November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 8

Here’s you Poetic Asides poetry prompt for the day:

For today's prompt, write an agreement poem. There are a few obvious ways I see to approach this type of poem: 1. Write a poem in which there is an agreement made between two or more people, animals, or things; 2. Write a poem in which the narrator (or a character in the poem) agrees with everything--regardless of whether it's beneficial to the person (or animal); or 3. Write a poem that is a contract (or proposed agreement) with the reader (a la Billy Collins). Hopefully, we're all in agreement to write some poetry today.

This prompt was interesting enough that I again got two poems out of it. In the first, my attention turned to people that always agree with you, no matter what. What motivates them to blindly nod no matter what the circumstances? Why does bland agreement make other people so angry and discontent? So poem number one, tackling point number two is “A Thousand Times Yes”.

The second poem came quickly on the heels of the first, and is more of a fantasy based on the observation that the dogs and cats in my house seem to get along exceedingly well. Perhaps they have some type of secret agreement that went into effect the first full moon after the newest cat arrived. Perhaps it took place after months of negotiations, where dog and cat sat down at the table while I was at work and hashed out "Rules of Inter-species Cooperation”. Maybe they aren’t so amiable while I’m at work and it’s all a sham to keep me in the dark (Which would explain the odd tufts of fur I find around the house). Either way, it resulted in my second poem of 250 words, “We, The Undersigned, Do Solemnly Swear…”.

I managed to write four haiku, two that used the prompt—one mentioned cats, another cat and dog. I wrote one tanka to the prompt and one additional. It was a good writing morning.


11/08 TALLY
Poems - 2
Haiku - 4
Tanka - 2

To Date Total
Poems - 13
Haiku - 10
Tanka - 27


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