PAD Day 30

Today’s prompt: “…write a poem about something that will stick with you (or someone/something else).”

Remembrance

Stick to me like glue
Dad would say– now I stick to
Memories alone.

and a final limerick (dedicated to the Poetic Asides blog):

But I’ll Try

I come to this space twice a year
And post all my poetry here
But when it comes to weekly
I have to say meekly
I’m not sure I can see my way clear!

Due to recurring technical difficulties on the Poetic Asides blog for the past three days, prompt responses today are posted to Robert Lee Brewer’s (the contest host’s) personal blog: http://bit.ly/8IKfkz

My 2009 Nov. PAD page has the final wrap-up. Now time to shift gears…

PAD Day 29

Yesterday’s poems on the Poetic Asides blog disappeared without a trace, at least twice, prompting me to write the following (still using yesterday’s prompt):

Through This Confusion
Vanishing poems
Faulty codes, re-posts galore
Still we persevere

Today’s prompt: “…pick a number, make that number the title of your poem, and write a poem.”

1984
Once futuristic
Now its prescient visions
Belong to the past.

My “2009 Nov. PAD” page has an almost complete list now of all the prompts and my haiku responses for the 2009 Poetic Asides PAD Chapbook Challenge. More on Poetic Asides: http://bit.ly/4WYLMN

PAD Day 28

PAD is wrapping up. I am a bit sad, as I will miss the daily prompts, wonderful poems and back-and-forth commenting, but I must admit that after almost 30 days, I am ready to move onto a new challenge. In December I will move back to focusing on creative nonfiction stories, with of course, a poem thrown in now and again. And prompts continue on Wednesdays throughout the year on Poetic Asides.

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

Through this PAD Challenge
With prompts aplenty
We wrote and connected with
Poets far and near.

My “2009 Nov. PAD” page has 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/8GKtSN

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!