Writing Prompt: When the Bough Breaks

In “When the Bough Breaks” , Ann Whitfield Powers writes about seeking communion with writer mothers who have gone before her as a necessary preparation for nurturing two young children and a creative life. She looks to Louise Erdrich’s Blue Jay’s Dance, and to Lia Purpura’s Increase. In her essay, she unpacks the process of finding solace in others’ “controlling metaphors of motherhood”- “Blue jay, raccoon, scallop, tree — feisty, crazed, watchful, rooted.”

Write about something from the natural world that functions as a metaphor for your experience of motherhood.