WRITING PROMPTS | POETRY

My Life Depends Upon So Much That Only Few Words Can Express

A prompt, a red wheelbarrow, sun, sleep and water.

Image created with AI and Canva by the author.

My dear friend, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, invited me to share some of the things that I believe “So much depends upon.” Where do I even begin?

Prompted by the wonderful and inspiring Sheri Jacobs, the idea is to replace the Red Wheelbarrow of a poem from times gone by. From her prompt piece:

The late poet William Carlos Williams wrote a profound yet simple poem about his take on something as basic yet essential for life in 1923:

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

Sheri asked us to share our own versions of this poem, and what our red wheelbarrows would be. Rising to the challenge, I put together a few snippets of dependable ideas that came forth to be written about. Things I certainly couldn’t do without.

Here are three I came up with:

So much depends upon
the sun

Lighting the sky so we
can see

Warming the day for
budding plants