Maybe it is the railroad blood that pumps through my body that does it: passed down to me from my grandfather and his six brothers. Whatever causes it, when I hear train whistles from a distance, I pause in the same way I pause when I hear church bells or a meadowlark call to me.
My father, who doesn’t like poetry, suddenly started quoting a poem I wrote to his sister about hearing my grandfather’s voice in a train whistle’s song.
The sound of a train stirs me in a way unlike many other sounds.
I remember the kiddie train at Turtleback Zoo, a favorite haunt of my childhood. I remember steam trains my parents splurged on when we took family vacations, winding through green forests not unlike the one Samuel, Katherine and I took two summers ago into the Grand Canyon.
What images and words rise to the surface of your memory when you see “train” in your mind’s eye?
What images and words rise to the surface of your heart when you hear the sound of a train?
There is a recording for you here – after you’ve taken a moment or two to tune into your personal images and words (perhaps even scribe them on a new sheet of paper) close your eyes and listen.
Then set your timer for five minutes and write whatever words come from the tip of your pencil. Free flow writing doesn’t require you to think, it simply invites you to move your pencil across the page or your fingers on the keyboard.
As you write, choose one or more of these prompts to guide your process.
The train is…
The train sounds like…
I remember train sounds…
The train invites me to….
Now write, just write. Please.
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Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives.
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