https://historicalwriters.org/awards/ddshwass-award-2020/

We will all be nomads when change has its way
Packing up our tents, though we really want to stay.
A juggernaut is speeding upon its glowing tracks
a ball of fire is rolling towards our wooden shacks.

We are but the pieces in a game of chess
Who had corn a-plenty but soon will have less.
Another master’s waiting, who we never chose
a ray of light is flaring across his bulbous nose.

We will all be scattered on a different plain
My friends will you not find me? Will you hear my name?
He’ll pay his dues in silver, in his silken gown
And we’ll sing his praises before the sun goes down.

We are all now nomads, he holds every hour.
Where he goes we scurry, in his path of power.
Yes we are his minions, we drink out of his bowl
And he’ll always own us but he’ll never own our soul.

Pick a random number between 1 and 30. We’ll call it number n. Then look to your bookshelf (real or virtual) and choose the nth book.

Open that book to the nth page and go to the nth sentence on that page.

Write that sentence down and make it the first sentence of a new freewriting exercise. Just write whatever comes to mind for the next sentence and the one after that, and so on.

Write at least as many sentences as the number you chose.

My example

Random number = 4

Sentence number 4

“Each individual tree is invited into the whole, and, in turn, helps support the entire group.”

Own writing

Every tree has roots, how strong are yours?

Confront the person you are.

By being your own worst enemy, you chop the tree down.

Showing kindness to yourself lets the roots grow deeper and the blossom to bloom.