A “New Arrival” Poem for Day 1 of Poetry Month, 2013

Today is the first day of National Poetry Month! Today’s prompt on Robert Brewer’s blog asks for a “New Arrival” poem. Visit the link below to post your own. Mine is below.

2013 April PAD Challenge: Day 1 | Write a Poem a Day Until May | WritersDigest.com.

Arrival

Sudden

on spare branches

against storm-darkened

sky, tiny

leaves glow,

immortal green,

on globe willows;

not there

yesterday,

dusty next week,

they spring

from nowhere,

expected but

astonishing

miraculous as morning

or the word

“again.”

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Everyone wants a high concept project these days, whether it is novel, easy-read, or picture book. This has been the rule in Hollywood for a long time. If you are curious about what this term really means, here’s some information from an expert, James Bonnet.

Conquering The High Concept.

A Three Wishes Poem

I enjoyed my day off writing. I spent it sorting out photos on one of my drives. I have many duplicates and a number of duds. Time away makes many things clear.
This morning a poem arrived in my email from a Linked In contact, Marek Wysoczynski. It was a Three Wishes poem.
Every year when I was teaching, I did a Wishes poem with my students, and it always produced great results.
This morning, then, write a Three Wishes Poem, a poem about wishes, or a poem cataloging every wild wish you can think of.
Here’s mine:

Three Wishes

I am five
beside a
shallow well
at a garden
where my
parents walk.
I step up
to the edge
holding three
bright copper
pennies, small
works of art
that could buy
waxed lips
or bubble gum
at the corner
store, but
I want more.
I want a carriage
for my dolls
to push them
down the sidewalk
so everyone
can see how
grown-up I am.
I want skates
so I can keep up
with my friend Jill.
I want a cuckoo clock
like the lady
across the street
who marks each
hour with magic.
Eyelids clenched,
I drop each penny in
imagining how
that single wish,
if fulfilled,
will make me
happy forever
and ever.
I am five
standing beside
a shallow well.

Linda Armstrong, 12/2/12. All rights reserved.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 6 | Left or Right Poem | WritersDigest.com

There are two related prompts for today’s Poem a Day Challenge at Brewer’s Poetic Asides blog. You can write about “right” or “left.” I wrote about being left-handed.

If you submit your poem on the blog, write it first in a word processing program, then paste it in. The blog is so busy you get a “you are posting too fast, slow down” message. If you get this, use the backspace on your browser and keep submitting until it goes through–usually on the third or fourth click. You don’t have to post to participate in the challenge. You can read everybody else’s for inspiration and just keep your own file at home. You will still be eligible to submit your finished book (20 poems) in December.

2012 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 6 | Left or Right Poem | WritersDigest.com.

Here’s mine:

The teller
filled out
my withdrawal
slip writing
as I do
left-handed
and upside down
I asked her about
the inevitable bump
on her middle
finger and
whether she was
an artist. She
said she drew
but wasn’t
great and I
admitted to being
no Leonardo. Then
I took my money
and she said
she had never met
another person
who wrote like
her, and that
remains true
of us both.

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

OH! Mr. Brewer is having his Poem a Day November chapbook challenge after all! I thought he had moved it to April. Poets, take heed, do not feel left out of the NaNoWriMo fun. Zip over to the poetry blog at the Writers Digest site and check out the fantastic daily idea. You can catch up on the previous ones, too. It’s not too late. At the end of the month, you will have a chapbook, which you can submit. See you there.

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