Tag Archives: prompted poetry

Day 14, NaPoWriMo 2019

The 30/30 Poetry Facebook prompt was “how to.”

Present

She tells me no one cares about her, and I resist
the urge to declare my love. She says she is waiting
to die, and I offer no list of things to live for.
No denial. No objection.
No argument. No dissuasion.

Because her pain is the message,
not her words. Because her suffering
is what moves her, not her reasoning.
I respond with sorrow, with shared
regret and fellow grief, for her heartache
will not be soothed by logic, her distress
cannot be calmed with evidence.

No force of mind will lift her
so I lie beside her on the floor and she sees
her own face reflected in my brimming
eyes. Responding to the sad woman
looking back at her, she rises when I do,
captivated by the play of her features
in that unexpected mirror.

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daffys

fragrant daffodils from my yard

Day 13, NaPoWriMo 2019

The 30/30 Poetry Facebook prompt was “brilliant nothing.”

So eager was the blushing lad,
his bride-to-be forgave his haste
when the glittering ring she had
turned out not diamond, only paste.

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Day 12, NaPoWriMo 2019

The 30/30 Poetry Facebook prompt was “empty storefronts.”

Main Street

Once this was the place you wanted
to be, where gloved ladies met for lunch
and shopping, shoes and pocketbooks
tastefully matched to clean-cut
dresses. Shopkeepers waited
on all customers as a matter of course,

keen eyes tracking and shaping
national trends and their local
manifestations. Generations of youth
were fitted for first suits and first bras
and shoes for first communions
and bar mitzvahs, then proms and balls,

weddings and job interviews. Now
a soup kitchen and a pool hall anchor
three blocks of windows lined with faded
butcher paper and “For Lease” signs
while leaves and old newspaper gather
in the recessed doorways.

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magnolia

yellow magnolia from my yard

30 in 30, day four

This was inspired by September 1 Picture Prompts photo on Twitter.

Alight

the heart is a red lamp, fist-sized, fragile
and glowing among the rocks

a beacon to the dark-wandering
mind and a source of warmth

for the soul at home

sept 2017 30-30

Day eleven poem, LexPoMo 2017

LexPoMo2017This resulted from a prompt in The Daily Poet by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano of Two Sylvias Press. The Kindle version comes in handy, especially on a smart phone.

Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.

Unresolved

The dream starts with tornadoes,
dozens of them descending
at the same time, all around,
from a sky the color of a faded
black eye. It always begins
like this, a shifting landscape
of rage without refuge or
escape that doesn’t end
until I wake up.

Day two poem: LexPoMo 2017

LexPoMo2017This is another poem that congealed from the list of prompts I made for the month. I can’t decide if it’s creepy or comforting. (Probably depends on what time of day/night you read it.)

Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.

Presence

just because
they’re dead
doesn’t mean
they’re not
here

 

Day one poem: LexPoMo

LexPoMo2017June is Lexington Poetry Month, and once again I’ve signed up for the LexPoMo challenge: to write a poem each day and post at least five. As part of my preparation, I compiled a list of prompts from various places, and the list itself took on the shape of a poem in places. So here is a kind of found poem, cobbled together from a bone pile of prompts.

Bone pile

it’s just hard
to know what to do
with her

booze like water
chugs and weeps
a broken faucet

I once knew
how to celebrate
humdrum: cook

with these old men
smother them
with kindness

I understood
this before

we traded places

Day 12, NaPoWriMo 2017

napo2017button1I can always count on tarot to spark my imagination. This is from the Fairy Tale Tarot (Lisa Hunt, 2009), a gorgeous deck that is out of print but digitally available thanks to The Fool’s Dog. This image came from their Tarot Sampler IV.

Look deeper

A woman may swallow a seed
that is not a seed and bear
a child that is not a child.

A selfish old man may indulge
himself by pretending
to indulge his grandson.

A child that wants to play
with a box may be a raven
who steals back the sun.

A child may be a raven.
A box may hold the sun.
A thief may be a hero.

Things are not always what they seem.

Prompted poetry: prepare

You may notice that I posted a poem last year using the same prompt. That’s because it comes from essentially the same source: the seasonal social media event known as #blogElul.

We are not quite the same people when we pass the same date on the calendar each year, and I am thankful for spiritual practices that help me contemplate and celebrate that. (And yes, I am posting this a few days behind. I’m glad you noticed!)

Road improvements

Prepare the royal highway!
Raise up the low and bring down
the high-and-mighty. Soften
curves and widen the shoulders

so no one goes off into a ditch.
Clear boulders and fence posts
from the right-of-way and plant
wildflowers and lithe

grasses to gladden the eye
and sweeten the air. Let the way
be wide, the arms of the Holy One
outstretched to receive us all.

Day twenty-one poem, LexPoMo 2016

LexPoMo2016aFor some reason, I completely forgot to post yesterday’s poem. The prompt was “synchronized.”

Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.

Synchronized

like clockwork, the orange
mackerel tabby leaps on the bed,
walks on my head, and I know
it is six a.m., sure as if she’d been
wound and set the night before