Post Thanksgiving Poetry Prompts

Bonus poetry prompt - Study for Improvisation V by Kandinsky

So, we've feasted and relaxed for a whole day, time to get back to writing. Here are a few prompts for you, use them for poetry or any other writing medium you embrace. 

1.  Barrels. Think about barrels. All sorts of cool things come in barrels, mostly alcoholic in nature, but not always. Whiskey, vinegar, Tabasco sauce, beer barrels, flour barrels, water barrels, oil barrels, a barrel of monkeys (anyone remember that game?). Think of the types of wood that a barrel could be made from and why. Staves and hoops, firkins, kilderkins, and hogsheads. Did you know a barrel of beer is 160 liters?  So what's in YOUR barrel?

2.  What are you more afraid of - fire, water, or ice? Would you prefer to die in a fire, by drowning, or lost alone in the Arctic? Or maybe on a boat in the Antarctic that's on fire and ready to drop you into the ocean? All kinds of Movie of the Week possibilities.

3.   What's under your skin? Blood, muscle and tissue? Something more sinister? Tiny nanobots? Is skin just a wrapper or something more? Maybe something (or someone) gets under your skin. What would that look like? How would it feel? Would you want anyone to know? Are things truly only skin deep?

4.  If you could go back in time to high school, say, and do it all over again, would you prefer to go back with all your present memories intact or just start anew? What problems would your present memories bring to your 17 year old self? If you started new, would you trust yourself to make the right decisions this time around?

5.  Aliens are coming to take you away. They say you can only bring one plant with you and you are forced to choose between a coffee plant and a cacao plant. Which would you choose and why? (The aliens don't bargain, so don't even try and take a rutabaga instead.) 

Final Five Prompts for Poetry Month

Blossoming into May, and the end of National Poetry Month

Your final five poetry prompts for the month of April. Choose one, choose all, or forge your own path, but round out the month with a few more poems.

1.  Write an honesty poem. This is a poem where you are brutally honest about something. It works best if you are honest with yourself. These poems aren't necessarily for public consumption, so see how deep you can dig within yourself. 

2.  Think about shoes. Love them? Hate them? Prefer to go barefoot? When did our ancestors go from protective foot covering to fancy-dancy 6 inch tall? In the future will all our shoes be custom molded for our feet? I've had the same pair of comfy hiking boots for 30 years, how about you? What shoes earn a place in your hall of fame?

3.  Turn off the television, silence your phone, and spend ten minutes listening to the outside world. What do you hear? What has become background noise? Can you identify all the sounds around you? Write a poem using sense imagery, particularly as it relates to sounds. Make us 'see' the flower in all its technicolor glory, or stinky glory as the case may be.

4.  "April showers bring May flowers" Think of a favorite - or hated - flower. Write a poem where you explore your feelings about that flower. Do a little research into the meaning of the flower, including where it grows and what it traditionally stands for. 

5.  String. There aren't enough poems out there about string. Help fill this void. Write about the world's biggest ball of string and what happens when it runs wild. Write about string holding things together, or keeping them apart. What can you do with string? Be inventive and take us along for the ride. 

5 Prompts to Kick Off Poetry Month

It's that time of year, National Poetry Month. Lots of places are offering prompts and places to post your work, I thought I'd do the same. Here are some poetry prompts to get you rolling. Feel free to post the results in comments. 

1.  Describe the night without using the words 'black' or 'darkness'. Take us to your version of night, and let us see - or not see - what it's like. Remember to use your five senses to carry us along. 

2.  It's happened to all of us. A special piece of music sets our toes to tapping, it makes us want to get up out of our chair and dance. For me, I wanted to jump up and waltz, even though I know nothing of ballroom dancing. Write a poem about this feeling. See if you can move us out of our chairs. For a bigger challenge, don't name the piece of music or artist. Just write the results. 

3.  Unfortunately, I watched Disney's "Frozen" the other night. Now I'm earwormed by the song 'Let It Go'. What is something you can let go of? Write a poem about letting go. Was it difficult. Easy once you put your mind to it? Conversely, write a poem about clinging to something beyond all reason. Why won't you let it go?

4.  Write a poem about water. Look for water based words and incorporate them into your imagery. Is there a particular type of water you're attracted to more than others? Thunderstorms? Ocean tides? A rushing stream? The implicit power inherent in water held back by a dam? The way ordinary water turns into tasty, tasty coffee just when you need it?

5.  Since it's spring, and the start of April, write a flower poem. Think outside the box, go beyond the ordinary descriptions. Go to a great cosmic meaning - or down to a molecular level. Just write, then rewrite it with an eye toward removing the ordinary. Think about Emily Dickinson's "With A Flower"

With A Flower - Emily Dickinson

I hide myself within my flower,

That wearing on your breast,

You, unsuspecting, wear me too -

And angels know the rest.

I hide myself within my flower,

That, fading from your vase,

You, unsuspecting, feel for me

Almost a loneliness.

Or how about this gorgeous poem that wraps language around you like a blanket?

Labor as a Tulip

by Karen Volkman

Labor as a tulip

arrays its flame, nu

form, as the bulb-star,

interred, divines its ore

surging the gulf

rooting it into

appalled memento

pulsing will.

Leaf-blades score the heap.

Other wounds—penetralia—

other worlds, cries, far.

Filaments, simples

emblazoning the rei,

rebus of grief.

Unslumbering terra

premising her kill. 

November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 30

The final Poetic Asides Challenge prompt for the month:

For today's prompt, write a lessons learned poem. If you've been writing to a certain theme, this poem might take a moment to step back and reflect on the BIG PICTURE. If you're like me and couldn't quite stick to one theme throughout the month, then this poem might be about real lessons learned (either this month or during your entire lifetime). Or you might just write a poem about going to school. Or to work. Or this blog. Or something else.

By the way, this is a "Two for Tuesday" prompt, so the opposing prompt would be to write a poem in which someone or something doesn't learn their lesson. Or how they're unable or unwilling to learn their lesson.

My poem was a lessons learned poem, a dialogue with myself on psychology and human nature that comes to the conclusion that we really haven’t come as far as we think we have. I’m already thinking of how to revise it later on, to expand on the ways psychology and human nature clash. It could devolve into a poem on what’s normal, from the psychology side, and from the ordinary person side.

So in it’s own way the poem covers both of the prompts, lessons learned, and lessons we haven’t learned yet. Of course, that’s my way of cheating. I really should write a lessons not learned poem that stands on its own. I might yet on the revisit/editing sessions in December.

Three haiku, one of which could relate to the prompt, and one tanka. The tanka could be a lesson not learned, because I manage to do the same thing over and over again, despite every sign of impending doom. Maybe it should be a lesson relearned?


11/30 TALLY
Poems - 1
Haiku - 3
Tanka - 1

To Date Total
Poems - 46
Haiku - 38
Tanka - 56


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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 29

The next to last Poetic Asides prompt:

For today's prompt, write a next steps poem. This might be a good opportunity to try writing a list poem. Or it might be a good time to write about your future plans. It might even be a good chance for you to write about spiral staircases. Who knows?

I wasn’t sure how to approach this one and finally wrote two poems, both introspective in nature. The first was about how easy it is to trap yourself in your own little world (and the steps to getting out), the second was about taking baby steps on the road to enlightenment in a “I want it all I want it now” society.

I’m not happy with either poem, they are too introspective, too narrow in focus and too me centric. I need to approach editing with an eye towards finding the universal and connecting the reader. Of course, that will be the editing goal for all the poems written this month. It’s easy to write about Me, I, and Myself, much harder to put the situation in terms We can understand.

One method I’ve used to shake things up is to look at a poem, if written in first person, change it to third person, and on the rare occasion, second person. It forces you to think differently about word choice and meaning. Sometimes it’s easier to get to the gist of what you wanted to say. Sometimes the poem won’t work no matter what you do, and the kind thing is to pull it from life support – hopefully stealing the good line or two to rework into a different poem.

Two haiku on the prompt, and two tanka, one on the prompt, one on the weather.


11/29 TALLY
Poems - 2
Haiku - 2
Tanka - 2

To Date Total
Poems - 45
Haiku - 35
Tanka - 55


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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 28

Sunday Poetic Asides:

For today's prompt, write a "what really happened" poem. Use a real event (or an event from a popular movie) and spin it in another direction. Or use an event described in one of your poems earlier this month and spin it in a new direction. Or refute something that was never even in question. Or just poem any way that you can, because we're almost to the finish line.

I really liked this prompt, lots of ways to go with it. I finally settled on a subject I've visited before but didn't do justice to the first time around. I wrote "Pandora's Side Of The Story". I think the woman got screwed over on the whole letting evil out of the box thing, since it was all a big con by Zeus in the first place. So I wrote a rather lengthy poem telling Pandora's take on things. Her side is a bit different, as you might imagine, especially her thoughts on what leaving hope in the box really meant.

I like this prompt enough that I think I will revisit it in other forms. I've played with the idea before, poems telling the woman's side of the story – Lot's wife among others. It makes you think a little more on how we accept certain ideas as presented without delving a little deeper.

One haiku on the spitty, windy, snowy weather, and a tanka on the cat. It's getting easier to write a haiku that I'm happy with. That alone has made daily writing worthwhile.


11/28 TALLY
Poems - 1
Haiku - 1
Tanka - 1

To Date Total
Poems - 43
Haiku - 33
Tanka - 53



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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 27

From Poetic Asides:
For today's prompt, take the phrase "Blame the (blank)," replace the blank with a word or phrase, use the new phrase as the title of your poem, and then, write the poem. Some example titles might include: "Blame the rain," "Blame the loud-mouthed jerk in the row behind us," "Blame the ref," etc.

Another fill in the blank title prompt. I reacted with relative disinterest, although I managed to write a short poem – Blame The Future, where I blame all my present day problems on things that haven't happened yet. Because it's more fun to have a futuristic scapegoat than a present day one.

I must be getting used to title prompts, because I didn't have a great deal of trouble with this one. Or the habit of writing to the prompt has taken hold and I can tackle whatever comes. Or maybe I just got lucky today.

Only one haiku, and one tanka, both on the season we're experiencing at the moment. Hey, when you don't know what to write about, write about the weather.


11/27 TALLY
Poems - 1
Haiku - 1
Tanka - 1

To Date Total
Poems - 42
Haiku - 32
Tanka - 52


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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 26

Post Turkey Day Poetic Asides:

For today's prompt, write an "on the run" poem. You can decide who or what is on the run and what might be causing them to run. For myself, I had to link today's poem to my poem yesterday. But you can run in any direction you want.

The prompt didn't inspire me to any great heights. I blame the post Thanksgiving torpor. It didn't help that work was so slow I was actually excited to see a client walk through the door to break up the monotony. But I made myself buckle down and think "on the run".

The main image I got was that of the two Corgis running pell mell down the fence line as they try and keep up with the Retriever on one side of the Doberman on the other. For every graceful Dobie bound there are three furious Corgi strides. Somehow, the short-legged twosome manage to keep up. It's one hundred feet from one gate to the back fence, and the Corgis and neighbor dogs run it dozens of times a day. No wonder they are in such good shape. So my poem is about the pure joy of two Corgis 'on the run' up an down the fence line.

One haiku, and one tanka, neither on the topic, really. But that's okay, they are getting easier to write. I start with a mental image of the weather of the day and go from there. Sometimes it's a nature poem, sometimes it's something a bit more removed from that initial thought process. Weather, animals, the look of the sky all serve for jumping off points.


11/26 TALLY
Poems - 1
Haiku - 1
Tanka - 1

To Date Total
Poems - 41
Haiku - 31
Tanka - 51


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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 25

Thanksgiving Day from Poetic Asides:

For today's prompt, write an animal poem. Your poem can mention an animal in its title or somewhere in the body of the poem. The animal doesn't have to be the main focus of the poem, but your poem should mention an animal somewhere in it. For instance, my poem from yesterday would've counted, because it mentioned a blue jay. However, I've written a new poem for today (as you should too).

This was actually an easy prompt for me, I write a fair amount of animal poems anyhow. Of course I had to write the usual cat and dogs poem as in cats and dogs, living together.

Then my challenge to myself was to find another animal to write about. I usually do bird poems, and didn't want to wax poetic on the Thanksgiving turkey. Instead I picked a bison.

Living on the plains bison imagery is all around, and some days you can stand out on the prairie and imagine the passage of thousands of buffalo through the grass. I have bison jewelry, bison bones and a bit of bison fur to be spun into yarn. With bison tokens all around me, it seemed the logical choice for a poem.

Animal haiku poems come a bit easily also. The tanka one was a bit harder to bring to heel.

11/25 TALLY
Poems - 2
Haiku - 1
Tanka - 1

To Date Total
Poems - 40
Haiku - 30
Tanka - 50


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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 24

Here we are on Day 24 with the Poetic Asides prompt:

For today's prompt, write a spaces poem. Your poem could involve white space, outer space, inner space, a parking space, the space between one day and the next, or something other type of spacing. Allow yourself enough space to play around.

Another good prompt for wide open interpretation. I played around in one poem with the idea of silence being a space in between the noises, and how that space could be welcoming or intimidating, depending on your mindset.

For fun I tackled another poem about outer space, and how the distance from Earth to other places looks deceptive from where I'm standing. Here on Earth, being Earth-centric, or an Earth-O-Phile.

It was easier to write a haiku based on this prompt, same with a tanka. I'm getting better at condensing an idea down to haiku form, then expanding it slightly to be a tanka. You'd think it would be the other way around, squishing a poem down smaller and smaller, but it's not.

11/24 TALLY
Poems - 1
Haiku - 1
Tanka - 1

To Date Total
Poems - 38
Haiku - 29
Tanka - 49


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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 23

Hey, it's Tuesday, and from Poetic Asides--

For today's "Two for Tuesday" prompt, write one of the following (or both if you're an overachiever):
1.    Write a form poem. This poem can cover any subject you want, but it should be written using a poetic form. Could be haiku, sestina, triolet, shadorma, paradelle, or some other poetic form. (Click here to see a list of 35 poetic forms.)
2.    Write an anti-form poem. This poem doesn't have to follow a poetic form, but it should communicate the poet's distaste for poetic forms.

I’m not anti-form at all, so option two didn’t interest me at first. Considering I’ve been writing a haiku and tanka a day along with the poetry prompt of the day, I felt like it would be cheating to do a haiku or tanka. I decided one form I wanted to do more with was a haibun. I’ve played around with a haibun or two, not with as much enthusiasm as I have with haiku and tanka. I would do a renga, but alas, I have no one to tag team with on such short notice.

Other forms I considered are an elegy, a kyrielle, and a villanelle. I usually like a trip down Form Road, because it forces me to think in terms I wouldn’t normally use. Always good for shaking up poetic lethargy.

So I ended up doing a haibun, than an elegy of sorts, and then another poem that has nothing to do with the prompt but followed on the heels of the elegy. I may revisit the prompt later and try a villanelle when I feel more like repeating myself.

One haiku and two tanka later...

11/23 TALLY
Poems - 3
Haiku - 1
Tanka - 2

To Date Total
Poems - 37
Haiku - 28
Tanka - 48


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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 22

The Poetic Asides Prompt:

No, really, the prompt today is to write a poem that takes a stand. This could be a political stand, religious stand, personal stand, or I guess a poem about the ability to stand--or setting up a stand (think vegetable stand or newspaper stand, etc.). Whatever your thing, be sure to take a poetic stand today.

Of course the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about “take a stand” is resistance, rebellion, and downright stubbornness. At least that’s the way MY mind works. But what to rebel against? So many things. If I weren’t on a time crunch to get these prompt ramblings posted, I’d entertain ideas from our studio audience.

I really should know better than to try and force the prompt into my underlying themes. Mostly, the poem rebels and goes where it wants to with the prompt. But lately… the poems have been self-subjecting to the usual themes.

I got one poem that talked about how I see myself from the outside as opposed to how I know myself to really be. The two selves should really get together and have coffee sometime, but that didn’t happen in this poem, although self one came to a grudging realization that all was not happy in self two’s world.

Poem two took a stand against medications that are supposed to help you get better, but really just suck you into being dependent on them. My rebellion poem that ended up being more plaintive than rabble rousing.

Three haiku and one tanka, all on the recent snowfall we’ve had.

11/22 TALLY
Poems - 2
Haiku - 3
Tanka - 1

To Date Total
Poems - 34
Haiku - 27
Tanka - 46


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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 21

Sunday and Poetic Asides:

The prompt for today is to write a permission poem. You don't need my (or anyone else's) permission to write your poem today, but it should somehow involve the concept of giving, refusing, asking, etc. permission.

Another broad prompt that's intriguing in all the ways you can approach the topic of permission.
I jumped right in with a poem about giving myself permission to be myself—harder than you might think.

I wrote a second poem on the same topic but with a different slant, a Sunday-Come-To-Meeting talk with myself on not taking myself so seriously. Those were the poems that gave permission.

Next came a poem that refused permission. It didn't even ask before it went ahead and did exactly what it wanted to do. Of course, in the end, the poem got a bit anxious, and did what it professed it wasn't going to do. Ask someone else's opinion about what needed to be done. Pesky poems.

Three tanka and two haiku, one tanka on the prompt that I actually like better than the poems I wrote for the prompt. Somehow, summing up the prompt in the five lines of the tanka made it more immediate than the twelve line poems. That's the beauty of Japanese short forms. they force you to discard everything but the essentials.


11/21 TALLY
Poems - 3
Haiku - 2
Tanka - 3

To Date Total
Poems - 32
Haiku - 24
Tanka - 45

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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 20

Poetic Asides prompt for the day:

For today's prompt, write a "what's wrong or right" poem. As with any of these prompts, there are many ways to come at this one. However, since I'm in a hurry to hit the road, my mind is completely blanking on all of them. So, whether it's right or wrong--wrong or right--I'm just gonna get down to poeming. Have a great unsupervised day!

Another wide open prompt, which is both good and bad. The good is it leaves itself open to a wide variety of possibilities. The bad – a wide variety of possibilities. When faced with so much choice my brain tends to leap from idea to idea, never pausing long enough to develop any poem ideas.

One way to tackle it was to look at "what's wrong/right with ____?" and then filling in the blank and answering the question. Another way to approach the prompt would be to describe the flip sides of something, as "what's right/wrong about ______?"

Of course I did neither of those things, and instead approached the prompt as a success/failure ratio, where all my rights and wrongs get added up with a rather unexpected result.

One haiku and one tanka, neither on the prompt, but both on the weather. Again. 

11/20 TALLY
Poems - 1
Haiku - 1
Tanka - 1

To Date Total
Poems - 29
Haiku - 22
Tanka - 42



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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 19

Friday. Poetic Asides:

For today's prompt, write a poem with a hole in it. The hole could be referenced in the poem, which could be about subjects such as hitting a golf ball in the hole, punching a hole in the wall, or even visiting a hole in the wall bar. Of course, with everyone flexing their concrete poetry skills lately, I'm sure at least a few poets might take a stab at writing a poem with an actual hole in the middle (maybe a doughnut-shaped poem?). Another possibility is to write a poem with a hole in its logic, but I'm sure you can find any number of loop-holes for attacking this prompt.

Another good prompt that was hard to wrap my head around at first. I know what I wanted to say, it was just finding the right way to say it. I made a false start that has a good line or two in it – another .5 poem that will need surgery as well as revision.

I had to run through the various types of hole and come up with the over done hole in the heart. That was my aborted attempt to say something new on the topic. I may still be able to pull it off, but not right now.

My second poem ricocheted off the idea of a hole in the universe, which, like the movies, zoomed in and became a bit more personal. I wrote on what it was like to be the hole in the middle of everything. And nothing.

The poems come a bit easier when I don't try and outthink them, or try and outwit the prompt. If I just relax and go with the ideas that come to mind readily, things go much smoother. Hopefully I can carry that method forward after November is done.

One haiku and one tanka, neither on the prompt directly – maybe covertly.

11/19 TALLY
Poems - 1.5
Haiku - 1
Tanka - 1

To Date Total
Poems - 28
Haiku - 21
Tanka - 41



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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 18

Today’s public service message from Poetic Asides:

For today's prompt, write a lost & found poem. I suppose you could focus on either what's lost or what's found--or both. Or you could focus on how things change after something lost. Or after something is found. Or...I'm starting to lose my train of thought. I'm sure you've probably got the idea.

For some reason opposites always flummox me, at first. My mind naturally ping pongs from one extreme to the other so prompts like this should be right up my alley. I just have to give free rein to myself to consider everything on the spectrum, from lost all the way through found and beyond.

My poem for this prompt ended up being a see-saw, describing a rather noise filled mental state and lost marbles that eventually find themselves. A bit weirder and more metaphoric than usual, but half the fun of doing these prompts is allowing myself to explore other avenues of poem writing. I’ve discovered that no matter how hard I try, my poems always contain some underlying themes and ideas, so now I’ve learned to relax and let it happen.

I've also learned to not rush the ending. Some poems end rather abruptly it seems to me, but on a later reading, it seems they end in just the right spot. Of course, time and editing will tell.

A few haiku today, and a tanka or two.

11/18 TALLY
Poems - 1
Haiku - 2
Tanka - 2

To Date Total
Poems - 26.5
Haiku - 24
Tanka - 40

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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 17

It's Wednesday, and time for another Poetic Asides prompt:

For today's prompt, take the phrase "Tell me why (blank)," replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem. Possible titles could include: "Tell me why 1+1=2," "Tell me why I'm wrong," "Tell me why my hand always gets stuck in the Pringle's container," etc. Get silly; get serious; get poeming!

Ah, the dreaded fill in the blank title poem prompt. I'm a little more okay with it than I was previously, although I did have to ponder a while on the phrase.

I thought of going with the phrase as is – Tell Me Why – and then moved on to variations on the Tell Me Why this or that until I stumbled across Tell Me Why You Love Me. At first I rejected it but my mind kept circling back, so I wrote a poem for that title. As Robert was saying in his lead up to the prompt, sometimes themes emerge slowly.

It was slow in emerging, because who am I to demand you tell me why you love me was my reasoning. I stayed with it and the poem that came about dealt with reasons and insecurities over why the narrator would ask this question.

Is it a love poem? Well, sort of. Like all my love poems, it's a bit prickly, like a balled up hedgehog. Does it answer the demand the title posed? Not in so many words, but that's okay too. 

There were two haiku and two tanka that could relate to the prompt, depends on how far you want to stretch your definition of Tell Me Why.


11/17 TALLY
Poems - 1
Haiku - 2
Tanka - 2

To Date Total
Poems - 25.5
Haiku - 22
Tanka - 38


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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 16

Tuesday again! Already! Here is the prompt for the day from Poetic Asides:

It's a two-for-Tuesday prompt today. Here are the prompts:
1.    Write a stacking poem. The poem could be about stacking objects. Or it could be about stacking ideas, stacking the deck, stacking the odds against something happening, etc.
2.    Write an unstacking poem. Just the opposite of the first prompt. Unstack objects or tear down the obstacles stacked in your way, etc.

As usual, the Tuesday prompts are opposites. Which is good in a way, because either my poems format themselves neatly along those lines, or they contain both parts of the prompt in one poem.

My mind did the usual run through of the prompt and came up with stacking hay bales (but, alas I have no horses), stacking dominos, stacking bricks and pancake stacks. Unstacking became tossing hay bales off the pile, computer programs, and untangling skeins of yarn. Hey, I never said my thought process was logical.

Somehow I ended up with the image of stacking plates on poles and trying to balance the whole spinning mess and the resulting chaos. There are pieces of what I want to say in the poem, but it isn’t as clear as it could be. I know some time away before revision will help a lot with focus and ‘unstacking’ the meaning hidden within.

Two haiku and three tanka today, loosely related to the prompt.


11/16 TALLY
Poems - 1
Haiku - 2
Tanka - 3

To Date Total
Poems - 24.5
Haiku - 20
Tanka - 36



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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 15

Hey, halfway through the month and steadily poeming.

Here is today’s prompt from Poetic Asides:

For today's prompt, write a "just when you thought it was safe" poem. For instance, write a poem about the dangers of going off a diet just after hitting your goal weight, entering the water after it appears the killer shark has been caught (Jaws anyone?), or whatever else could offer a sneaky bit of danger. Of course, with only 15 days of poeming left, it's safe to assume you're going to finish this challenge--or is it?  

This prompt immediately conjured up all kinds of possibilities. It was harder to narrow down than I thought. I finally settled on the bliss of an anxiety free day, and the unrealistic expectation that the day would stretch into eternity. Of course when it doesn’t, things come crashing down again. 

The hard part of these prompts is how much detail and personal info to put in them. On one hand, the personal is one reason a lot of people read poetry – for that brief, intense glance into someone else’s world. How much of a glimpse do we let strangers have? If we don’t write honestly and forthrightly, it seems the poem suffers. 

I tried for a second one and have a half-realized idea that needs a lot more work before it grows up to be a poem. So it goes. 

Two haiku and three tanka today, none on the prompt, but most on the weather.

11/15 TALLY
Poems - 1.5
Haiku - 2
Tanka - 3

To Date Total
Poems - 23.5
Haiku - 18
Tanka - 33


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November 2010 Poem A Day Challenge - Day 14

Here is the Poetic Asides prompt for the day:

For today's prompt, write a crossroads poem. This could be a poem about a physical, mental, or emotional intersection. For instance, graduating college or getting a divorce often leaves people at a crossroads. Or finishing a ginormous project at work. Or even starting a poem. After all, that blank page (or screen) offers so many new possibilities.

Another prompt I wrestled with. I had to look up crossroads and read the definition to get a handle on it.

cross•road  n.
1. A road that intersects another road.
2. crossroads (used with a sing. or pl. verb)
a. A place where two or more roads meet.
b. A small, usually rural community situated at an intersection of two or more roads: asked for directions at a remote crossroads.
c. A place that is centrally located.
d. A crucial point.

Okay, that didn't tell me a whole lot that I didn't know. I started casting about for ideas and finally settled on 2b, a small, usually rural community situated at the intersection of two or more roads. Hey, that describes where I live, here at the intersection of an Interstate and a State highway. Okay, so they intersect out in the great big empty that is Wyoming, but any port in a poetry prompt.

My poem explored my on again, off again relationship with the place that I live, and the fact I never intended to stay here as long as I have.

Two haiku, one on the prompt, and one tanka, also on the prompt.
11/14 TALLY
Poems - 1
Haiku - 2
Tanka - 1

To Date Total
Poems - 22
Haiku - 16
Tanka - 31


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