30: cut/print

For today's prompt, write a letting go poem. The poem could be about letting go of a relationship; it could be about letting go of anger; it could be about letting go of a tree branch; or it could even be about, yes, letting go of this April challenge. There are so many things we can let go.


Flight 1111

As I fly above New York City
I could fit it in my hand
It is that small
- multiverse of human dreams
perfect grid of redundant need
snow globe of my broken heart

I drop it
It is fine

I can see from New Jersey to the tip of Long Island
(where it's true, it's true) but just long enough to notice
the range of my entire story
obliterated by the wisp of a vapor trail

a trail that starts at the position of now

29

For today's prompt, I want you to take the phrase "And Suddenly (blank)," replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem. Some examples: "And suddenly we were lost," "And suddenly over," "And suddenly banana," "And suddenly sudden," "And suddenly the poem I was writing turned into a killer robot," etc.


And Suddenly I am Gone

A little speed, a lot
a tilt
hold my hand
who are you? I don't care pray to something
the bolts and belts strain
turbulence oh Christ
wind shear

Then suddenly: beverage service.
Reading about teeth whiteners
or the star gone chubby

calm and stupid
five miles above Reno.

Day 28

For today's prompt, write an end of the line poem. Maybe the narrator of your poem is at the end of his or her line. Other possible lines that have an end: assembly lines, phone lines, power lines, rail lines, graph lines, dotted lines, waiting lines, lines of poetry, etc.


Next Year's Lemons

I was looking for my flathead screwdriver
where I keep my jackets that need buttons
hotel shampoos
wrapping paper and sparklers
and found a phone
and old one
its cord wrapped around itself
choking the neck of the receiver
and on it - in blue painter's tape - the note:
"Save!!! Richard's voice!!!"

The only person I ever enjoyed
talking to on the phone. No pleasantries.
Straight into it: "I read the book you
recommended. It was crap
- but where she says..."

And we'd talk for an hour
the snow falling around me
(little bird hopping through branches knocking off ice)
/ the glare bright off the Dixon wild oats
(the unsmoked smoke: blue, exhaled grey)

Now he is ash under my lemon tree, having had enough.
(spring lemon rot / votive holders filled with muck).

Man is not the lord of beings. Man is the shepherd of Being.

I will drag that old tape phone machine wherever
I go, as long as I live. But I'll never need to
wire it up to hear Richard, worn and present, on the end of the line
deeply, actually, talking to me, or

smoking (the last idea exhaled grey in the cramped, empty room)

thinking

Challenge - Day 27

Wow! After today, we'll be a mere three days from the end of this challenge. Today is a two for Tuesday prompt, so you've got two options:

1. Write a hopeful poem.
2. Write a hopeless poem.


















Starstuff


It is a rip tide
The harder you swim
the further out you get

The longer you live
the more you don't know

The finer the telescope
the more innumerable the innumerable

Would it make you feel better to find
once and for all, the deep field
was just a dancing membrame,
- film on some colassal eye

No.

Only animal to sleep on our backs
to gaze into the speckled path of infinity
and in that sure, ridiculous scale of
unquantifiable indifference

note that seeing

breathing and seeing
laying and talking
or silently seeing and breathing
touched by the wind
we are promised,

forever and ever,
forever and ever,
forever and ever,

no answer
- ever

and this is hope
- which is also hard to understand.

Poetry Challenge - Day 26

For today's prompt, write a "more than 5 times" poem. Of course, I'll let you decide what that means. Maybe you'll write a poem about something the narrator does more times than preferrable; maybe you'll write a deja vu poem; or maybe you'll just write the same line and/or stanza more than 5 times. I just know that multiple poets recently said the "More than 5 times" subject line would make a great prompt, so I'm listening to the group. Have at it!


More than five times

Maybe six I have been to Germany
Does it take so little to build an identity?
The window pulls out at a slant from the top
and the air lifts in cool
to rouse me from my traveling state
as it always did

always
more than five times

Deep voices rise from the stairwell
and my aunt has brought afternoon tarts out to the patio
More than five times,
six maybe, ten, twelve
I have come here, near here,
home to these home-like places where the windows
pull open on a slant and the air
lifts in cool from the garden
where I've played and later, formally sat

My Oma's breakfast table has moved to a new house
since she is no longer in the old one
to arrange her shoes in a long row in the kitchen
or peel potatoes
or close the books in Latin
and her backyard has grown intricate, wild, impenetrable.
As, in some ways, have I.

The chairs are around her table exactly the same
but somewhere else.
The whole room, just moved
I sit in one, tear brötchen
I have made from some yeast of memory

Today, we will ride horses at Britta's
In the evening, we will walk behind Opa
in the woods where the first time
the first of any, maybe any, dimming edge
of possible fairytale memory
- we hunted in the dark wet woods
for wild mushrooms

One moment is enough, maybe,
to seed a hybrid sense of self, if you find
a wild morrel underneath a forest fern
but have no right words
for any of it, muddy shoes, muddy trim on
your little dress, someone blonde
moving there, someone with a basket near
but your Vati is there,
almost on the outer edge of his true youth,
speaking words you can't understand.

One doesn't need to understand the words
to know when they are loving, to know
when you are good
and belong
and always will

Poetry Challenge - Day 25

We're getting down to the final days of the challenge. This is the point in the race where you can see the finish line; so dig deep and finish with a sprint. We're nearly there.

For today's prompt, write a poem inspired by a song. Be sure to include the song and artist (if known) with your poem, so that we can all make our own mix CDs to write poetry.

"Freeway View" James McMurtry - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpw4o5bYMJ8

Guess I won't write about that one after all; I'd just have to write it all out again. My favorite song so far this year.

This one popped up on shuffle though, which I played a thousand times at one point in my life. "By your side" Sade.


By Your Side

You think I'd leave your side baby?
You know me better than that
You think I'd leave you down when your down on your knees?
I wouldn't do that.

[And I wouldn't have].

I've gotten up enough times.
Let's do that again. There's a hand in front of me
and I think I'll take it.
He wouldn't leave me down when I'm down on my knees
He wouldn't do that.



(oh well. that's crap. but if this is a sprint, i've got blisters.
cut print for now)

oh wait. wait. how bout combining today's favorite lyrics from various songs




• take a picture of a puddle and sign your name. i'm sure you could sell it to the pouring rain.

• the topless dancer with something up her sleeve.

• you could be less prodigal if you were more methodical

• runrunrun put your armor on again. (The Be Good Tanyas. Can't get this one out of my head)


oh. no. this assignments gotten too tough. will leave these notes for later perhaps.
bath time.