The Modern Magi (Day 9 of PAD)

      after “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

[Courtship]

He’s the tops. He
respects walks. He

sows seeds. He
honors creeds. He

spellbinds mobs. He
triumphs hobnobs.

     Until . . .

[Just Married]

He swift reveals. He
slays feels. He

carves cloth. He
stirs froth. He

summons tears. He
conjures fears. We

breathe dread. Innocents
lay dead.

Yes, I missed a couple of days. I've been swamped with work. But I'll get back to those missed days (seven and eight0 eventually. 

Day 9's prompt is to write an ekphrastic poem. Mine is after Gwendolyn Brooks's "We Real Cool."

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Crystalline Traces

—the forest,

     a Himalayan salt lamp, enlightens
          stray wanderers, detoxes
               stale lifestyles, promises
                    light on the other side—

[Author's Note: I based this poem on photo number four on the prompt page.] 

Can You See Your Future Inside Them?

For today’s prompt, write an ekphrastic poem. An ekphrastic poem is one that’s inspired by a work of art, whether that’s a painting, photograph, sculpture, or some other creation. I’ve included five ekphrastic prompts below. Look them over and choose one (or more) to prompt your poem today.

* * * 

Till Death Do Us Part

We said I do,

same as all the others.
But unlike some others,
even when we feel like
we don’t,
we do.


[Author's Note: This is just a poem and not a judgement about anyone else's choices.]

Let the Light Guide Your Way

Here is the prompt for Day Nine (copied from Writer's Digest):

1. Write a love poem. All you need is love.
2. Write an anti-love poem. Or not.

*****

Battle on the I-5 (A Poem for Day Nine of PAD)

For today’s prompt (day nine), take the phrase “Battle (blank);” replace the blank with a word or phrase; make the new phrase the title of your poem; and then, write your poem. Possible titles include: “Battle Tested,” “Battle of the Sexes,” “Battle of the Bands,” and “Battle of the Bulge.”

Slug-a-Bug

Battle on the I-5

Somewhere behind
the windshield smear
of bugs that didn’t make it,
innocent passersby are
slugged, Volkswagens trundle
off down the highway.

*****

[Please note that all prompts have been copied from the Writer's Digest Poetic Asides website.]

So, Break the Four-Stroke Cycle - a Poem for Day Nine of PAD

Yes, I'm posting a day late. (Busy weekend!) 

Here is the prompt for day nine of PAD:

For today’s prompt, take the phrase “So (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “So Cool,” “So Stupid,” “So Not What I Would’ve Done,” “So Sweet,” or so many other possibilities.

So, Whatever Gets You down the Road

So, Break the Four-Stroke Cycle

So, you say you can’t speak
so good about
so many things but automobiles because
so many subjects escape you. You suck and have
so little education, you say, and you
so want to blame your clunker of a life upon
so many others—when you know that
so many times you could have squeezed
so many opportunities, popped your four-stroke engine
so far-off from where it started.

So, I tell you to look outside yourself,
so be it, out of the windows of your gas-guzzling heap of a life, not
so far you forget where you came from, just
so far that you operate more than for
sowing disrepair. Just keep in mind not to blow it and that
so
     me
          times, one of the alternatives—stop-start systems—are not
so efficient. It’s better to keep chugging along with the old tried and true.


***

Done with Housework (a Poem for Day Nine of PAD)

Spring break with screaming children is a test of concentration. At least they are screaming in fun. My poem for day nine is below. The prompt is to write a work poem.

Left Hanging

Done with Housework

I was your home after weary
travels, a mattress holding the shape
of your sleep. I was a refrigerator full
of all your favorite ales, a warm
tub of lavender to cradle your feet,
worn out from searching for things
to make you happy. I’ve stood here
all along offering you comfort,
but all you saw me as
was a terrible ex-
pense. 

*****

Poetic Asides PAD Challenge Results for April 2014

In the midst of, among other things, pursuing my editing career—leaving me with little time for poetry writing—I have received a nudge of inspiration.

Write Poetry Wherever You Can

Something I look forward to twice a year since I learned of it is Robert Lee Brewer's Poetic Asides Poem-a-Day Challenge. It's a period to give myself permission to put in whatever time I need to write a poem each day, something I often find difficult during my busy life the rest of the year. So this past April when I participated in the challenge, I looked at is a way to indulge myself in playing with words, but without worrying about contest results. 

Robert has just announced the top ten poems for some of the days and I was humbled to see my name in two of the lists—for days seven and nine. (The links go to my blog post version of the poems.)

Standing at the bottom of the writing ride and looking upwards, I am grateful for the encouragement. 

Thank you to Robert, who not only runs this challenge, but also encourages so many poets and is a wonderful poet himself.  

Congratulations to the winners, to the rest of the writers who made it to the Top Ten, and to those who participated in the challenge!

And thanks to you, my blog readers as well. Your support means a lot to me.

Enjoy your day! 


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