider donating to a charity providing medical aid in Gaza. We recommend UNICEF’s Appeal for Children in Gaza, but other charities include:
Palestine Children’s Relief Fund
Discover more from Modron Magazine
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Modron Magazine 