Poem-a-Day Day 22

 

 

 

 

 

This is the prompt for today:

2011 April PAD Challenge: Day 22
Posted by Robert

For today’s prompt, write an “only one in the world” poem. This only one in the world might be a person, an animal, a place, or an object. Think of someone or something unique and write.

My poem:

The Magnolia Flower in My Vase

The fact that you balance there
opening in the morning
and closing tightly at night
spilling your perfume
as if you were still on the tree
I wrenched you from
in the J.C. Penney’s parking lot
somehow broke my heart,
but you are one blossom
I have loved enough
to mourn the passing of
Is that enough?

The Big Picture for Poem-a-Day

The prompt was to write about the big picture.

Here’s my offering:

It
seems
much harder
to see the big picture
I’ve been looking so long
it doesn’t seem so big anymore
nor agonize me anywhere to the extent
as when I was sure I could change the world
instead I concentrate on the little picture
as I recycle plastic and newspapers
grow some sprouts and herbs
vote and talk and remember
to say a kind word
to the ones
who have
also lost
sight

After I posted it on PAD, I changed the “or” in the seventh line to “nor.” What a learning experience this has been.

Poem-a-day Form poetry

Thistle Down Soft – a Pantoum

My love is like a thistle down
velvet silk and soft
wrapped about you like a gown
with thick enduring loft

Velvet silk and soft
but brutal thorn beneath
with thick enduring loft
as that upon the heath

But brutal thorn beneath
as if a wicked trick
as that upon the heath
which tears the thin and thick

As if a wicked trick
My love hides a shadow side
which tears the thin and thick
and fails to confide

My love hides a shadow side
My love is like a thistle down
and fails to confide
Wrapped about you like a gown

Poem-a-Day Half Way

Half way through the month of poems. I have learned a lot and realize that I can actually write more than a poem every six months, which was my pattern the past few years. Before that I had sworn off writing poetry for about thirty years because I thought that I should be reading other people’s poetry instead of writing mediocre stuff. But as I said in a recent poem, the words kept nipping at my ankles and begging to be smeared on paper so…….

Never Rhyme

Never rhyme a poem, why would I?
bind the wings of verse meant to be
free-er than the wind seems to me,
and leave the poem to lie

All tied up with tape and gaggle
unable to move or haggle
discontented to straggle
away from its boundless sky

A Nonsense Poem for Poem-a-Day

Salute

Shut the door
and let them in,
the party poor
have come to sin
with party dress
in mourning black
but none the less
they’re coming back
with dance and song
to sit and cry
they’ll stay too long
if we bid them bye
to leave and come
as they suppose
to walk in rhyme
and lie in prose
We welcome all
to not come in
the party poor
would rather sin

Poem-a-Day Day 10

2011 April PAD Challenge: Day 10
For today’s prompt, write a never again poem. Maybe you’ll never again fall in love or never again tell a lie. Or maybe, just maybe, you’ll never again not write a sestina.(Like that? It’s a double negative.)

I actually wrote quite a few poems using that prompt today. It’s getting a bit easier now that I’ve let go of all fantasy of writing THE poem. So here are the poems of the day (the ones I posted):

I never would

I’d like to say, I would never say never,
because life is the strangest thing.
Our “nevers” become what we want to do
and “always” the rarest fling.

Never Again

The not simple task
muscle contraction
the balance and timing
such coördination
I cannot gather
without support.
The doctors say
never again  
lacking this
foot-dragging limp.
But when night comes
I stride across
the scenery of dreams
run in pastures of blooms
and walk free.
Let them keep
their never agains
this time I will fly.

My New,
Snazzy, Bright Blue,
Flashy Fake Leather,
Calendar-Planner

Never again forget an appointment
this calendar promotes
but to my disappointment
you have to write down notes

It won’t remember for you
the doctor or the vet
if you neglect the follow-through
You surely will forget

But I carry it with me always
and jot my lexis down
through offices and hallways
seeking the perfect noun

But as for missing appointments
I’m much worse than before
I wish they had some ointments
to cure this poetry-whore

Poeming

The Poem-a-Day Challenge today is:

For today’s prompt, write a ready to celebrate poem.  You could chronicle the actual celebration or even write about the anticipation of one.

http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/

I thought about which celebration I anticipated the most keenly and the thing that steamrolled my thoughts was sunrises.

I go in the dark early morning hours to the edge of the sea and wait for the spectacle. It never fails to satisfy my anticipation, even when the total show amounts to just the change to daylight on a cloud covered day.

But the days when the clouds seem like they will hide the sun, but then it somehow manages to peek out at the horizon before plunging behind the cloud cover are my favorites.

So, here’s mine:

Sunrise

To think that it happens every day

the light seeping over the horizon

spreading like a pink stain.

At first just a suggestion

or maybe it’s only your imagination

and able eyes adjusting to the dark.

Then it comes

catching a cloud and coloring

a wafer-thin edge hot-metal white

elongating like a hot-air balloon

as it struggles to escape

the horizon

4/6 Poem-a-Day

Nothing has made me feel more like “Not-a-Poet” than the poem a day challenge, although I wonder if my rush to get one posted quickly might contribute to the problem. I see wonderful poems appearing like an instant poem in a can, just open the can, stir it up and heat for two minutes in the microwave.

Who are these people who can produce a credible (in some cases “incredible) poem so quickly? I am in awe of them. But I will trudge on. Tomorrow I will try to let it sit a while and see if it matures a bit, but for today, here is my response.

The prompt for today was:

For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Don’t (blank), (blank),” replace each of the blanks with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem.

Here’s mine:

Don’t worry, poems

I got your telegram

early this morning

I’ve been so concerned

with your absence

I considered putting up posters

saying “my poems are missing”

and offering a reward

for any information

I understand what you’re saying

you have, for so long

enjoyed hiding in the corners

evolving and growing

resembling dust bunnies

overlooked until you burst out

like little tumbleweeds

that can’t be ignored

I know you are sick of being

wiped up as dust

and slapped onto the paper

like finger-painting by a two-year old

Like the showgirl

in her underwear

only one eyebrow done

when her onstage call comes

But don’t worry poems

I’ll wait for you

I’ll just mess around here

until you return

April isn’t that long

Poem of the Day

The mission for today (it’s actually called a “prompt”)  is to write a goofy poem or a serious poem. That seems to cover just about any poem I could write but I dashed off one in five minutes and here it is:

The bobble head he stares at me

and all I have to do

is wiggle my butt in my chair

and he is nodding too

No matter what the question is

he always answers yes

If I ask if he’s done something wrong

he’ll eagerly confess

And if I need a back up man

who’ll always take my side

he stands up straight and nods his head

his service bona fide

I changed the last line from:

“his guard is bona fide” but not until after I had posted it.

Poem-a-Day

Hello April – National Poetry Month,

In honor of such, I am participating in the Poem-a-Day Challenge: http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/CommentView,guid,06099E0E-7805-4F34-86B5-E4CC952AB008.aspx#c7fb3bda-d4e3-413d-a482-e68afb62372d

I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but this is much harder than I thought. Most of the poems I write need to sit a while with me changing them many times. I suppose that is how most poets write. To post something raw and that I don’t particularly like, makes me feel vulnerable. But that is the challenge I’ve accepted and I am going to post what I write most days on the above site.

Join Me!