For today and the next four days, three of my writing groups intersect. As part of The Stafford Challenge, I have committed to writing a poem every day for a year. In the Slice of Life Writing Challenge, we blog every day for the month of March, and for Ethicalela’s Open Write, today’s prompt drives the writing for the other groups as well.
Leilya Pitre of Louisiana’s prompt at http://www.ethicalela.com can be read in full here. She inspires us to write poems about the Ides of March with its foreboding feeling of doom.. While my time slice today is 12:28-12:59, I can tell you that during that 31-minute segment of my day, I’ll be praying and moving plants indoors and securing outdoor furniture to prepare for the storms my daughter is experiencing this morning in Owensboro, Kentucky that are heading our way this evening. Everyone has been anticipating and preparing for these storms all week. Right now, I’m praying for my children who are enduring baseball-size hail and 70 mph winds in their first round this morning.
I made up my own poetry form today. I chose to write an Ides of March Time and Date poem, using the time of her text and the date as my line formations. My daughter sent a text at 5:51 on 3/15, so six lines have that many words in that order. 5-5-1-3-1-5.
An Ides of March Prayer
her text: pray for us~
high winds, hail upon us
{praying}
daughter, fiance, grandson
{praying}
Lord, keep them all safe




PRAYERS for you all as you find ways to get through this very scary weather that, to be honest, is far more intimidating than all of the writing merging in your life. Hang in there.
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First, glad I learn at the end that you daughter is safe and hope all these storms pass quickly without harm. I appreciated seeing directly where you got your writing inspiration from – the text and then the time. Becaue of tech and numbers, you crafted poetry. And all, as three writing groups nudge you to show up and write. Go, Kim, Go!!
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We are getting a small tail of the raging storms today. I’ll keep all of you in my prayers.
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So many convergences and so much economy…of words. I love that you got the form from the date and time. Impressed by what you could compress into those few words. Hopeful that your prayers were answered. Amazed that you can manage three challenges at once. Baseball-sized hail. Yikes.
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I’ve been following the storms because they affected my daughter’s flight home. I’ll keep your family in my thoughts. Hope everyone managed. Weather is so crazy at times! And, amazing that you navigate so many writing groups at once. I am finding this one alone a bit tricky!
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Kim,
I sense the worry in your post. I do not miss those spring storms that are now more severe than ever. Barb said Iowa is supposed to get tornadoes. And all that this early is another sign of climate change. My prayer is that feckless politicians who refuse to believe science either change or get whacked by a giant ball of hail. I doubt either happen, so here we are.
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Kim, I understand the fear and the prayers. Hope they are okay. Last night’s storm here was truly frightening. I do not think I remember lightning so loud and striking!
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I am glad your daughter and family are ok. I am bout a 90 minutes from Owensboro, and those storms were awful. I could not believe the size of the hail and how much of it there was! I love how you structured the poem using the time and date of the text.
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So many threads converging (including, unfortunately, these storms). I’m sending over prayers to your family and all those affected. Your poem is a beautiful prayer, Kim.
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Oh, dear, huge hail and Leigh Anne had some too. So many storms. I hope they continue to be safe, Kim. Peace to you and yours.
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I continue to pray they will all be safe, Kim. Again: I’m in awe of how you arrived at your form, the numberplay drived from your daughter’s text. Brilliant! I recall hearing that the universe is made of numbers…I know it is made of infinitely interconnected patterns like this. Also, kudos to you for getting this up today! I will be running a day behind with blogging whatever I do over at E. ELA. Buys me time!
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Still meant DERIVED* from-!!
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