30 days, 30 poems– I did it! My final poem for the 2010 Poet Asides PAD Challenge, in response to the prompt “letting go”.
Monthly Archives: April 2010
2010 napowrimo #30
Well I made it to the end of the Read Write Poem, 2010 napowrimo challenge. I’m sorry that I discovered this writing community just as it was going away forever, but the prompts were delightful, the poetry company excellent, and the experience first-rate. In fact, it was too much fun not to try to do something with all the clever prompt titles…
Free Day (and Farewell)
Shuffle a poem, any old way,
use the ol’ acronym switcheroo
for starters. Scared yet?
Inside out and roundabout,
make your poetry personal,
converse with images to arrive at love,
funny side up or even make
unusual love connections.
Make it your mission to explore,
then celebrate! (both the thing you didn’t choose,
and the thing that you did.)
Try writing in secret codes:
smoke a dubie, the eagle flies
at midnight…now I know you’re thinking
you want me to write a what?
I have trouble carrying a tune, let alone
writing an entire song.
But let your senses be your guide… play
I Spy, or What’s That Smell, and you might
end up with something elemental. Meow!
Look for flashes of inspiration, lightbulb moments.
Start with the hero poem,
making your hero perfectly flawed,
and work him into a wordle! Or unlikely couples
are always good for a few laughs. Find a phrase,
first things first, then run with it. Get scrappy,
but remember, you can always let someone else
take the lead, once in awhile. You don’t
have to go it alone. Use your intuition—
you can even take your inspiration
from the front page news. But whatever you do
keep on poeming!
2010 napowrimo #29
Fun prompt today on Read Write Poem. We were to take ten newspaper headlines and select elements from them to create our own event to write a poem about. I couldn’t resist. I took the headline “Better without the bigger?” (actual article is about Portland Public Schools), combined it with “My little, possibly record-setting pony” (which really is about a miniature 14″ pony) and came up with the following:
Better, Not Bigger
Scientists today have been successful
in crossing a Polly Pocket
with a My Little Pony,
resulting in a new breed
they are calling My Pocket Pony.
At only ¼ inch high,
scientists are hailing this new breed
as a tremendous breakthrough
adding that the goal of
“a pony in every pocket”
is now within reach in our lifetime.
When asked “Why this new breed?”
a spokesperson simply replied,
“Because we can”.
2010 PAD-Day 29
A freakish hail storm yesterday (this is the end of April, after all!) inspired this. The Poetic Asides prompt was write a poem with the title “And Suddenly (blank)”. I left the “blank” blank. 🙂
And Suddenly
Hailstones frost the lawn
and ricochet off the deck,
startling unwary pelargoniums—
winter’s reprise.
2010 PAD- Day 28
Fitting that this Poetic Asides prompt should come today.
The End of the Line
He asked me once
if this was the end of the line.
I don’t recall my reply.
Perhaps I mumbled something
about there always being hope
perhaps I sighed,
and reached for his hand,
or perhaps I said nothing at all
and he read his answer in my silence.
Now he lives on in my heart,
and in the rich legacy he left behind.
Rest in peace, Dad.
Stanton Cohn
August 25, 1920- April 28, 2008
2010 napowrimo #28
I lost my beloved father two years ago today. It is these anniversaries that are the most difficult– they catch you by the throat and force you to take notice. Two years have come and gone. Time has softened the edges of my grief, but the sorrow is always there, just beneath the surface. Perhaps my poem is a little sad today, reflecting the wistfulness I am feeling. I can’t quite tell.
C’est la Vie
For three days now, a little songbird—
perhaps a wren—has been banging his head
against my window. Something elusive
is drawing him to it, either a misguided
sense of direction, or an intense desire
to want what he can’t have. My heart
goes out to him, this little bird, yet
I’m powerless to intervene. The way
I see it, either he will eventually
knock himself senseless, or finally
realize the futility of his efforts,
and redirect his flight pattern.
Such is life.
I wrote the blog post In Memoriam to dad, last year on this date.
2010 PAD- Day 27
Today’s Poetic Asides prompt was a “Two for Tuesday”, to write a hopeful (hopeless) poem. I did both, in haiku.
Hopeless
a window shade
pulled firmly shut
the absence of light
Hopeful
the promise of
a new day’s dawn
a child’s laugh
2010 napowrimo #27
Today’s prompt for Read Write Poem was to have some fun with an acrostic poem, starting with a word that’s part of us. What could be more a part of me than my name. 🙂
Cara Holman
Crazy to have started not one, but two PAD
adventures. Words are consuming her life. She’s
ready to wrap and move on,
and yet…
Having begun, she can’t stop now. Focused
on the goal of finishing in style, she
lopes on, carrying the poetic torch, hoping that
maybe her best poem to date is just
around the bend. Perhaps so, perhaps
not, but persevere, she will.
Incompatible With Life
One of the first things I did after going through a miscarriage many years ago, was to read all I could get my hands on about how other women who went through a similar experience coped. Why? Because it helps to know that you’re not alone. I found the same to be true after my cancer diagnosis.
That’s why I agreed to write an essay for The Fertile Source on my experience with a miscarriage that occurred between my first and second child. I hope that in reading it, someone else may discover that they are not alone, and that there should be no stigma attached to infertility issues.
2010 napowrimo #26
The Read Write Poem prompt today was to rework a poem we had abandoned. I went back in time to a poem I was working on right after I completed my cancer treatment, and reworked it top to bottom. I tried to make it less judgmental, but not sure if I succeeded. As always, I welcome feedback.
Prose Posies 