I’ve been doing free writes with students for a long time, decades I guess.

I’m now at the point in my teaching career where I can say I’ve done something for decades, I guess.

But I am terrible at them myself. I am an in-the-moment-editor. I am a sharing kind of writer.

But my therapist says that free writing is a good way to help myself let go of anger.

Not that I don’t have some perfectly good reasons to be angry, she assures me.

It’s just that whole pesky thing about how anger only hurts your own self.

So she gave me directions, and I typed them in a note and now I think they are a poem. And not just any poem, but one that may help just about anyone who has a few minutes, a pen, some paper, and any emotions they want to let go of.

Free Writing
The first rule
Is that you can’t censor yourself 
At all
It’s all over the place
Absolutely no censors
Ignore the censors
Just write whatever comes out
What’s written down is 
simultaneous

Second rule
You have to write 
Not type 
Keep your pencil moving at all times
Don’t stop the pencil
If you don’t know what to write, scribble 

Do this for about 10 minutes
No erasing
Grab 10 sheets of paper
Set a timer
And just start

If you stop to think
You are censoring

Then sit with yourself 
Afterwords

After
Words