Express

This prompt took some time. I finally had to just apply myself and begin typing words to make the ideas gel. But we are more than halfway through poetry month!

The prompt was to write an express poem. ^_^ Here goes:

Poets Express

The World English Dictionary says
that when one expresses something,
one transforms (ideas) into words.

That is the best way of saying
just what it is we do
when we express ourselves
in poetry.

In April, when we challenge
ourselves, reapply for our
poetic licence,
and inundate our blogs
with self-expression,
wracking our brains for
just
the
right
words
we reaffirm our love
for those words and
their myriad meanings
embrace.

And via this information superhighway,
this expressway of expression,
we poets express our innermost
thoughts
dreams
ideas
memories
and cryptic ramblings
to the world;
that is when we
arrive on the fast train,
the Poets’ Express.

Glosa — November PaD, day 18

Golly, this was a strenuous prompt: to write a “Glosa.” I have taken the description directly from the prompt:  ”This involves an epigram of 4 consecutive lines from a favorite poet that the challenge participant believes they can write successfully to. Then, write a poem consisting of four 10-line stanzas where the final line of each stanza is a line from the epigram, in order. Within each stanza, lines 6, 9 and 10 must rhyme.”

Complex, yes?

And I was traveling all day, to visit my son at Ft. Huachuca, so I did not get to this until late.

I took the last four lines of a poem by Maya Anjelou, Women Work.

***

From Woman Work
by Maya Angelou

Sun, rain, curving sky
Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone
Star shine, moon glow
You’re all that I can call my own.

—

I want to run and just pretend
that I have suddenly become a child
again. I want to carelessly leave my
belongings scattered, and never turn off
a light. I want to stay out playing ‘til
dark, and pretend I cannot hear you cry
my name into the dew speckled darkness,
until I am too tired to play tag,
and, guilty, finally, tell my friends goodbye.
My day complete with sun, rain, curving sky.

I want to live that carefree life once more
To have my mother or father tuck me
safely into bed, checking carefully
for monsters underneath the springs or in
the closet, tinkling the hangars with
their frightful claws or teeth of sharpened bone.
I want the whole scenario, complete
with bedtime story and glass of water
and on to dreams of Neverland and mer-
maids, lost boys, mountain, oceans, leaf and stone

And then I want to waken when I want
with no alarms or overly-cheerful
morning show on the local radio
station. I want to wake when I am no
longer sleepy, to stretch, luxuriate.
To hop up out of bed as spry as though
I really were a child again, no aches
or stiffness. And to breakfast where I eat
a meal like a Norman Rockwell tableau,
and our faces beam like star shine, moon glow

I want to be that child again, if just
to more completely recall how it was,
to see my folks as their younger, joyful
selves, before the pain and anger and loss,
before the agony of the divorce,
before the love that we had known was flown.
Regret and loss aren’t all I have left,
You, memories, I have a few of you.
You, lost memories are what I bemoan
Yet you’re all that I can call my own.

 

April 30, Fade Away

Today is the last day of the April poem-a-day challenge, and what a month it has been. I feel wrung out and exhausted, but also, a bit sad that it’s all over once more. Of course, November will be here before too long, and another poem-a-day challenge with it, but it’s always hard to let go of that daily drive to finish at least one poem.

The prompt was “fade away,” apropos I think to the feeling we get when the party’s over. Luckily, the Wednesday poetry prompts will still be there to tide us all over.

I wrote one Haiku for the prompt, and then referenced, or rather, replied to, a poem from March in the second poem.

Rock stars sometimes say
It’s better to burn out than
simply fade away.

###

Check March 22 for part one: Life on the Street

###
The Party Fades Away

Back on the street,
the last
exhausted
visitors are packing up,
getting set to go on their way.

The regulars are just as
exhausted, but know that
in a few days,
things will be back to normal.

...to sleep, perchance to dream...

With maybe a few more
regulars
to stay and play
through the
long quiet summer
and peaceful fall
until
November
gets us all amped up
and poeming like
crazy
once
more.

April 25, (Extreme) Sports

Today’s prompt was actually “sport” but you know I always go overboard on things and decided to write about extreme sports. I only listed a few, and if I come up with any more extreme sports that sound interesting I may add them too. There is no shortage of crazy interesting people willing to do extreme things. ^_^

###

Extreme Sports

Wind surfing, ice yachting,
cliff diving, grizzly watching,
base jumping, trail blazing,
pearl diving’s just amazing,
free falling from a plane,
chasing lightning in the rain,
circus acts, tightrope walking
lion tamer, critter stalking
jumping through a fiery ring,
Africanized bee keeping
contortionist, sword swallower,
scary, foreign cult follower,
alcoholic fire eater,
blackbelt bearing death cheater,
treasure diver, lumberjack,
race car driver heart attack,
parcour, barefoot waterskiing,
third-world country sightseeing.

However interesting these may be
I find none of them are for me.

EDIT: This YouTube video totally goes with today’s poem:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKWoPlL2B8I (Of course, it is not owned by me or made by me, but is just a link to a neato video on YouTube.)

Psst… What IS a “Platform” Anyway?

Have I ever mentioned that I have too many hobbies? Sometimes, I take on a lot at one time, and I seem to be a glutton for punishment because I have so much fun overdoing it I don’t usually realize that I am until much later, like when it’s time to finally sleep and I can’t and then I sleep late and can’t get up in the morning, just to mention a recent (and fairly frequent) example.

I also love my job (I’m a legal secretary for a busy pair of litigators) because there is a lot of variety and it can be heady at times. Just this week I got to file a brief with the Supreme Court of the U.S., something most legal secretaries rarely, if EVER, get to do. It was exhausting and there was a lot of overtime involved, but it was actually so fun, I really enjoyed it. Again, however, I do have a tendency to just keep going and going without rest until I’m done, and then it’s time to majorly crash, only sometimes I still have the rest of the day at work to go through. LOL

And I write. I love writing, and I am not sure if it’s really another hobby of mine because it has always been a part of my life in one way or another. I have always journaled or written stories or poems. I’ve completed a novel I am (sort of) trying to sell. (I admit, it’s been on a back burner while I’ve been working so hard on poetry lately…) And I blog. I really enjoy blogging too.

And so, along with the April poetry month challenge in which I will write a poem a day, I have decided to also take another April challenge, and figure out this whole “platform” thing. I’m going to take the April Platform Challenge mentioned the linked blog. And yes, it’s from another blog of Robert Lee Brewer’s, but if he can do it, so can I. (And he has little kids at home, so it’s likely to be much harder for him.)

I know a proper platform must be important, but what IS it? Does it mean I have a certain stance about things? Or is it about what my site looks like/feels like? I don’t think it means a kind of shoe, but I’m just not sure. It sounds terribly important for a writer to have, according to the blog, so I guess I will figure it out. And since I am not a quitter, I will do all of the exercises for the month, whether it helps or not.  If you are concerned about your platform too, and even (like me) you don’t know what it is/means, but you figure (like me) that it might be something important and necessary, then maybe you can join me. (Or maybe you’re really smart and can leave a note in the comments cluing me in to what it is?)

What can I say? I’m an overachiever. And it’s always more fun to overachieve in company.

Challenge

The prompt today was challenge, with a little reminder that April is the poem-a-day challenge once more, and OH how I am looking forward to it. There are preparations to be made: Prepay most of my bills, or line them up to be prepaid. Get the most work pre-done at work that I can, perhaps come in earlier, just to be able to get to the poem before starting work. Kiss my social life (such as it is) goodbye for a while so I can focus on the challenge. (It really is an all-consuming thing once one really gets into it…) And I would suggest to anyone that likes to poem even a little, to take up the challenge, see if you can do it. It begins April 1 and goes every day until the 30th. Click Here to go to the Poetic Asides website. The poems are posted in the comments. You can do it!!

And now to today’s poem about Challenge:

###

Not Brought Up

First we learn to smile, then walk.
We learn those things and others
from our native home. Perhaps
we’re lucky and we learn
trust early. Perhaps we learn
that someone is always there
to catch us should we fall. (And
we do fall, everyone does.)

Perhaps we learn, though, that grown-
ups really don’t care, are too
busy, preoccupied with
their own challenges and trials
to notice our baby missteps.
So some of us learn not to
trust, even though a child’s nat-
ural instinct is to try

to trust, no matter what. But
eventually we learn
that we cannot rely on
those we should be able to
rely most upon. Then the
challenge becomes growing up
without that trellis, without
that so-needed guiding hand.

And like a wayward vine, some
of us manage to grow up
anyway, never real-
izing, until much later,
that there was something wrong with
the way we were not brought up,
and hope our kids never learn
what it is not to trust us.