The incantation of “I don’t remember”
Susie Shipman has been writing with us for nearly two years now. After we set our favorite prompt, to write about an event or a person or a place starting with the words “I don’t remember,” Susie began starting every piece of 10-minute writing with those words. They’re almost like an incantation, an invitation for another trove of “what you don’t know” to flow through your writing hand onto the page.
Susie is a visual artist and bookbinder based on Orcas Island in Washington state. You can see her beautiful work at Island Bound Books. She wrote this piece to the prompt of “Booooooom” by the highly respected sculptor and printmaker Ken Price.
I can’t remember climbing
winding through the negative spaces of lost hope.
I can’t remember because I was never there, I never took the chance.
I can’t remember the last time I let myself go, falling into dark spaces where regret whispers.
I can’t go back, rewind, speak my mind, telling my heart to shine
For you
It’s too late for that.
Time climbs the light, winding into heaven’s spiral skies.
I remember letting go, you, falling into earth’s quaking red crevices
cracking open, don’t let me go,
hold me
Forever in your wisdom
Hold me in deep forgiveness
Fading regret
Suspended, suddenly free
What happened?
I can’t remember dreaming
Falling again into the abyss
Wake up to this day.
Remember those who wait for you to never forget.
You get to…
You get to wake up.
Click here to order Write What You Don’t Know: 10 Steps to Writing with Confidence, Energy, and Flow by Allegra Huston and James Navé, founders of the Imaginative Storm method, or buy it from your favorite online retailer. It’s also available on Kindle and all other e-book platforms.
In late April 2023, our online video course “Write What You Don’t Know: Imaginative Storm Writer Training” will be available on Teachable. Join our mailing list now for updates and a 25% discount.
Follow @imaginativestorm on Instagram for a daily writing prompt, or download April’s list of prompts here. You might also like to explore the extensive archive of visual and audio writing prompts on our YouTube channel. Then, publish what you write on the Imaginative Storm Circle platform! We’d love to read it.