Patchwork Prose and Verse
Anna Roseboro is our host at http://www.ethicalela.com for Day 2 of October’s Open Write. She challenges writers to write about living in the small spaces between other spaces. I thought of the real and virtual worlds, which inspired a short Haiku today.
Layers
real and virtual
worlds collide ~ dressed from waist up
bottoms optional
Anna Roseboro brings the Pantoum to us today! My husband and I do a lot of camping together, but on my last trip, I attended a session in a state park about the GirlCamper group and their workshops and meet-ups. I have been looking for a 1966 Scotty to restore and take on my solo writing weekends with my soul schnoodle. Cheers to Anna Roseboro for hosting today and motivating and inspiring writers always.
1966 Serro Scotty
I’m looking for you, 1966 Serro Scotty
I’ll breathe new life into your old wheels
we’ll hit the road, be best friends
when I find you, look out!
I’ll breathe new life into your old wheels
restore your soul, rest in your embrace
when I find you, look out!
we’ll blaze new trails
restore your soul, rest in your embrace
listen to the symphony of the trees
we’ll blaze new trails
camping out under the stars
listen to the symphony of the trees
we’ll hit the road, be best friends
camping out under the stars
I’m looking for you, 1966 Serro Scotty
I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths: 75 Poetry Writing Exercises, which inspired me to delve into another book study of poetry forms and responses. I’ll be making my way through the exercises and prompts between now and the end of the year.
Today’s exercise involves writing a poem based on a painting or other work of art, diving into the rich description to evoke the mood, tone, or emotion present in the piece.
Take Me There
log cabin
hygge,
warmth of fire inside
aurora borealis against
the Alaska night
the vast universe
playing for keeps
I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths: 75 Poetry Writing Exercises, which inspired me to delve into another book study of poetry forms and responses. I’ll be making my way through the exercises and prompts between now and the end of the year.
Today’s writing exercise focuses on Imagery of Taste. Vaughn encourages writers to focus on an aspect of taste in today’s writing and create bursts of flavor in the piece.
Family Grandiose Narcissist
don't worry
her day is coming
that taste of her own
elder abuse
neglect
someone else
in control
denying pain management
through cancer
like it was natural childbirth,
some feat of honor
that one
you know, the one
who didn't want to
"dope her mother up and let her die,"
as if living were a choice
who instead put her in a
chair over in the corner
and let her suffer~
she grew too weary to sit
whacked her face falling
on a coffee table corner
carried a blackened bruise
to the grave
(let me tell you: there are
things worse than dying
peacefully with dignity)
that one, yes
you know, the one who has
no regrets
because she thinks
only about
herself
never apologizes~
because mistakes? her? no way!
that one, yes
you know, the one
who excluded others' photos
from the family Powerpoint
making herself the slideshow queen
because she's the only one
that matters to herself
that one, yes
who was a second bride
at her son's wedding
causing the videographer
to quit at the last minute
(no video ever happened
and family who didn't go
along with her choice to
let her mother suffer?
no wedding for those
who'd saved the date)
that one, yes
she will have her own taste
her day is coming
don't worry
I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths: 75 Poetry Writing Exercises, (available on Amazon, linked on title or here on NCTE), which inspired me to delve into another book study of poetry forms and responses. I’ll be making my way through the exercises and prompts between now and the end of the year.
Today’s writing exercise focuses on smell and memory – the most connected sense to remembering the past. Vaughn encourages writers to explore the sense of smell connected to a memory in the writing.
Her Charm Bracelet
Mom's Estee Lauder lingers
even now, 7 years later
in my closet
on her scarves I kept
in her mirrored box
lined with burgundy velvet
where her charm bracelet rests
jingles when I need to hear her here
next to me
I breathe in, smell her presence
hold her here
then exhale,
release
knowing everything will be okay
I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths: 75 Poetry Writing Exercises, (available on Amazon, linked on title or here on NCTE), which inspired me to delve into another book study of poetry forms and responses. I’ll be making my way through the exercises and prompts between now and the end of the year.
56 -Year-Old's Dream Weekend
Smooth cotton pajamas
the stretchy kind
Fresh, clean sheets
air-dried on the breeze
Soap-scented showered
softness,
fluffy-towel-dried and
wrapped in a
Warm, fleecy blanket
still, relaxed breathing
drifting off to sleep
dog snuggled close
no worries
no alarm set
for tomorrow
I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths: 75 Poetry Writing Exercises, which inspired me to delve into another book study of poetry forms and responses. I’ll be making my way through the exercises and prompts between now and the end of the year.
Today’s writing exercise focuses on Imagery of Body Language. Vaughn encourages writers to focus on body language that reveals the emotional or psychological state of a person.
The Grip I can tell without looking up from my book in traffic when your hands grip the wheel and your breathing changes gets rhythmic louder I know another driver is on your nerves I sink down a bit brace my feet against the floor
I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths: 75 Poetry Writing Exercises, which inspired me to delve into another book study of poetry forms and responses. I’ll be making my way through the exercises and prompts between now and the end of the year.
Today’s writing exercise focuses on Imagery of Time. Vaughn encourages writers to focus on an aspect of time in today’s writing and create imagery in the piece.
Retirement some say it's not what you retire FROM~ it's what you retire TO, not going home to sit in your chair and wait your turn to die but getting out, taking your turn to live without having to set alarms meet deadlines be somewhere, dressed and ready ......maybe it means restoring a Vintage Scotty camper paring down from the Outback and embracing the simplicity of fold-out windows with three dogs two coffee mugs two spoons two forks two chairs on a lake next to a fire reading writing
I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths: 75 Poetry Writing Exercises, (available on Amazon, linked on title or here on NCTE), which inspired me to delve into another book study of poetry forms and responses. I’ll be making my way through the exercises and prompts between now and the end of the year.
Today’s exercise is based on Wallace Stevens’s Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird to inspire multiple points of view in sections about the different ways we see a particular thing. I broke my ankle a week and a half before Fall Break….so I spend a lot of time looking at this elevated, swollen, bruised, broken ankle. But I’m on the mend.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Broken Ankle I a missed step in an unlit stairwell OH, SNAP!...SNAP! II nondisplaced fracture of lateral malleolus of right fibula and displaced avulsion fracture of right talus III a pair of crutches like Tiny Tim's ~ God bless us, every one! IV a flashback fashion black boot like that ice boot on Mendenhall Glacier for dogsledding so I can pretend to be cold, mushing, Gee! Haw! V a shiny blue knee scooter (with basket) borrowed from Mrs. Bell (I got her a new blue bell) it's fast like a dogsled VI no pain meds for three days workers compensation: inhumane VII no housework no cooking no laundry just Netflix and Hallmark movies and The Great Alone set in Alaska VIII no fall break vacation to go hiking in the mountains at that cozy cabin I cancelled IX challenging showertime vulnerable nakedness ~what if I slip and fall again???~ ~and can't get up???~ X a temporary handicapped parking tag when you want to go nowhere anyway because you order even Aleve and hairpins and all your pretend dogsledding gear from Amazon XI a heightened sensitivity to open doors, assist those who need it when you are healed XII a renewed appreciation for freedom of movement XIII praising God that it wasn't much worse that you’re still alive that your team is pulling you
Today, I’m sharing some acrostics I am writing as I prepare to lead a fall poetry writing workshop in my small Georgia town, where the leaves are just beginning to turn, to spiral downward upon the town square sidewalks. Hay bales resemble giant cinnamon rolls on their sides in pastures throughout the rural countryside. Businesses on the square are festively decorated with scarecrows, pumpkins, and fall foliage. Our restored 1828 Coffeeshop workers greet locals by name and whip up pumpkin spice lattes and ever-changing creative fall teas and coffee blends sure to please! That’s the vibe right now in this most magical season of the year – like a Hallmark Christmas movie without all the shopping and baking deadlines! And children of all ages will be working their own magic ~ writing fall acrostics in schools and libraries in the coming days.
Common Threads 