A taste of autumn is in the air—it’s a great time to be outside! What transitions do you experience as you walk outside? Evenings racing up on afternoons earlier every day? School buses replacing tour buses? Apples replacing watermelon? Working up to a sweat instead of starting out with one?

September’s Soul & Solace invites you to express a transition in creation through poetry: NO NOT FEAR—YOU CAN DO THIS! Choose a transition that intrigues you or start with one of the suggestions above. If you can, go out and sit with the transition and allow it to bless you. Then create a diamante poem (from If You’re Trying the Teach Kids How to Write, You’ve Gotta Have This Book! By Marjorie Frank).

Line 1: Name the initial experience (for instance, tour bus)

Line 2: Name two adjectives that describe the experience (sleek, sparkling)

Line 3: Name three participles (-ing verbs) that describe the experience (blaring, racing, soaring)

Line 4: Name two nouns for the first experience (travel, highways) and two that describe the experience it transitions into (travel, byways)

Line 5: Name three participles (-ing verbs) that describe the second experience (yelling, waving, yielding)

Line 6: Name two adjectives that describe the second experience (homey, yellow)

Line 7: Name the transition experience (school bus)

You now have a gem of a poem!

tour bus

sleek, sparkling

blaring, racing, soaring

travel highways travel byways

yelling, waving, yielding

homey, yellow

school bus

You can even play with words the can serve as two parts of speech, as with “travel” in this poem: it is written as a noun, and can also be read as a verb.