Various Instructions

Place one hand on your tender heart. Take an expansive breath, and notice how this invites you to take up more space.

This is how you will write now, now that your to-do list grows and grows despite the shortening days. This is how you will seek slow, spacious time. This is how you will revise the very idea of a new school year.

To make the lost person’s location become known
forget nothing of the field & see that you were wrong

Start where you are.
Sense the surface and topography of your flesh.
Notice the dimension of its contours and altitudes in every location.

Write down a list of locations you love, places you still want to visit, acts of kindness you’ve witnessed, questions you harbor about home, a recipe for a vegetable you hate, the address of your closest community garden, library, or body of water.

Print this document after deleting this paragraph, so that all remains is: NO, NO, NO, NO, NO.

To start, think about what you like. Consider your own taste. What is your perfect soup? Is it clear? Creamy? Spicy? Thick?

EAT GARLIC. GO TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. ATTEND A COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL. SEE A POP STAR SING. GO TO THE MOVIES. TEACH CREATIVE WRITING. PLAY LOUD MUSIC ON CAR SPEAKERS BUT BE BLACK. ATTEND MIDDLE SCHOOL.