write a memorial to someone or something you dearly loved that has been lost.

Your next assignment is inspired by "Fathers Playing Catch with Sons." You will write a memorial to someone or something you dearly loved that has been lost.

Besides taking us into your experience of that person, animal, community, or place on earth* (how many of us have lost beloved places in the landscape to development projects or pollution?) using potent descriptive language, you must keep our audience in mind!

Memorials don’t just give us a factual record of the past. In fact, as we saw from Hall’s essay, facts aren’t really that important here. What memorials do is struggle to capture the essence, the unique beauty, the sheer irreplaceability, of something that has been forever lost. It is strongly tinged with nostalgia and grief, and be prepared €” the writing of a memorial should crack your own heart.

So this is a risky assignment. You’ll need to yourself enough to give us a strong depiction of the character of the one or thing that is no longer with us. It also has its rewards €” memorials are our humble way to treasure and hold what we’ve loved in the present with us. So give yourself over to your writing here.

Beware €” communicate your meaning through vivid detail, not by telling us about how something felt. You must draw the reader into your experience. Do it by Showing, Not Telling. (my gender is male and asian.)