Today, we are having, what we Texans hope is the last really cold snap of winter weather.

Grant you, it’s not that cold, relatively speaking: lows near freezing. But, as you may have seen on the news, in recent years, we have experienced power and water outages due to freezing rain and snow and temps that dropped into the single digits (4 degrees here), weather that our power grid simply is not properly equipped to handle.

So, we all get really tense and worried when the forecast predicts actual winter. We run to the grocery store and the gas station and do last minute online shopping for winter-wear (we’re learning, but we are not quite up to speed).

Thankfully, this winter, even though we did have a peppering of snow a few weeks ago, the power has stayed on.

Recently, I’ve been writing for and supporting the fund-raising-for-food efforts of The Texas Poetry Assignment, Laurence Musgrove, Ed. Anyone can write to any of the posted prompts at any time and, if published, participate in the quarterly online contributor’s readings. Check it out!

Here’s a poem of mine that appeared in the Feb. 2025 Issue of TPA Quarterly (a publication of The Texas Poetry Assignment) that was written in response to the prompt: Texas Hopes.

friendly state
~d. ellis phelps

we hope the power 
will stay on—that 
there will be no snow

some of us hope
to see blue in power

but no 

no matter 
how red things get

no matter 
we power on:

drive by the dry riverbed
—pray for rain

dig up invasives
—opt for natives

pre-cycle plastics
—drink from glasses

finish reading on TPA Quarterly

Thanks for reading.  Stay warm!

Namaste,
d

P. S. Also! Please check out my new offering: Writer’s Idea Box. Your paid subscription ($10 Annually) gives you access to monthly writing prompts with writing samples and writing exercises. These are more than simply one-line prompts. They are writing craft syllabi I have used with adult writers in workshop over the last decade.

Along with monthly writing craft exercises, you’ll be eligible to submit work written to the prompts to the digital fws: writer’s idea box journal (forthcoming).

I hope you’ll join us! You’ll be glad you did. Find out more and sign up here.