PAD Day 27

After Thanksgiving, today is a bit anti-climactic. Yes we still have a refrigerator full of food, but the house is emptying out and I’m already missing all the company . Time to write poetry again!

Prompt: “…write a poem involving a shape (or multiple shapes).”

Circle of the Seasons
When days grow shorter
And birds seek out warmer climes
It’s winter once more.

As always, my 2009 Nov. PAD page contains a listing of all the prompts and my haiku responses.

PAD Day 26

Not too surprisingly, the Thanksgiving Day prompt was to write a thankful poem. So here, in all its glory is a recap of the fourteen gratitude haiku I posted in response to the Facebook challenge:

I Give Thanks

Today I’m thankful
simply for being alive–
isn’t that enough?

I’m grateful for books
Portals to magical lands
And time to read them.

I am thankful for
The Sunday crossword puzzle
And Writers’ Mill group.

Today I give thanks
For the splendor of colors
Outside my window.

I am thankful for
Electricity, that keeps
My home toasty warm.

Thanks for the rainfall
that keeps water plentiful
and makes Oregon green!

I am grateful for
Thursday morning writing group
And all the stories.

I musn’t forget
To give thanks for my kitties
Smokey and Shadow.

I thank editors
That take a chance on unknowns
and publish their works.

I’m grateful for planes
that enable my sister
to fly to Portland.

And then there’s the web
With all of its great tools for
Staying connected.

I’m glad for the gym
Where I can go to stay fit
And run into friends.

I’ll never forget
To give thanks for my parents
For all of those years.

The gang is all here
Savory smells fill the house
Happy Thanksgiving!

PAD Day 25

Today’s prompt: “…write a temperature poem.” I was on a winter track on this one at first, stuck on snowflakes, then completely shifted gears and thought of summer, popsicles, and the Good Humor man, until Goldilocks jumped into my head, and I couldn’t resist.

Goldilock’s Undoing
Her tastebuds tempted
In the end she was thwarted
By porridge too hot.

Check out my “2009 Nov. PAD” page for a list of all the prompts and my haiku responses for the 2009 Poetic Asides PAD Chapbook Challenge. More on Poetic Asides: http://bit.ly/8c5CYf

PAD Day 24

Today’s “Two for Tuesday” double prompts: “Take the phrase ‘Everybody [nobody] says (blank),’ replace the blank with a word or phrase, make that the title of the poem, and write the poem.”

With Thanksgiving looming so close and more family members arriving everyday, I’ve had to take the approach to PAD that we use in writing group: namely, go with the first thought and just write!

Mom and Dad have been constantly on my mind these days, as my sister visits and we reminisce about them. This will be the second Thanksgiving since we lost our parents, yet they will always be very much in our minds and hearts.

Everyone Says I Look Like My Mother
But what they don’t see
Is that there’s a great deal of
Dad in me also.

Nobody Says I Resemble Dad
He gave me my love
Of words written and spoken
Though not his blue eyes.

Check out my “2009 Nov. PAD” page for a list of all the prompts and my haiku responses for the 2009 Poetic Asides PAD Chapbook Challenge. More on Poetic Asides: http://bit.ly/65q9dU

PAD Day 23

For today’s prompt: “…write a poem filled with noise.”

This caused me to puzzle a bit. Is sound noise? Dictionary.com gives as one of many definitions of sound: “a noise”, and for noise, the somewhat circular “a sound of any kind”. I’ve always thought of noise as superfluous sound, but for the purposes of my haiku, I’ve decided to treat them interchangeably.

Significance
If a poem falls
On deaf ears, does it then make
Any sound at all?

Check out my “2009 Nov. PAD” page for a list of all the prompts and my haiku responses for the 2009 Poetic Asides PAD Chapbook Challenge. More on Poetic Asides: http://bit.ly/81lEdz

PAD Day 21 and 22

Today’s prompt: “…write an emergency poem.”

Just after I read the prompt, I discovered with alarm that my sister’s flight from the East Coast was scheduled to arrive 48 minutes early, so I had to go with my first thought, in order to high tail it to the airport (a mini emergency of sorts!).

Bad News
At once awakened
By the phone’s shrill insistence
Her heart grips with fear.

I also just noted that I forgot to post yesterday’s poem. The prompt was to write an invention poem.

Plato’s Perspicacity
Necessity is
The mother of invention–
At least so they say.

Check out my “2009 Nov. PAD” page for a list of all the prompts and my haiku responses for the 2009 Poetic Asides PAD Chapbook Challenge. More on Poetic Asides: http://bit.ly/8dRuCC

Memoir, Who Cares?

I’m still thinking about Melissa Hart’s memoir workshop last weekend. As the population of the planet creeps towards seven billion, and I contemplate writing my memoir, I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering: who cares about the memoir of a very ordinary person? But for every question, there’s an answer. Several in fact. Here, after some deliberation, are mine:

10) You do!

9) Ditto Mom and Dad (especially Mom).

8 ) Some other family members will, curious (and perhaps a bit nervous) about how you portray them.

7) Friends will, if they’re true friends.

6) Casual acquaintances especially will be gratified to be associated with a real author, as they have no fear of being portrayed in a bad light (or for that matter, in any kind of light at all). They can sit back and relax and just enjoy.

5) Fellow memoirists will be perusing it, to scout out the competition.

4) The news media will (if you should be so lucky!) to get the scoop on the next breakout memoir, or if you’re not lucky, to pan your memoir.

3) Your devoted blog followers will, pleased to have been in on the growth of your memoir from a fledgling idea in one of your posts, to the real thing.

2) People from your past might, curious to know what happened to you.

1) But if you’re really, really lucky, at least one kindred spirit will read your story and relish it, perhaps seeing themselves in one of your characters or discovering some great and elusive truth about their own life from it, and be eternally grateful that you had the courage to share your story.

I write for that one person!

PAD Day 20

Today’s prompt: “…take the phrase ‘And then (blank),’ replace the blank with a word or phrase, make that the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.”

Brainstorming: And then they’ll see, and then I’ll show them, and then back to reality, and then what?, and then it begins again, and then silence, and then I’m done. I picked the latter. Perhaps others can relate.

And Then I’m Done
Just one more blog post
And one more website to browse
That’s all–I promise!

Check out my “2009 Nov. PAD” page for a list of all the prompts and my haiku responses for the 2009 Poetic Asides PAD Chapbook Challenge. More on Poetic Asides: http://bit.ly/8lvGq1

Thanksgiving Thanks

I wrote this piece yesterday in writing group. Our prompt was the words “thank you” written on a sheet of paper, a mini pumpkin, a fabric turkey, and an ear of Indian corn:

 

So we have some family traditions that for me are inviolable, but for the rest of my family are strictly take-them-or-leave-them. Going around the Thanksgiving table before we eat and saying what we are grateful for is one of those. I just can’t seem to let go of it. Mom started it, and I guess I’m a bit afraid that once you let go of one little tradition, then the whole works will come unraveling.

 

Take the Macy’s Day Parade for instance. There was a time when we all clumped together in the family room to exclaim over the floats, but now, more often than not, the TV drones on in the next room without an audience. For me though, it would be pure heresy not to at least be aware that a gargantuan Snoopy is gracing the rain-soaked skies of NYC on a raw, grey East Coast Thanksgiving Day, and that the Rockettes are still doing their high kicks, as scantily clad as ever. So the TV stays on.

 

But what of the tradition of saying what we’re grateful for? Is it destined to go by the wayside? I just can’t decide if I’m going to force the issue this year. Let’s face it, there’s only so many times you can hear people mumble “I’m grateful for family and friends”. Thus it was with delight that I stumbled on one of those quirky little reposts on Facebook.

 

From now until Thanksgiving, the post said, think of one thing that you are thankful for and post it as your status. As it gets closer to Thanksgiving, the post went on to warn, the task will become harder. I was stunned. What? We’re talking in the ballpark of twenty posts here. Whoever started this thinks people can’t come up with twenty things that they’re thankful for? Yikes!

 

I of course just had to take the challenge. And I took it one step further. I decided to write a gratitude poem every day in haiku and post to FB and my blog until Thanksgiving. And who knows, I may even take it beyond. Twenty things to be thankful for only? That’s barely scratching the surface.

 

For starters: I’m thankful for family, relatives, friends, casual acquaintances, fellow writers, editors, cyberfriends, and just plain old people in general, both of my writing groups, living in Portland, the rain that keeps things green, the abundance of electricity that heats my home and provides light even in the darkest months. I’m thankful that I live in a land of opportunity, for my personal freedoms, that my family is weathering the current economic crisis, that we have our relative health, and that we have health insurance. I’m thankful for the roof over my head, for having had the unconditional love and support of my parents for so many years. I’m thankful for Facebook and Twitter, and Google Chat and Gmail, and the web in general, that allows me to stay so connected with family and friends from all over the world. I’m grateful for books, and for Amazon and Powell’s and a free public library system and for the time to read books. I’m grateful that my cancer is currently in remission. I’m grateful for my cats, our cars, the gym I belong to, and my yoga and Tai Chi teachers…well, I could go on and on. You get the idea!

PAD Day 19

Today’s prompt: “…write an attachment poem.”

I was a little stymied today at first, as I had writing group up on the hill and was rushing to get ready. The first thing that came into my head was attachment, as in relationships. That didn’t feel quite fresh enough. So over breakfast I brainstormed: stuck together like glue, an email or letter attachment, a shadow (think Peter Pan, or Robert Louis Stevenson), an addition to a house, a barnacle on a rock, a spiderweb attached to a bush, a leaf attached (or not) to a tree… I went with the leaf:

Detachment
No longer tethered
Leaves cavort with abandon
Cares flung to the winds

Check out my “2009 Nov. PAD” page for a list of all the prompts and my haiku responses for the 2009 Poetic Asides PAD Chapbook Challenge. More on Poetic Asides: http://bit.ly/4zylp9