writing prompt – Michael Banks 360

Waiting at the Depot

The waiting game at The Depot Tavern would often set a mind to wandering about the future.

Puddles form at the base of the bottle of Coca-Cola. If you tilt the glass, the brown sugar water runs and you see etched on the bottom far-off places like Little Rock, Arkansas; Jacksonville, Florida; or Rocky Mount, North Carolina. In your hand, the Coca-Cola warms, and more sweat runs, staining the worn tabletop.

At the Depot Tavern, bottles of PBR rest on beer guts that strain the buttons, gripped by the grease-stained, gnarled-knuckled fists of the mechanics at the Chevy dealership. The beer never warms as they order a round and another and another, chasing that buzz between the 5 o’clock punchout and the 7 o’clock chicken pot pies with the old lady and rug rats.

He asks if you want another Coca-Cola. You lift the bottle, but the drink is warm like spit and you don’t swallow.

Why don’t you go outside, he says. I won’t be much longer.

There’s an old train station across the street. Deserted and gray like the crumbling concrete steps. You stand on the rust-covered tracks and look east down where they cut open the pigs, their blood sopped by sawdust. To the west is colored town and then nothing else.

You think of Little Rock. And Jacksonville. And Rocky Mount.

The trains don’t run

where dreams bleed and gutted,

the long walk back home

Editor’s Note: This piece of Haibun poetry was prompted by a recent Pen to Paper Live session hosted by the Charlotte Lit organization. Charlotte Lit hosts the free sessions weekly. You can register here.

The session was led by Kathie Collins, who said Haibun is a Japanese form popularized by the renowned poet Bashō in the 17th century. “Think of it as a mini-lyric travel essay finished off with an insightful postscript in the form of a haiku.”

57 birthday candles can light a fire

Looking ahead as to what awaits after 57 years can be both terrifying and thrilling. I have absolutely no idea how this story is going to end.

Today, Jan. 23, 2024, I turned 57 years old.

And, if I give it great thought, perhaps my mindset is not much different than that 5-year-old boy who sat at a kitchen table in rural western Kentucky and blew out five wax candles on a cake dripping in chocolate.

I have absolutely no idea of what the future holds for me and that is both as scary and thrilling as a black spider that falls upon my bare arm and starts to inch its way upward.

There’s been plenty of living in those 50-plus years between. I’ve experienced great joy and profound sadness. My heart’s been broken and it’s also found a love like none other. There have been moments when I thought I was at the very top of the heap and a few days when this man didn’t think he could sink much lower.

It’s called living and I’ve done it.

I think of the 2008 movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” in which the main character is born an old man and proceeds to age backwards. The film is based on the short story of the same name written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published May 1922 in Collier’s Magazine. Fitzgerald’s story challenges the idea that life would be better if we could erase its hurts.

In one scene from the movie, a tugboat captain, Mike, says, “You can be mad as a dog at the way things went, you can swear and curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go.”

That sentiment took me a good while to fully understand and be willing to embrace, but I’ve done it and believe it’s made me a better person and improved my relations with others.

Another theme from the story is one of new beginnings.

“It’s never too late, or in my case, too early, to be whatever you want to be,” Benjamin says. “I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”

This matter, I am knee-deep in. There are things I am proud of and a few misdeeds I’d just as soon forget.

For most of my life, I worked as a journalist. But that’s no more and now I write for others and myself. I continue to work on two novels and various short stories, but there’s no certainty as to whether the work will be completed and if others will want to read those words.

It’s a great unknown. It’s something that will keep you up at night and also kick you out of bed when a new day dawns.

Even so, I still like chocolate cake and there’s still the air within my lungs to blow out the candles and hopefully extinguish the past and light the future.

And I’m all right with that.

WRITER’S NOTE: These words were the result of a writing prompt hosted by the Charlotte Lit organization on Jan. 23, 2024. Instructor Megan Rich challenged the participants to think of birthdays and consider the two shifts — time and seasons — and how they have affected one’s birthday through the years. The one-hour Pen to Paper sessions are free and held online via Zoom most Tuesday mornings at 9:30 a.m. EST. To sign up for the session go here.

Preacher man preachin’

Everybody talkin’. Preacher man preachin’.
Let’s talk ekphrasis, a written response to a work of art, and my take on Romare Bearden’s “Carolina Shout.”

Words by Michael Banks in response to artist Romare Bearden’s collage titled “Carolina Shout.”

Everybody talkin’. Preacher man preachin’.

Everybody's hands out. Ain’t nobody givin'.

Falling in the water. Red moon a risin’.

Bringing back a dead man. Ain’t that their mission?

Gotta get right. Gotta get salvation.

Ain’t nobody know my sticky situation.

Feet in the mud. Brotherhood of Nation.

Everybody hands up. Meet my creation.

Tuesday mornings, I try to set aside an hour to jumpstart that creative part of my brain. I find it getting harder and harder to do so as the years creep by. But one thing I’ve discovered that helps immensely is Pen to Paper Live.

These weekly one-hour sessions conducted by the founders and staff of the Charlotte Lit organization are held over Zoom. Often more than 20 creators gather and write after receiving a “prompt” by the instructor. Some of my published works have gotten their start at Pen to Paper and I’m always inspired and comforted by the talented writers who gather there weekly.

The words I’ve written above come from the Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022, session led by Kathie Collins, one of the founders of Charlotte Lit. The prompt was ekphrasis, which Kathie described as “a written response to a work of art.” I’ve tried a bit of ekphrastic writing before, mainly with Van Gogh’s “Wheatfield of Crows,” and it surprises me the words that come to me from another’s work of art.

On Tuesday, as an example, Kathie pointed to writer Sharan Strange’s poem titled “Train Whistle” that’s taken from artist Romare Bearden’s collage “Mecklenburg County, Daybreak Express.”

Born in Charlotte, NC, in 1911, Romare Bearden, by the time of his death in 1988, had achieved a stature known by few artists during their lifetimes. He is considered America’s greatest collagist and his works are in the permanent collections of most every major American museum.

This entire month, Charlotte Lit is celebrating Bearden and his legacy. Through a series of events titled “Artists Reckoning With Home: Celebrating Romare Bearden,” the arts organization hopes these events provide opportunities to learn about Charlotte’s past and re-imagine its future.

One of the featured events will be an ekphrastic workshop titled “Writing With Bearden.” The workshop, led by Charlotte Lit co-founders Kathie Collins and Paul Reali, will be held Sunday, Oct. 16 from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Mint Museum Uptown. The event is free, but registration is required.

The blank page and Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda writes like he’s running out of time and I’m staring at a blank page.

There’s a blank page before me and, damn it, if I don’t blame Lin-Manuel Miranda.

“It’s like the drip, drip, drip that’ll never stop.”

“Encanto.” “Hamilton.” Something to take your mind off the writing, she said. I watch and I hear the words of Lin-Manuel and I stew and the next morn comes and the day is still gray.

“Rise up.”

My mind doesn’t stop now. It’s an endless loop of Lin-Manuel and his rhythm.

“Rise up.”

Again, Lin-Manuel, get out of my head.

“Rise up.”

The blank page awaits. I try morning, then noon, then night. But the words still don’t come.

“Oh, no. We don’t talk about Bruno.”

Rhyme after rhyme fills my head. But my words do not come. Not the words that Lin-Manuel Miranda writes. So creative. So talented. So damn good.

Yet, all I have is the blank page and Lin-Manuel in my head.

“I’m willing to wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda is shown in Columbia in 2018 in this photo taken from his Twitter page @Lin_Manuel. Miranda is an American actor, singer-songwriter, playwright, and film director. He is known for creating the Broadway musicals ‘In the Heights’ and ‘Hamilton,’ and the soundtrack of Disney’s ‘Encanto.’

NOTE: The above work came from a writing prompt presented during a recent Pen to Paper Live session hosted by the Charlotte Lit organization. You can register here. In the session, presenter Kathie Collins offered a writing prompt taken from a recent workshop led by poet Jessica Jacobs. We were challenged to try some layered writing in which we’d use some metaphors, physical objects, paintings, etc. to connect an experience we were feeling.

Here where the rain falls

Twelve messy thoughts create one lovely idea.

The rain falls here down near where the South Fork and Catawba meet.

The branches of the tea olive outside my window hang heavy with water, lime green offshoots reach up, seeking sunlight, but instead it’s a cloud-filled sky. Tiny yellow clusters of bloom emit the sweet scent, but my window stays closed and I fear more rain.

I think of my great aunt Catherine, she gone nearly 15 years now, and how she’d tug my ear and say, “Michael B. You’re gonna do great things.”

But this morning, my mind remains muddied of the dream that lingers from the night before – me going from room to room, opening doors, only to find four blank walls and empty spaces. The only sound being that of the click of the latch and slam of the door. A constant opening and closing. Click, slam. Click, slam.

I sip the cold water from the glass and wait for the coolness to make its way down my throat and spread across my chest. I hope it brings energy. A spark to beat back my malaise. The bed, the warm covers, they beckon.

Gloom, gloom, gloom.

The Rolling Stones sing of “Wild Horses” and how “faith has been broken, tears must be cried, let’s do some living, after we die.”

I’ve done some living and never really thought of others. Things I should have said, but didn’t. Thought my silence an easy salve, not realizing the pain left behind.

It is still Tuesday morn here and the rain still falls.

Each day another red X on the calendar and another day closer to when breath will come no more.

Until then, these words will be written and songs will be sung. Her smile and laugh and love as constant as the reappearing sun.

The Messy Now

Prompt created by Ada Limón

1. Describe where you are.

2. Add something you see.

3. Mention a friend and something that friend says.

4. Include a dream.

5. Add something from the natural world.

6. Say something you need.

7. Repeat a word or a line three times.

8. Add a line of a song you love.

9. Apologize for something.

10. Give the date or the day.

11. Tell us something you’re scared of.

12. Tell us something you love.

Where do we go from here, Major Tom?

A tiny love story from a night when the rain fell in Charlotte, NC, on a late June night in 2014.

At the Fillmore, musicians emerge from thick curtains and fingers pluck at strings and eyes turn upward and ears fill with rhythms and rhymes. Shafts of red and blue sneak from hidden banks, falling upon sweaty faces whispering of desires and regrets. I’d come for Ziggy Stardust and instead found her. She danced in a pool of emerald. A pert nose, dark eyes emerging from a mass of chocolate curls. We discovered “Modern Love” and she laughed and my heart leaped. I emerged, her number in my pocket and I sang of “Starman” and life was good again.

David Bowie’s “StarMan”

NOTE: The above work came from a writing prompt presented during a recent Pen to Paper Live session hosted by the Charlotte Lit organization. You can register here. In the session, presenter Paul Reali challenged us to write our very own tiny love story of less than 100 words. “They try to capture in a very small space something that is very important,” he said.

I dreamed of you and your biscuits

Seeing Carl was not unusual. Hearing from Carl was quite unusual.

“I dreamed of you in spectacular color.”

Carl clutched his backpack to his chest with both hands. He took a step forward. Maybe he was aware of the others. Maybe not.

“I dreamed of you in this very moment.”

She raised her eyebrow. Seeing Carl was not unusual. Hearing from Carl was quite unusual.

“You were making me a biscuit. One of those hot buttered rounds where the strawberry jelly is so thick it leaks and stains the sides. Heavens.”

Jasmine put a slice of cheese and a wedge of ham between the folds of biscuit and wrapped it in yellow wax paper. She stepped to her left, in front of the pail of potatoes, and Carl followed.

“You want hash browns,” she asked.

Carl leaned forward to whisper. “Can you not see?”

Jasmine sighed. “I don’t have time, Carl. You want hash browns or not?”

Carl turned and looked at those who stood waiting. The couples with their eyes glued to their cell phones, their hands in a constant scroll. The girl who pulled the string of pink bubblegum from her mouth, wrapped it around her finger in a loop of three and stared at him.

“You are in my dreams. And, yet, you are here before me, now in this presence, serving me a feast upon which I shall savor and accept with the greatest of gratitude.”

Jasmine walked to the register and her fingers punched the numbers. Her feet hurt. She’d been making biscuits since 5 a.m. and her baby needed more formula.

“Three twenty five, Carl.”

He stood before as he does nearly every morning. He wears the same long coat with the holes in the sleeve. His pants are still dirty and his shoes covered in dirt. His hair is thin on top, greasy and unwashed. He smiles and she sees his teeth stained yellow, one missing, completing the homeless ensemble.

“I see you every night,” Carl says, reaching his hand inside his pocket, where he digs and digs and digs.

“Hey buddy,” says the man with the cell phone. “Can you pick it up?”

Jasmine smells him and she wonders if he joins the others under the overpass by the interstate. She sees them when she drives to pick up her daughter from her mother. Carl is here every morning and he’ll shyly slide a quarter across the counter and ask for a cup of coffee. Never before has he asked for a biscuit.

He pulls his hand from his trousers and his palm is empty. He raises his eyes and she notices they are brown, as brown as her baby girl’s.

Jasmine pushes the biscuit across the counter to his waiting hands. And he smiles.

“You do see. My dream angel.”

NOTE: The above work of fiction came from a writing prompt presented during a recent Pen to Paper Live session hosted by the Charlotte Lit organization. You can register here. In the session, presenter Kathie Collins challenged us to think of synchronicity. As writers, we are always excavating something or using our writing to explore something inside us.

My love of grass

Fat Tuesday has me hungry for fine fescue

The lawn at Woodbend on a late April afternoon. Photo by Michael Banks

Most just shake their head and walk away. “No, no, no.”In fact, they are so adverse they’ll suddenly stop and turn, telling me their disdain is so great “I pay $50 every two weeks just so I don’t have to do it.”

They cannot comprehend my love of mowing my grass.

There’s something about sitting astride the bright green John Deere and hearing the motor catch when you turn the ignition. The slight shudder as the sharpened steel blade engages, in its wake the spring smell of fresh-cut fescue.

Maybe it’s about being in control. I follow the same path, a geometric pattern created some 15 summers past, only altered when the red buds grew tall and the azaleas wide and heavy with their showy whites and strawberry reds. My blade sweeps once and then again, shearing the blades to within 4 inches of the brown soil. Not 3 inches. Not 3 ½. But 4.

As with any love, there are tests. In the late summer heat, the sweat runs from your brow and you taste it on your lips. A cloud of red clay dust often blows, my Deere now brown, and the shards of crabgrass cling to my exposed ankles.

Yet, I sit and mow. Horizontal then diagonal. Always staying within the lines.

And on a Mardi Gras Tuesday, a day after thunder rumbled, lightning cracked and the rains fell, there is a ray of sun dancing upon my window frame. Beyond I see the clover and chickweed green and spreading, the fescue tall and waving in a cold wind.

I think of spring and my Deere.

And there is comfort in that.

Editor’s Note: “My Love of Grass” stems from a writing prompt during the most recent Pen to Paper Live session hosted by the Charlotte Lit organization. You can register here. We were challenged to write of a love that is often neglected, a quieter love we all crave for comfort. We were told to focus on the concrete, grounded in actions and sensations, to bring the reader right there so they can feel the love first-hand.

	Michael Banks on Finding heaven along South Car…
	Kevin Sharma on Finding heaven along South Car…
	Michael Banks on How do you consume books?
	Michael Banks on Obsessed with RC Cola and base…
	Bobbi Babineau-Lound… on Obsessed with RC Cola and base…

Like what you see? Please share this via the following methods:

Like what you see? Please share this via the following methods:

Like what you see? Please share this via the following methods:

Like what you see? Please share this via the following methods:

The Messy Now

Like what you see? Please share this via the following methods:

Like what you see? Please share this via the following methods:

Like what you see? Please share this via the following methods:

Fat Tuesday has me hungry for fine fescue

Like what you see? Please share this via the following methods: