This month Women Writing for (a) Change-Bloomington poets are participating in National Poetry Writing Month.  Every day we will offer up a new  poem by a writer in our community.  Check back after 6:00pm for the Prompt of the Day and the selected resulting poem.

Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that “talks.” Try to write a poem grounded in language as it is spoken – not necessarily the grand, dramatic speech of a monologue or play, but the messy, fractured, slangy way people speak in real life. You might incorporate overheard speech or a turn of phrase you heard once that stood out to you – the idea here is to get away from formally “poetic” speech and into the way language tends to work out loud.

April 20: Everyday Speech – The Best Word: Y’all by Amy Lifton

oh why don’t we have the word y’all in our everyday
speech here in Indiana
it’s the most useful of all words, taking the place of 
the awkward and subtly sexist you guys like in
what do y’all want to do tonight, or y’all get out your
notebooks and pens for a writing exercise, and
being more inclusive of everyone involved like in
let’s play cards at y’all’s house tonight (can there even
be two apostrophes in one word) or I’ve always wanted
to see y’all’s home movies, it is an open-hearted word
acknowledging everyone like in see y’all later or I didn’t know
y’all came to this restaurant, when you don’t mean to
single out any one certain person, or it can indicate you
don’t care who answers the question, like in
what do y’all think, and it doesn’t even differentiate
between adults and children, like y’all come over here and
see this, or which of y’all wants an ice cream right now, but
it can mean just one person, like how are y’all doin’ today,
or when a storekeeper wants to convey special welcome, like
how can I help y’all as you walk alone into a store,
it indicates membership in a tribe of friendliness
and expansiveness whenever it’s used,
both of which qualities I wish we had more of
everywhere in the world.