challenge – Page 2 – One Way to Wonder

Write a Poem About Birth

We are nearing the end of the Poem a Day challenge on Robert Lee Brewer’s blog. It has been an interesting experience. I will either continue with my own prompts or find another community. You are certainly welcome to join me by posting in the comments.

Today’s prompt at PAD is to write a poem about giving birth. Click on the link to add your own. You can join in any time.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 29 | Birth Poem | Experience | WritersDigest.com.

Here’s mine:

I kept telling

myself that

the Queens of England

did this

as I lay on the table

under blazing lights

coming undone

the most

private places

in full view

of strangers,

And then, the doctor

said, “He’s going

to be smart.”

A nurse said,

“What a pretty

little face.”

It was like

the blessing

in a fairy tale,

especially when

eyes still blue

as heaven

cast their

virgin gaze

on me.

450+ Things That Kids Like « Writing for Kids (While Raising Them)

If you write books for kids, here’s a list you won’t want to be without. It is sure to inspire a million ideas (and memories). It’s from author and Picture Book Idea Month maven Tara Lazar.

450+ Things That Kids Like « Writing for Kids (While Raising Them).

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 26 | Collection Poem | WritersDigest.com

Today’s challenge is to write a collection poem. Not everyone collects things, but a glance around our house would tell you that my husband and I do. He does it in a more organized way. My gatherings are distinctly haphazard.

Click on the link to go to Robert Lee Brewer’s blog and read the contributions of others. Then, add your own.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 26 | Collection Poem | WritersDigest.com.

Here’s mine:

JPEGs

They fill

the silvery

surfaces of

computer disks,

the hidden

resources

of external

drives, cloud-tops

from long flights,

footprints in snow,

drifting gold

leaves, glinting

sun on summer

lakes, blossoms

in spring orchards,

baby faces,

smiling friends,

all of them

held in virtual

memory, formatted

in universal jpeg.

Like Midas, I run

them through

my fingers,

longing to

hold on.

Write an Opposite Poem

Today’s challenge on Robert Lee Brewer’s Poetic Asides Blog is to write an Opposite poem, using a previous challenge post as its basis. If you have not been participating, you can scan the previous prompts on the blog and take the opposite point of view, choose a poem by a famous poet and write a contrary reply, or do the same with a poem of your own. I looked over the poems I have written for the challenge this year and decided to use the one I wrote yesterday, “The Truth About Art.” I wrote “Lies About Art.”

To read a fascinating collection of replies to this prompt, click on the link, and then, if you feel inspired, add one of your own. Anybody can join in the fun. You have to register for the blog to post, but it’s very easy.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 25 | Opposite Poem | WritersDigest.com.

Here’s my poem:

Lies About Art

The harder

it is the better,

after all,

it’s about

the skill,

the height

of the leap,

the length

of the note,

the flawless

reproduction

of a photograph

in an unforgiving

medium.

The best

is dearest,

after all

experts know

a fine

investment

when they

see one

and no

great poet

has died

unknown.

It takes

years to learn,

after all,

the wheel

has been invented

and there are

so many

conventions

to attend.

Besides,

who would

want

to be called

a child?

Looking Back at the PAD Challenge and a Matches Poem

The very first prompt this month on Robert Lee Brewer’s blog was to write a Matches poem. I was looking back because today’s assignment is to write an Opposite poem using a previous challenge entry. I realized that I have not linked to the first few poems and this could be a problem because I want a convenient way to gather them to submit for chapbook consideration.

You can enter the competition, too, even if you haven’t been posting or writing every day. Just choose your 20 favorite prompts from the month and write to them. Then watch for submission information early next month.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 1 | Matches Poem | WritersDigest.com.

Here’s my “Matches” poem.

We’re a match,

the two of us,

you with your

temper and me

too tempered

you with your

careful pacing

and me

with my wild

last minute

dashes.

We’re a match

of seeming

opposites, seamed

so closely together

that sometimes

there is no space

between us

like sky

and sea at

sunset on the

Pacific.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 23 | Deep Poem | WritersDigest.com

Yesterday we were lazy and I got caught up in creating a special Christmas gift for my husband on Zazzle, so I am catching up on my poems this morning. The Day 23 poem is deceptively simple, but absolutely lovely. Write a “deep” poem. It can be anything deep. Click on the link to read the responses on the Poetic Asides blog.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 23 | Deep Poem | WritersDigest.com.

Here’s mine:

Deep Space

Hurtling

past the last

clumps of ice

gas, rock,

and God only

knows what

else at the fringe

of the solar system,

Voyager, a

miracle wonder

of my younger

days, swings

out into the

more thinly

populated reaches

of deep space,

just as each day

I dive further

within.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 18 | Glosa Poem | Poetic Form | WritersDigest.com

Today’s prompt is from Carol Stephen. It is a form called the Glosa.

Visit the site to read the complicated directions and to see some of the amazing responses.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 18 | Glosa Poem | Poetic Form | WritersDigest.com.

Here’s my attempt:

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

(William Carlos Williams)

snow clouds drift

over

our valley

after

stair-step summer

ends

bitter winter

comes

weather bends

so much depends

on fickle

sun

swinging south

along

with bird flights

begun

weeks ago,

wedging

over lakes spun

upon

with visual

echoes

of industry

withdrawn,

a dormancy

deal

of last flash

gold

to mold-meal

a red wheel

turning through

eons

in coursing blood

and genes

in water and

marrow

cycles shifting in

farmer’s

slicing harrow;

barrow

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 16 | Last Line First Poem | WritersDigest.com

My warm up poem ideas for November are all from Robert Brewer’s blog Poetic Asides. Each prompt this month was contributed by a different poet. This one is from Joseph Wells. He suggests that we take the last line of yesterday’s poem and use it for the first line of today’s.

If you did not write a poem yesterday, I guess you can use an old one. Nobody will care.

My poem yesterday was a riff on the saying about the rich man, heaven, and the eye of a needle. I heard somewhere that The Eye of the Needle was actually a city gate, so that’s what my poem was about. The last line was “of a needle”. What do you do with that? Actually, I had fun.

Read the poems of others in the group and add one of your own. You can join the challenge any time.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 16 | Last Line First Poem | WritersDigest.com.

Of the Needle

Of the needle

I need to say

little, as it so

readily makes

its own point,

leading the way

among crisscrossed

threads, pulling

a joiner behind,

teasing notes

out of grooves

in vinyl or just

teasing someone

who may or may

not be a friend,

towering in

freestanding

stone in a canyon

or in steel

among city

skyscrapers

of the needle

I need to say little

as it so readily

makes its own point.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 14 | Stuck Poem | WritersDigest.com

Today’s prompt on Robert Brewer’s Poetic Asides Blog is “stuck.” This is a good one for me, because I have not worked on my NaNoWriMo book since Sunday, and things were actually going very well. I even know what to write next, but I seem to be stuck.

Read my rationalization poem on the blog. Then check out the great contributions of others. Add your own, too.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 14 | Stuck Poem | WritersDigest.com

Inertia

I’m stuck
stuck
stuck
like the needle
on a vinyl
record
three days
without progress
or loss
I just
have to
state what
I want to do
and a state
of entropy
sets in
Something
in me loves
reflective
waters
and still
wants to
stay still
though I
still still still
keep
trying
to keep
moving.
Copyright Linda J. Armstrong 11/14/2012. All rights reserved.

and here’s another, inspired by another poet’s post:

For Jacqueline

They say
Cezanne
when stuck
in one of
his intertwined
compositions
tossed the
offending
canvas out
his window
into the intertwined
branches of one
of his trees,
only to retrieve
it when unable
to resist the
way it had
entwined itself
with his entangled
mind.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 13 | Letter and Recipe Poems | WritersDigest.com

Today’s poetry prompt on the Poetic Asides blog is a letter poem (and/or a recipe poem). These are prompts I used in class when I was teaching. They are classics for a reason. They produce varied and excellent results for writers of all ages (and not just poets).

If you want to read the poems of other participants and post your own, click on the link.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 13 | Letter and Recipe Poems | WritersDigest.com.

Here’s mine:

Dear Dad,

You never were
much for writing
so I never wrote
you a letter.
You and I
always knew
each other
best through
landscapes,
pigments, brushes,
lenses, captured
hours, minutes,
and seconds
that will never
come back
but could be
relived again
and again
through transparencies
or stacked paintings
in a closet.
I write to you
now, looking
down at your
hands, freckled
and funny
as a write this,
and later,
when Alden
and I take
pictures of winter
deer, you will
be shooting with us

As always,
Linda

If you’d like to see some of my dad’s paintings, his dealer’s site is here: http://www.californiaartgallery.com/ec-watercolor-keck.html

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