Poem-A-Day prompt
April 25 For today’s prompt, write a remix poem.
Today I unwrote a poor poem about the universe.
Tag: life
The Fragile Inn
The Fragile Inn
The morning clouds scatter over the earth
like a vapor, chimney smoke hovers then
grasps the curling tendrils and sets sail.
Men of dust are moving about with hushed
voices saying, “the grave is never full” and
“it’s a sad truth that folks gotta move out to
make room for babes moving in.”
The little guy, moaning for a strong hand
to reach down and save him, runs out the
door to bury his smile in the vacant flower
box. His sister sits on the front stoop with
Goodnight Moon and their mother’s treasure
box on her lap looking brave in her black dress.
~~~
2017 April PAD Challenge: Day 18
Every Life Needs its Own Mirror
I’m sharing a pantoum that I wrote yesterday for a prompt from the site formally known as Poetic Bloomings. The amazing poets who contribute to this site have recently voted in a new name: Creative Bloomings because the founding administrators, Walt Wojtanik, Marie Elena Good, and fellow contributing poets are now incorporating flashy fiction and photography and more. Michelle Hed was our guest prompter.
And here is the prompt:
Complete this thought and make that thought the title of your poem.
“Every life needs its own______________”
“Every life needs its own mirror”
(a pantoum by J.lynn Sheridan)
Every life needs its own burnished mirror
to peer into the far-flung past.
A tool to reflect our trodden paths,
whether wise, resolute, or marred.
To peer into the far-flung past,
then disclose our truths and errs.
Whether wise, resolute, or marred,
Echo-casting of years yet unknown.
Then, disclose our truths and errs
so the future repeats each mended rove.
Echo-casting of years yet unknown,
every life needs its own burnished mirror.
+++
You try!
The Rules for a pantoum are fairly simple.
From Poets.org:
“The modern pantoum is a poem of any length, composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza. The last line of a pantoum is often the same as the first.”
No rhyming!
Now, it’s your turn. Don’t forget to visit Creative Bloomings for more inspiration.
“Moses” -after Frida Kahlo
This is a first for me. I’ve never written an Ekphrastic poem. For one, it’s a funny word. According to Merriam-Webster, it means “a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art.”
So, to write an Ekphrastic poem, you need a work of art. We were given a choice of four paintings and I chose the work by Frida Kahlo, a Mexican painter, simply entitled: Moses. Unfortunately, the painting is protected by copywrite. If you want to see it, you’ll have to Google it. It is a complex painting of three religions with differing beliefs all centered around Moses as a babe in the River Nile. After a bit of research, I learned that the artist painted it in response to a book she had read by Carl Jung in addition to her own fears of death. Sadly, her interpretation of the story of Moses is that he was a mythical hero. Apparently, the painting was to become a mural but she died before that was accomplished. Yes, the whole story of this painting is quiet complex.
“Moses”
-after Frida Kahlo
Was it your fear of death, or fear of life,
that loaded your brush with rust and
bulrushes, tears and bones? Is that your
womb crying out for false legends of plagues
and princes to placate a lost soul, a lost
goal where sinners, flesh, and word meet?
Mythical hero, dear artist? Your paint speaks
volumes, lies, and scorn of a righteous man.
I hear not your heart but rather another’s—
Jung’s rings of mixing and stirring the Gnostic
and Light, the powers of three worlds, just to be
sure of naught. As you set your brush across
your chest and breathe one last breath, I see
the canvas of an artist unfinished, dabbling
inside a mural of her unabashed memoir.
You paint a question with gifted hands.
But, a question is not the answer.
Writing On The Sun 