November 30, 2013 Sunday Whirl/Writers Digest November PAD Challenge

issue, trouncing, word, depend, insight, road,

crisis, plight, forces, fire, border, thanks

Get the Hell Out of Dodge

The crisis came 

In the night

Escape is your

Plight

The road 

To recovery

Like any journey

Can be long

Narrow

Winding

Rough or smooth

It all depends on you

The issue at hand

Is defined by 

The words spoken

Examination

Leads to insight

Along the way

There will be

Unexpected forces

A fire in the forest

Or some other

Calamity

And you will need the

Proper papers

At the border

Thanks


Note: " Thanks," is what the Border Guard says....if no papers, one must find another route.

________________________

Wrtiers Digest  Nov PAD Challenge

For today’s prompt, write a disappearing poem. Simple as that. Just make sure you don’t disappear after the month is over. I’ve got some fun stuff planned for the blog in December, and we’ve got the Wednesday poetry prompts. And eventually, there’s the April PAD Challenge.

The Disappearance

Each day 

Arrives

Almost exactly

The same

As the day before

The last of the night

Still dark

The sun

Wakes

Attempts to rise

Over the mountain

The clock in the hall

Ticks away each minute

And tomorrow

You will wonder

About the disappearance

Note:  "The disappearance," of the day before, what happened, where did it go...or sometimes wonder did it happen at all?

November 29, 2013 Writers Digest/ Nov PAD Challenge

For today’s prompt, write a commercial poem. This prompt makes me think about the commercialism decried in Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown, but there are any number of ways to attack a commercial poem. I have complete faith in everyone here being able to take this prompt in wild, new directions.

Fragments G&C #168  30"x30" gouache on w/c paper

An Artist

How can one put a price

On the blood

The heart

Yet we

Do

________________

Christmas Eve

Cold

At the base of the Mountain

No electricity

Fires lit

Doors open

People

Emerge

The Virgin aloft

Cold

Gun shots

Sparks fly

Stars shine

Cold wind blows

Circle the plaza

Plung into darkness

Cold

Ancient old

Memories

Christmas eve

November 27, 2013 Writers Digest/Nov PAD Challenge

We’re getting down to the final days of this challenge, but don’t use that as an excuse to ease up on the gas pedal. Rather, put the pedal to the metal and rock these final few prompts!

For today’s prompt, write a local poem. By local, I’m thinking of something that happens or has happened in your neck of the woods, but you know, I’m never against poets bending and/or breaking my rules. So feel free to play with the concept of local however you wish.

My Companion

You are stuck to

The bottom of my heel

I drag you behind

Wherever I go

You are liquid

You follow

You fill every low place

Crack and crevice

You crumple my lungs

Take my breath away

I remain tangled

In my own heart strings

One step and I tumble

Into the hole

Surrounded by the

Hatters and the white rabbit

And the deep cup of tea

Brewed from my own tears

So deep

It could drown

An army

Could drown me

I glance

You are always there

November 26, 2013 Writers Digest/ November PAD Challenge /deVerse

Today is the final “Two for Tuesday” prompt of November. Let’s make the most of it. Here are the prompts:

1. Take the phrase “Free (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Example titles might include: “Free Bird,” “Freedom Isn’t Free,” “Free Offer,” etc.
2. Take the phrase “(blank) Free,” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Example titles might include: “Fat Free,” “Stone Free,” “How to Be Free,” etc.Minutes from 

Coyote Roams Free

Black mountains

Sharp edge

Again the sky

Light grey 

To cobalt blue

The village lights

Sparkle against

The snow

Coyote roams free

Scavenges whatever

Comes his way

Grandmothers

Sleep peacefully

Free at last

No worries of

Holidays

Only memories

Of days past

Decorate the tree

Bake the cookies

Lay the table

All responsibility

Fell to her

Worked

Morning to night

Nothing forgotten

With the joy of the

Holidays

Also the hurry

And flurry

No time to

Remember

Christmas past

Grand Parents

Parents

Aunts and Uncles

Cousins and such

It comes each year

Ready or not

Only coyote roams free

November 25, 2013 Writers Digest/Nov PAD Challenge

For today’s prompt, take a poem from earlier in the challenge (that you’ve written) and remix it. You could take a free verse poem and re-work it into a villanelle or shadorma. You could re-work multiple poems into a new one. You could take a line from one of the poems and write a response poem to it. Or you can take it in an entirely different direction.

Forget What I Said Earlier

Yes I answered your question

With a funny response

Instead I should have said

"Insignificant nothingness"

For what else could it be

If it is not true

If it is not authentic

If there is no blood

At the scene

And no heart

In the creation

We can't call it art

It is.....

"Insignificant nothingness"

I chose my poem blindly, just picked a date and then looked to see what I had written.

Remember What I Said Before
In early morning
Before the sun
Is up
Think of me

During the day
When the sun shines
Or the sky is overcast
Think of me

Later when the sun sets
And all the world is aglow
Draw a color from the
Color box
Think of me

Remember what
I said before
No need to repeat
That if it is not true
Not Authentic
Unimportant
Trifling or petty
Too small to be important
Or is of no consequence
It is....
"Insignificant nothngness"

Note:  In art class my instructor used to say, if it is meaningless, it is "insignificant nothingness."

November 24, 2013 Sunday Whirl #136

Sunday Whirl #136

Prompt:  habits, create, however, virtue, regard, gap,

cycle, undoing, lessen, choice, gathering, suffering

Studio Life

Spend time in the
Studio creating

Discipline

Becomes habit

However
Time spent
"Piddling" gets you
Nowhere

Lessen chance
Of wasting time
Plan your day ahead
Then work like a well
Oiled clock


With regard to time
It can be your friend
Or it can be your enemy
It can slip away
The day gone
Just a gap in the process
If you are not mindful
It can be your undoing

Each day is a cycle
Eliminate suffering
Organize
Gather what you need
Before you begin

Time spent
In the studio
Is your choice

Good work habits 

Become your virtue

Finish your day
On the downhill

November 24, 2013 Writers Digest, Nov PAD Challenge

Writers Digest  Nov PAD Challenge

For today’s prompt, write a poem that responds to a statement. You can use any statement, quote, etc., that you wish, but I’ve included a few to make it easier. That said, feel free to find and use a different statement for your poem.

Fragments G&C  #167  30"x30" gouache on w/c paper

“We work in the dark - we do what we can - we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.”

― Henry James, The Middle Years

Henry James Speaks for Me
Up early
The artist
Goes to work
In the dark
All is quiet
Juices
Flowing
Trembling
It will be the
First time.....
Again

In the dark
The artist finds the
Brightest light
Begin day
In a blaze

Some will say
I bet
It is fun...
I say
Fun has nothing
To do with it
It is work
One must do
Hard work
And when you
Have finished
You must begin
Again

Give all that you have
Hold nothing back
Make each idea
Visible
Look for new ways
To say it

Some days
You will doubt
Yourself
Your work
You will wonder
Why....
Doubt is your
Passion

There will be days
Filled with disappointment
Things will not work out
Frowns all around
Feel small
Razor blades cut
Small nips
Swim in blood
Hurt
Lost in the
Maddness of art

November 23, 2013 Writers Digest November PAD Challenge/ Sunday Whirl #136

Writer's Digest November PAD Challenge  For today’s prompt, write an “I shouldn’t be here” poem. You can decide where you shouldn’t be: maybe it’s a place, maybe it’s a time, or maybe (just maybe) it’s a state of mind. Shake yourself loose in a poem.

Where I Need to Be

In the jungle

Dark and deep...

No 

I shouldn't be here

Sailing the deep blue sea....

No 

I shouldn't be here

Flying above mountain tops....

No 

I shouldn't be here

I have no time to waste

My time is finite

I have no idea

When the end is near

Yes

I will be where I need to be

Stretch the moment to eternity

__________________________

Sunday Whirl

Prompt:  habits, create, however, virtue, regard, gap,

cycle, undoing, lessen, choice, gathering, suffering

Studio Life

Spend time in the
Studio creating

Discipline

Becomes habit

However
Time spent
"Piddling" gets you
Nowhere

Lessen chance
Of wasting time
Plan your day ahead
Then work like a well
Oiled clock


With regard to time
It can be your friend
Or it can be your enemy
It can slip away
The day gone
Just a gap in the process
If you are not mindful
It can be your undoing

Each day is a cycle
Eliminate suffering
Organize
Gather what you need
Before you begin

Time spent
In the studio
Is your choice

Good work habits 

Become your virture

Finish your day
On the downhill