13

For today's prompt, make the title of your poem a question; then, the poem should go about trying to answer the question. You can be direct in your answer or a little vague. Possible titles might be: "Why is the sky blue?", "Where are my car keys?", or "How am I supposed to go about writing a poem that answers a question that also happens to be the title of the poem anyway?" I mean, any question will do to get you started, then the fun part is poeming an answer.


What is the matter?

It's not that I dreamt of a man with a flashlight
whose German Shepard had found me first
pushing at me in the dirt with its muzzle
or the other
beside my bed
raising a hand
and I wake myself
by pushing hard into his face
that is the color of the air
around my bed
at not-yet dawn

It is not that now, awake,
the only sound I hear
is the clink of bottles
as someone digs through my trash
outside
or that it is darker now than
it ever was an hour later
earlier

Maybe it is that someone is saving my daylight
I hope it is golden and happy
I hope they are saving it for me

2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 12

For today's prompt, write a "forget what they say" poem. To do this, you could take a familiar saying and spin it on its head. Or comfort someone who's being told they can't do something. Or have the narrator of the poem pledge not to listen to the crowd. Or forget what I've said here, and do it your own way.



Forget what they say
it is worthy to lay down all day in the grass
and just think about



grass

day 11

For today's prompt, take the phrase "No One Wants (blank)," replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem. Possible titles include: "No One Wants to Tell the Truth," "No One Wants to Save Their Money," "No One Wants to Write a Sestina," etc. I hope everyone is ready to write a poem today!

No One Wants to Be the Last to Leave

Or, maybe it's okay.
How many times can you look around
and say
no one again, will pull into this gravel drive
will need help opening the door,
bags under each arm, full,
for many

How many more times
can you look up at the red birch
and know she has a name

Just leave
and leave the door open
for anyone who just needs shelter
or something to steal
from no one
a shower
a bed
silence

Just leave
kicking up the gravel for the last time
you do it, you,
saying the tree's name
and the name of the road
and the name of the next
until you've never heard the name
of that road
before

until all you know is hunger
- thank goodness -
and a powerful,
growing
thirst

day 10 - gracious, a third of the way through. i should put some effort in here.

For today's prompt, write a love poem. Simple as that. Poets who've done the PAD challenges in the past know I always sneak this one in somewhere during the month. And if you're all anti-love poem, that's fine. Express your anti-love in a poem as well; it still counts toward this prompt.


For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
-Carl Sagan

Not for a minute could I express the well of the sea
unseen pressing out in the South Pacific
as I sleep

how that I love
how that is love
rise and swell

A hawk lifts from the top of skinny pine and the first dusting of snow
drifts down, still drifting as he banks into the river canyon

how that I love
how that is love

light and particle

Little dog in a sweater curled on the lap of someone I'll never know
Somewhere I will never go, their weather not mine, a clock ticking
in the kitchen

time and self
selves

how that I love
how that is love

A poet reads his lines in his head, watches from his window
his children waiting for the school bus, stepping on and off the sidewalk
visible breath

music
story

a space somewhere (where?) for vision
visons

that is love
that I love

finally, some answers

a picture paints a thousand ows.

no CT info yet but this: a very torqued, tilted, misaligned Atlas, off-setting, pinching and compressing the top of the spinal cord. disks fusing below, other pinched nerves hither and yon.
neck straight were it should be curved, turned where it should be straight.
yeah. that seems to be your problem right here, ma'am...
well... hopefully... this can be sorted out.
i feel relieved just to have the images (which I always find beautiful) and I love how all my major dental work makes my skeleton look giggly.

day what ? - oh geez

For today's prompts, write one of the following poems (or both--if you're feeling ambitious):

1. Write a slow down poem. Could be about reducing actual traveling speed or speed of living or some other interpretation.
2. Write a never slow down poem. Some people love living in the fast lane and believe it's better to burn out than fade away. If you're one of these people or want to write about one of these people, then this is the prompt for you.

Not going to write two.. Slow Down is enough.


Michigan Bar Road

Slow down
Park the car
Leave the windows down
Leave change visible there
Bills
No matter
Walk through someone's yard
Feed their swayback mare
with grass ripped from the good side
of the barbed wire
Walk as far as you want

You are not trespassing
You are a California girl
Wildoats advise you.
Moss green
on the river oaks
is the answer

Shoes soaked through to socks
Slippery step over rocks to sit
Count how many greens
or forget how many times counted

Home wants you
and wants you
slow
hair - the color of oats
eyes, spirit - moss green
saturated
here
now
holding on
taking part

day 7

uh oh - three behind!! i'm going to have to knock these out.

For today's prompt, write a Pro-something poem. Your poem could be pro-candy, pro-writing, pro-peace, love and happiness, or whatever else it is that you support. I intentionally did not make this the prompt on Election Day (to avoid riots on the blog), and I'm asking now that everyone is respectful of each others' pro-opinions. This is a poetry exercise and while I encourage political poems, I ask that everyone show respect and remember that this is a poetry blog.


Pro Cipitation

Some things you don't mind being woken for in the dark.

What is it?
What do you need?
Oh, hello.
Yes. Here we are.
Come closer.
Yes.
Yes


I'll listen


as early
in the dark
you fall
all around
me

day 6

For today's prompt, take the phrase "Looking for (blank)," replace the blank with a word or phrase, use the new phrase as the title of your poem, and then, write the poem. Possible titles could include: "Looking for car keys," "Looking for love," "Looking for trouble," "Looking for the best line ever written," and so on. There are so many possibilities! I hope you have fun "Looking for a poem to write."


Rescue

Looking for anything
a spot a pinch a pull
a rope a nail a bruise

what is there
vertebrae climb on top of one another
wee tectonic plates

a civilization
a whole world
jammed under

artifact of self
something there
unnourished, waiting

we will send someone in