I figured we all needed a break from mental health for a day. So, since April is not only A-to-Z Blog a Day Challenge Month, Poetry Month, BUT also NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month), I’m trying to write a poem a day, following these prompts. I’ve done a few, not in order, however, but whenever my muse taps me on the shoulder and drops a few good lines into my lap. Enjoy!
April 1/Day One (which I just wrote today, April 12):
Write a lune, a poem with a 5-3-5 structure (either words or syllables):
I, too, run here blindly
Trusting my feet
Since cataracts cover my heart
April 3/Day 3
Write a poem that is a fan letter to a hero or celebrity. Martina Navratilova’s autobiography, published in the summer of 1985 gave me hope and courage when I felt very alone.
Dear Martina Navratilova,
Love. Love.
That’s the score, right?
Add.
Add-in. Add-out.
Out. Let.
Long.
Rush the net.
Backhand.
Overhead
Smash.
Summer.
1985.
I learned a new language.
Reading you.
Thank you.
Sincerely.
April 4/Day 4
In the spirit of TS Eliot’s The Waste Land, write a poem about the cruelest month.
March is the cruelest month.
I am drenched
In fish and scales–
Watery.
Nearly asphyxiated
Then. Pulled
From the warm
Sloshing where I could
Hear your heart swish,
my own steady with
your beat.
My surrogate,
You cut the cord
And left me to
To nourish myself,
To find breath
On my own.
With gills.
April 5/Day 5
We were supposed to write about heirloom seeds—I wrote about weeds and how what we see isn’t always what it seems. Heirloom seed-like-ish.
Monsters skulk at the garden’s edge
Ten feet tall and hairy
Momma said I shouldn’t cry—
He wasn’t really scary
Dangers lurk in the fertile ground
And nourish dormant seeds
Fallow fields lie quiet now
But soon there will be weeds
I’m currently working on a Family Portrait poem so I can cross Day 2 off my list and move on to Days 6-12. Stay tuned for another mental health break in the not to distant.
Pamela Helberg 