WRITING PROMPT - OCTOBER 2025
Sense of Place:
Getting Lost and Finding Yourself
“In The Fate of Place: a Philosophical History, Edward Casey argues that “...to exist in any way is to be somewhere, and to be somewhere is to be in some kind of place…We are surrounded by places. We walk over and through them. We live in places, relate to others in them…” And for many of us, we may experience a deep attachment to a particular place, a place where we feel at home, where we feel safe, where we belong. It is a place we know well and in which we ourselves also are known. It might be an actual place, a remembered place, an historical place or an imagined place. Even the body is a place. For me that place is the shore, and it often finds its way into my poems.”
Poet Laureate 1989, Cheryl Baldi
(excerpt from, “Fire Up the Poems”
Start Writing
What does “place” mean to you in your life? Can you identify a particular “sense of place?” Begin by making a list of your favorite places. Think not only of real places but also imagined ones, places you have visited or dreamed of or read about. When you have exhausted the possibilities, go back over your list and choose the one to which you feel most deeply connected.
Now, spend a few minutes free writing, paying close attention to the sensory details that connect you to this place. Remember, we experience the world through our five senses—sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch – so try to engage all of them. What does this place look like? What do you hear when you are in this place? What does it smell like? Allow yourself to get lost, to really feel as if you are in this place.
Track back through the images, one by one, and note any specific memories or associations they evoke. On an intuitive level, which of the images seem most compelling to you? Why?
You now have the making of a poem. Using these images and what they have revealed to you, recreate the experience of this place for your reader. Your job as a poet is to bear witness to your life and your own individual experience of it. This is your place, and like your fingerprint, it is unique to you. But it also is here where your reader can enter and feel a connectedness to you and to the larger world.