Prompt #122 – What Drives You?

A week ago, I was parked in the local Lord & Taylor parking lot and came out of the store to find that someone had hit the passenger side of my car. The damage was mostly streaks of paint from the other car with some sizeable scrapes – nothing huge, but the person who did it didn’t leave a note – nothing. Needless to say, I was annoyed. A friend compounded most of the paint off my car, but the scrapes are deep and will need a substantial amount of touching up. A few days later, the same friend’s 1968 Mustang won best in show at a car show. Then, a day or two later I came across the quote, “It’s not what you drive, it’s what drives you” in a magazine article; and this morning, on my way to the hairdresser’s, the old Car’s song “Drive” came on the radio. Click Here to Listen to "Drive"

Seemed a whole lot of driving-related activity, and that thought nudged me to reflect upon what drives us, what things motivate people, and how those motivations impact our own and others’ lives.

“What drives you?” suggests purpose – your fundamental “reason why.” What’s your motivating force, your energy’s inspiration, the essential gear in your metaphorical wheel, the axle around which your life’s wheel turns? What gives your life purpose and meaning?

Are you driven

• to do well at your job,
• to succeed in personal matters,
• to care for your family,
• to be healthy,
• to serve others,
• to be accepted,
• to be popular,
• to be honest and reliable,
• to live a simple life,
• to acquire wealth and status,
• to create art,
• to find spiritual peace,
• to advance your career,
• to be a winner,
• to receive financial reward for your efforts,
• to continue learning and growing as a person,
• to remain close to your faith?

This week, the challenge is to write a poem about a major driving force in your life. You might write about something that drives you now, or you might consider writing about a past motivation, where it lead you, what happened as a result, and how/if that driving force changed over time. I suggest that you keep the poem to a maximum of about 25 lines (less is fine); work on defining your “drive” and clarifying through example. Use a figure of speech or two, and as always, let your poem develop layers of meaning (don’t just tell a story, give the story more than its obvious meaning).

Examples:

"A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Life" by Marvin Bell

"A Plain Life" by William Henry Davies

"Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror" by John Ashbery

"An Old Life" by Donald Hall