A Safe Place I Knew as a Child

I first heard that writing prompt from a First Nations man who spoke to my prison creative writing class in Wisconsin. I’ve used it ever since myself.

It’s an amazing prompt. It takes even hardened convicts right back into their childhood and they start the long process of thinking how they came to be who they are. It works for most people as well.

A save place I knew as a child was:

• Under the stairs when my father was drinking
• In my mother’s skirt when my dad and sister were arguing
• At my grandma’s house, cause my dad was in jail and my mom lived with a man who was mean to me.
• In a fort I made behind out house
• In the library where I would read books all day
• On my bed where I escaped to the places I read about
• The foster kids beat me up, so I hid in an abandoned car behind the barn
• By the maple tree in our back yard. When my mom did drugs, I didn’t like how she was, so I…
• With my mother on the subway when she went to market.

Images courtesy of:

• victimempowermentsa.wordpress.com
• tudorhouse.nsw.edu.au