Day 29 of #VerseLove with Fran Haley of North Carolina

Fran Haley of North Carolina is our host for Day 29 of #VerseLove, inspiring us to write Heart Map poems. You can read her full prompt here.

Fran explains that author Georgia Heard created Heart Maps to help younger students find their own meaningful stories. She encourages us to brainstorm “first times” in our own lives – or last times.

The Last Time

The last time I came home

before you died you

stood feebly

in the door

cold rushing in

against your

flannel pajamas

swallowing you

life leaving your body

escaping you

your voice

deep and low

sunk to the bottom

of your being

a soul cry of despair

saying my name

Kim

proving you knew me

there at the bitter end

unlike the times before

your trembling arms

reaching for me

I reeled at

the change in you

in only a few days

and held you up

while we cried

both knowing

this would be

our last

standing hug

our last

cry together

our final

goodbye

before you

slipped away

I watched you die

Day 28 of #VerseLove with Glenda Funk: Strike Through Poetry

Glenda Funk of Idaho is our host for Day 28 of #VerseLove, inspiring us to write Strike Through Poems. You can read her full prompt here. Strikethrough poetry is similar to found or blackout poetry, where a poem exists within an existing poem.

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The Key

Don’t you wish we

could take the key

to the end of

the island like

we used to do

when I was little

and you could still

say Latin names

for each shell and bird and tree

your love for them pure

and passionate before

the day it all changed

for you?

Day 27 of #VerseLove with Jessica Wiley: Sound Off Poetry

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Jessica Wiley of Conway, Arkansas is our host today for Day 27 of #VerseLove2024. She inspires us to write Sound Off poems, spouting off about things that irk us. You can read her full prompt here.

Burning Realms

his whole realm

went up in smoke

ashes of trust

soot of believability

smoldering memories

of the way

upon-a-times

once were

the day he

struck the sulfury

match

burning an

entire

kingdom to the

ground

starting with

his own

castle

*sulfury is a play on soul fury, as in Jessica’s original prompt a podcast entitled Sound and Fury was part of the discussion.

Day 26 of #VerseLove with Scott McCloskey: Billboard Poems

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Scott McCloskey is our host today for Day 26 of #VerseLove, inspiring us to write short billboard-type poems of wit and wisdom, the kind that stick with a reader and leave an impression. You can read his full prompt here, but I’m adding some notes below, too:

Scott explains:

This, of course, is not something new, this “poetry as billboard.”  Poems have replaced advertising on some buses (and other forms of transit) in Washington thanks to the Poetry in Public program. https://www.4culture.org/poetry/ And over thirty years ago, The Poetry in Motion folks did a similar thing, placing poems in various transit systems in Los Angeles, New York City, Nashville, and San Francisco (among many, many others).  https://poetrysociety.org/poetry-in-motion

Just looking at a small sampling of the poems from the New York Poetry in Motion selections https://poetrysociety.org/poetry-in-motion/category/new-york you’ll see some heavy hitters: Charles Simic, Audre Lorde, Tracy K. Smith, Maya Angelou, Seamus Heaney, Shakespeare, Sharon Olds, Billy Collins, Walt Whitman…look, I could just keep naming them, and you’d recognize all of them!  You’d also notice that their topics (and size of selections) are as varied as the poets themselves.

Clinking Pens

on Aisle 12

I caught him

peering around

the corner

“I thought that was you,”

he smiled, approaching.

“Remember me?”

Of course I did.

“Chandler!”

We side hugged,

I asked him

about life.

“I want to

thank you,”

he said.

“You taught me

if I remembered

nothing else

to always keep

a pen on me.”

He reached

in his pocket,

pulled out

a black pen

with gold banding.

“I just bought

my first house

and signed with

it. I thought

of you.”

My breath caught

a tear welled

and my heart

burst with

that now-I-can

die-a-teacher-

who-mattered-joy

I reached in

my purse

pulled out

my signature

Pilot Varsity

fountain pen,

blue ink,

and we clinked

pens, smiling

there on

Aisle 12

Day 25 of #VerseLove with Tammi Belko: Where I’m From Poems

Tammi Belko of Ohio is our host for Day 25 of #VerseLove. You can read her full prompt here. She inspires us today to write Where I’m From poems, based on George Ella Lyon’s “Where I am From” poem. She provides a template to create a “Where I Am From” poem.

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Royal Fortress Meadow 

I’m from the Royal Fortress Meadow

from Breck shampoo and Johnson’s No More Tears

from wispy locks of amber gold, windblown in the breeze

I’m from chain-woven crowns of wildflowers, dandelions, and daisies

from backlit sunlight exposing the truth: there will never be no more tears

from churning butter and wondering why the pants don’t fit

I’m from ancestors of the lye soap stirred in the backyard tin tub

from the front porch swing and swigging Mason Jars of sweet tea

from wash behind your ears and do a good tick check

from a don’t you slam that screen door one more time! flyswatter granny

who swatted more than flies

I’m from the country church of the cardboard funeral fans

with the off-key piano

I’m from Georgia, Cherokee blood three generation branches up-tree,

still searching for the bloodstained earth of my ancestors

from Silver Queen corn, husks shucked

from shady pecan groves and Vidalia onion fields

from Okefenokee swamplands and railroads

that side that tallied three pees before flushing

from clotheslines of fresh sheets teeming with sweet dreams

from sleeping under a box window fan in sweltering summer heat

from folks doing what they could to survive

Day 24 of #VerseLove with Kevin Hodgson

Kevin Hodgson of Massachussetts is our host for Day 24 of #VerseLove. You can read his full prompt here.

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Kevin says, “Ada Limon’s amazing poem for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission – In Praise of Mystery: A Poem For Europa – often lingers in my mind, particularly as its launch into space is on the horizon in October. The sky is full of inspiration as is the mission of discovery. Her poem has me thinking of constellations, in particular, and how people across time, in different geographic places, have so often gazed up at the night sky and sought connections between the pinpoints of light, and told stories and created poems, and shared experiences.”

Kevin urges us to “consider a constellation as a starting point for a poem. Here is a list of the 88 “official” constellations.”

Connecting the Dots (Lepus the Hare)

on the screen

a couple hops

off a train

in Vienna for

an evening together

strangers taking

a chance on love

~before sunrise~

a palm reader

ambles over in

her flowing dress

and head wrap to

read their destinies

when the stars exploded

billions of years ago

they formed everything

that is this world

everything we know

is stardust, so

don’t forget:

you are stardust…..

you are both stars

then she walks off

into the night

where they go, too,

to do more-than-

stranger-things

before he recites

an Auden poem

the years shall

run like rabbits...

and so I

connect the

dots….{Lepus!}

because

As I Walked Out

One Evening

I saw them

yes, I saw

those rabbits

running like years

through the

meadows of heaven

through this

grassland galaxy

through this

Royal Fortress Meadow

Day 23 of #VerseLove with Anna Roseboro

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Anna Roseboro of Michigan is our host for Day 23 of #VerseLove. You can read her full prompt here. She inspires us to write April Showers Bring May Flowers poems about the idea that good things come from the not-so-good.

Her challenge: Think metaphorically, about a teary time or not so nice incident that preceded or evolved into a cheery time in your life, and then in sixteen lines or fewer, describe the time or incident that could be an affirmation that “Yes, April showers do bring May flowers” or the opposite.

What Makes them Rescues 

their misfortune makes
them rescues ~
the kind 
with serious baggage
where cell phone dings
and the 
smell of heat 
bring flattened-ear,
tucked-tail trembling,
the kind that
gaze into your
eyes, wishing
they could pour out
their story but
certain you
already know

Day 22 of #VerseLove with Donnetta Norris: Earth Day Poems

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Donnetta Norris of Texas is our host today for the 22nd day of #VerseLove. She inspires us to write Mother Earth poems. You can read her full prompt here. She encourages us to make a list of all the gifts we have received from Mother Earth and to write a poem in the form of our choice to say thank you. She also provides these links for inspiration:

Earth Day by Jane Yolk

Earth Day Poems

Ode to Earth Poems

Thank You Poems

Today, I chose a pantoum and rooted it in Ecclesiastes 1:9

Nothing New Pantoum

there is nothing new under the sun

mind-blowing truth of Ecclesiastes

since the dawn of time, nothing new

everything we see was here all along

mind-blowing truth of Ecclesiastes

God hid gifts in Mother Earth’s belly

everything we see was here all along

discovered, spun, re-mixed anew

God hid gifts in Mother Earth’s belly

riches to bestow, wonders to behold

discovered, spun, re-mixed anew

sacred scriptures ~ this is true

riches to bestow, wonders to behold

since the dawn of time, nothing new

sacred scripture ~ this is true

there is nothing new under the sun

Day 21 of #VerseLove with Stacey Joy: Mama’s Kitchen Poems

Stacey Joy is our host today for the 21st day of #VerseLove. You can read her full prompt here. She inspires us to write Mama’s Kitchen Poems.

Kitchens are oftentimes the heartbeat of a home. They are gathering places and hold memories like no other room in a house. Stacey mentions a recent podcast episode featuring legendary author Judy Blume, finding herself mesmerized by Blume’s memories and stories of her mother’s kitchen. If you are interested in listening to that episode, here is the link. 

Next, Stacey shares the process: Let’s share our memories from our mothers’ kitchens, our own kitchens, or any kitchen that holds memories for you. 

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A Lock of Hair

there, hidden in the cakes and pies section

of Mom’s Gold Medal recipe box

with all the family secrets

an unsealed blue envelope

holds tender gold tendrils

~ cherished childhood hair ~

ethereal

long blond strands

of me

steeped

in

love, one

remaining

wisp of a child

blended, kneaded, shaped,

her own recipe for

disaster ~ aproned kitchen

ancestors gather still to check

on this bun baked through all their ovens:

did she fall? did she rise? did she turn out?

Day 20 of #VerseLove with Susan Ahlbrand

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Susan Ahlbrand of Indiana is our host today for the 20th day of #VerseLove. She inspires us to write Noteworthy poems. You can read her full prompt here.

She shares the process for writing these poems: reflect on communications you’ve had in the past . . . notes like mine, phone calls, letters, texts, Facetimes, and then work them into a poem. Feel free to tinker with an inventive form.

Getting the Picture

there was this picture

this picture of a watermelon

A WATERMELON!

a watermelon sliced

sliced like cries

cries of a mother

a mother with cancer

cancer that consumed

consumed her, piece by piece

piece by piece, like a watermelon

like a watermelon, there was

there was this picture

picture a mother

a mother crying for mercy

for mercy denied

denied until the end

the end, after the pain

the pain of loss

loss of a body, loss of a family

a family broken, a shattered picture

picture a mother

a mother who mattered

mattered to her sons

her sons who loved her

loved her and listened

listened and heard

heard her pleas

her pleas for mercy

for mercy denied

denied by others

others who refused

refused to believe

believe she felt pain

pain that consumed, piece by piece

piece by piece consumed their mother

a mother who mattered