daily – 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.

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?

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 5 | Text Message Poems | WritersDigest.com

Today’s prompt is a little different. It challenges you to write a text message poem. Unfortunately, I am really cheap. My emergency cell phone does not include a data package, so I don’t text. Mine might be kind of strange. You can probably do better, but it’s one of my writing warm-ups for this month. Check out the other entries on Brewer’s Poetic Asides blog. The link is below, followed by my text message tale (yes, it is a story).

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 5 | Text Message Poems | WritersDigest.com.

where R U?

sky harbor

thot U were coming 2nite

chng of plans

where R U going

dont no yet

what do U mean

gotta go

plane?

whte lite

end of message

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 4 | Just Beneath Poems | WritersDigest.com

Today’s prompt on the Poetic Asides blog is “Just beneath…” If you need an idea for any sort of work, that’s a good start.

To read the many interpretations of that inspiration in Brewer’s community, click on the link below. You can also add your own.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 4 | Just Beneath Poems | WritersDigest.com.

Here’s mine:

Just beneath

the surface

like a spawning

fish at the edge

of a summer

pond, something

pushes and

nudges. Fecund

and implacable

as a black hole,

it takes all

in. What

comes next?

I hold

my breath.

Under Golden Cottonwoods

I’m late posting my daily poem today because we spent the morning enjoying the fall colors here in western Colorado’s Grand Valley. If you would like to borrow related ideas, try writing about:

a memorable walk
autumn
trees or a tree
a river
a long-term relationship

Under Golden Cottonwoods

sunlight filters

through golden leaves

as we walk

together in a protected

open space

by a river that flows

with few interruptions

from melted

early snows on peaks

just out of sight

here in the first

of many arid valleys

it encounters

on its way to the Gulf.

We talk

as we walk, pausing

now and then

to take pictures

away, from this stream

of moments,

crisp and golden

as the leaf-meal

air.

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Under Golden Cottonwoods

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