megwrites

Day 9: Quickly jot down four verbs, four adjectives, and four nouns. Write a poem utilizing all 12 words.

Cry
Fly
Run
Punch

Savvy
Delicious
Seasoned
Light

Stone
Feet
Garland
Heart

It's not exactly that you run
But you can fly, numbed and sinking
away to another room
rather than break out into a punch
and send your fist soaring through
nothing but too cold air and flower petals

I had plans to be savvy on the occasion
To be the comforting one, not the comforted
I planned it with the assumption
One can ever be seasoned at these things
Like a soldier
That you can eat delicious crackers
- made delicious by grief hunger, grief weariness -
in the coffee break room
You can break up mourning
between jokes that keep things light

That you won't cry out the breaking of your heart
won't wobble on feet made more of clay than stone
When you see the silk pillow and the roses and pictures as his garland
And know you have to leave him alone in the dark 'til tomorrow
When you watch six men bear him to the ground
Six men you love, six men you may seen born away someday, too

You know the truth: death has a right hand of mercy
and a left hand of cruelty and it will
strike you with both equally, whether the sky is blue or gray that day

Day 8: Write a Cinquain on a topic of your choice (1st line = 2 syllables, 2nd line = 4 syllables, 3rd line = 6 syllables, 4th line = 8 syllables, 5th (final line) = 2 syllables).

I have
written poems
for almost nearly all
my feelings. Still I can't keep up
with them.

Day 7: Take a short walk outdoors in your surrounding environment. When you find an object you identify with, write a poem using the image as a metaphor for yourself or your life.

Of no great notice but
shade offering against summer's rage
and firm against all but the sternest winds

At least the local dogs seem fond.

True, there are more spectacular trees.
The oak down the block is 70 ft high if it's an inch.
It turns on the first day of October, perfectly pitched red

Then there's us, still green all too late in the season
unblooming come April, when all others
snow down pink and white petals to delight the world

Outmatched, outwitted, outdone.

But - we are here. We are close.
And we are doing the best with what
ungenerous nature gave to us.

Day 6: Write a poem of any length incorporating every word from your latest FB status update in any order.

Memory is just this:
something weirdly true, true in how the smallest moments
become jewels lodged in your mind
about how they sparkle with colors like
peppy childhood-sun yellow, bewildering burial day sky blue
and they think back old music, crystalline and stretched out as taffy
like Johnny Cash's "The Devil's Right Hand" looping over
and over, and whether the moment is serious, not funny, even though
it may be an obsidian moment, it's rather true
that it is life's way, and even then there is pleasure, it's fun to listen
and replay those tapes, to listen and remember a dog hanging
out the back window when the windows are down in the car,
ears are flapping, tongue is hanging out the side of a toothy mouth
happy as a pig in poop flavored poop, down a dusty gravel road
on a too hot Tuesday in a car with no air conditioning
That is a jewel, too. That is the brain's treasure.

Day 5: Write a three-line poem about lemons without using the following words: lemon, yellow, round, fruit, citrus, tart, juicy, peel, and sour.

"To A Sun Colored Oblong Lump of Vegetative Matter That I Don't Like"

Why the hell are you always in ice tea and diet coke?
You don't belong there. We use you to make things smell clean,
for crissakes. What? Did all the limes in the world evaporate?

Day 4: Write a haiku (a three line poem where the first line has 5 syllables, the second line has 7 syllables, and the third line has 5 syllables). Haikus are often about nature, but yours can be about anything.

"Booze"

Demon at the door
a glass bottle full of brown
this is temptation

Day 2: Who was the last person you texted? Write a five-line poem to that person.

"To My Husband Man"

Back broken: you shouldered my load
Heart broken: you held me while they welded me back together
As light and strong as the titanium you chose for our wedding rings
Happy other half, I love you, thank you
For every big and little thing

In which Meg takes the 30 day poetry challenge this October and sees how many people are still following her by All Hallow's Eve!

Also, I'll be posting the donate/tip jar button at the bottom of each poem, because well, I could use the funds right now and if anyone likes the poem and wants to put in a buck or two, it would really help. Especially since my dog (as seen here) has had visit the vet more than normal lately and right now I'm undergoing physical therapy for a back that is not doing so hot and there are lots of medical bills. Being sick is expensive, y'all.

And also, feedback is really appreciated because I love that, too and as a writer, I love constructive criticism. And I don't argue with them!

Don't feel obligated or anything. I'm just letting you know the situation here at Castle Von Meganstein.

So, with no further ado, Day 1 (belately posted) of the challenge:

Day One: Write a poem where each line starts with a letter from your first name (an Acrostic). It can be about anything, but it should not be about you or your name.

Mountainous rises, then hills, then the flats of gold waving in the wind
Easterly sunrise over over fields of white tailed deer that breathe mist into the morning
Green, verdantly unbound in short spring and almighty, endless summer
Autumnally vermillion, ripe, crisp until the quite white-gray of winter comes
Nothing will ever taste so good as the water from your own well, nowhere else is home

( The Challenge list behind the cut for any who are curious )

an interesting monster

Entries tagged with 30 day poetry challenge

Day 9. Or: I will totally bum you out with this one

Day 8, or start of week two of Operation: This-Can't-End-Well

Day 7! It's been a whole week now!

Yep, more poetry!

Day 5's poem. It's a strange one

Day 4 poem!

Belated posting of poetry challenge poem (Day #2)

Operation: This Can't End Well 2.0.

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