Working Without a Prompt
Is a little bit like
Flying without a trapeze
Or…finding your way
Without a compass
Of course, it can be done
Most anything can be done
But to find the will to do it
Is the challenge
The sky clear
Low lying clouds
In the valley
Wind chimes hang limp
There is a sense of waiting
So much of life spent waiting
And then
When the incident happens
We are unprepared
Have no plan
As Barbara Kingsolver says
We are like chickens
When it rains,
We think it will always rain
When we are told the outcome
It isn’t what we want
Therefore, we won’t accept
Have no idea how to accept
Accepting is a hard lesson
One not easy to grasp
December 14, 2018
14 comments:
I love the Barbara Kingsolver quote. Love the poem, too.
I really like this poem about working without prompts. I like "the will to do it is the challenge" true for me. The still air and low-lying clouds echo that feeling of stasis so well.
I belong to the Poetry Society of Texas and my chapter, The Denton Poets' Assembly, is sponsoring the annual summer conference for PST in July 2019. Our theme this year is Prompts and Pathways and your poem is so apt I am wondering if we republish - we're wanting to add prompt and pathway poems to the monthly newsletter to keep the idea in front of folks. Anyway, please let me know at chrsrvng5@gmail.com -it's perfect.
Written with such a lovely and telling spirit as ever, Annell. Flying free... Great!
Good one, love this.
I like the descriptiveness of this stanza: "The sky clear
Low lying clouds
In the valley
Wind chimes hang limp" Especially the last line of it.
Very clever, introspective poem.
Hi Annell, yes, the will to do what must be done, and being prepared when it's time to do it. The challenge of life...
So true. Accepting is tough. But, once we do that, we win...
Frank I did not find your poem. Thanks for your comment.
Sometimes we just have to take the day... be it rain or sun
we know it will rain, wait for it to happen and often are just as unprepared, like how you document an ordinary occurrence we can all identify with
I think once you find your muse and your direction, you have to go for it. Take it one day at a time.
Back for another read. It is amazing how we resist accepting what is.......i love the chickens in your poem.
OLN as the promptless prompt, love it, and how the poem dances gently into a mindful presence in the world and then the sky, and then moves to how we react to rain, and then how we are like chickens, this is all over the place...! and brilliant.
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