For a long time now, Tricia at Miss Rumphius Effect, has posted a Monday poetry stretch. I’ve always read them and wanted to get invovlved but then I would get sidetracked. I’ve decided to treat them like Laura’s Photo Poetry posts, as a warm-up for the rest of the day. I finally did one today. The challenge was a prefix poem. I keep reminding myself that revision fixes many things. But here is the first version.
SEMI
—sweet
heart
I am not
very
not often enough
to be confused
with the lady on the corner
who gives homes
to lost kittens and birds with broken wings
bakes cookies for the homeless
and knits tiny blankets for dying
fetal alcohol babies who
can’t stop crying
but I have my good days
and everyone knows that
too much sugar rots your teeth
—formal
wear
makes my skin itch
truly
panty hose is cruel
putting on a skin
two sizes too small
is someone’s idea of fun?
give me bare feet
painted pointed toes
tank tops and worn jeans
the perfect outfit
for the dirt runway
on the way to the garden ball
—wild
flowers—
sometimes won’t sprout
until after a time of great disturbance
like fire
they need the pain to force
the beauty to the surface
without the pain
the beauty that might be
remains hidden
much like the pieces of me
the rest of the world sees
reflected
in all I’ve overcome
to find myself
blooming
when I least expect it
Susan Taylor Brown, all rights reserved
Very nice, all three of them!
Thanks. It was a fun challenge.
Lovely.
Thank you.
Beautiful. I’ll be thinking of this the next time I go off to my own “garden ball.”
I love the image of you travling down the path to your own garden ball. 🙂
So glad you jumped in, Susan. Yes–just a fun exercise. Though a little intimidating to be exercising with the likes of Jane Yolen!
Oh yeah, more than a little intimidating! But lots of fun.
Hurrah! I’m so glad you finally to play. I love the wildflower stanza, especially “sometimes won’t sprout/until after a time of great disturbance/
like fire.” I feel that way a lot these days. I also love the notion of a garden ball.
Thank you, Tricia. I’m going back through your old stretches now and will use them for some Poetry Friday posts for a while.