we speak in riddles and doublespeak and half-finished glances i am tired of never saying what i mean and hoping you understand me: coy but ready you: distant but yearning everything is artifice and we are just playing parts Day 3-Write about interpersonal relationships and the games we play to avoid vulnerability.
Today was a good day, but…
I have not quite burned down this house let’s call it a coat that I have hung up in the summer months a house feels too large and too final a thing and I fear that winter will find mind me and I will be all to ready to drape myself in old sorrows. Day 2- Write a poem that addresses at least one other poem and/or poet by name. You might imitate, parody, disagree with, champion, or generally respond to the other poem and poet. I chose A Good Day by Kait Rokowski
Housekeeping
I’m about to post a bunch of poems from the various half-finished poetry challenges I’ve started for 2015. Enjoy. Promptly in January For My Girl April 2015
Re: Old Age
Day 8- Write a cinquain on a topic of your choice. maybe she lost all that weight so you could get used to seeing your giants shrink to nothing.
To The Stump In my Garden
Day 7- Take a walk until you find a tree you identify with, then write a poem using the tree as a metaphor for yourself or your life. To the stump in my garden that has begun to sprout Mere days after its branches have been shorn: Teach me whatever lessons you have learned How to give thanks for your still solid roots And how to recalibrate the hardened fibres of your bark And make life once more.
Lemons
Day 5- Write a three line poem about lemons without using the following words: lemon, yellow, round, fruit, citrus, tart, juicy, peel, and sour. My mouth puckers at the taste But it is not without a lesson: Take nothing without a pinch of salt
In Your Old Age
Day 3- Find the nearest book (of any kind). Turn to page 8. Use the first ten full words on the page in a poem. You may use them in any order, anywhere in the poem. Senescence is the great equaliser. great men, average men, men of faith, men of none living life with the promise that some of its secrets will be revealed but all you will ever learn are verbs like forgetting and dying.
Upon Review
Day 2- Who was the last person you texted? Write a five-line poem to that person. I cannot write about you. Poetry reveals truths And I cannot hear those truths Without revealing hurts. I still have not healed from your last wounds.
Updates
Last October I attempted a 30 poetry challenge. I didn’t get very far, but I’ll be posting a few of the poems I didn’t hate here.