PAD Challenge Day #30

Whoa! What?!? Day 30? It's over? Where did this month go?

Today's prompt was, appropriately, a farewell poem. I came up with two:

good-bye

was something never said
you were there and then
you weren’t

i wasn’t even aware
at first

suddenly – awkwardly –
i realized you were
gone

absconded
with a piece of my heart

does this mean you
never meant to go?

or that you mean
never to return?

------------------------------------------------------------

In The End

This cliché
all is said and done
seems so all encompassing

How do you know
you have said all
there is to say?

How do you know
you have done all
that can be done?

Could just one more
word change the course
of history?

Could a simple
act reverse the trajectory
of a life?

In the end who’s to say
that ALL
is said and done?

PAD Challenge Day #29

Okay, I am finally done with my catch-up game! Here is my post for the prompt to write a poem beginning "Never (blank)."

Never sleep with snakes

some may think it goes
without saying
but it seems that many
need a warning

getting all chummy
with vipers
could lead to some serious
bodily harm

PAD Challenge Day #28

I'm not proud of it, but here is my sestina for Day #28. I wasn't going to write a sestina (since the two-for-tuesday prompt left an option for writing an anti-sestina poem), but then this idea came up and I ran with it. I'd like to rewrite it, but that's the beauty of the PAD Challenge - first drafts are the whole idea! :-)

The Girl

Once upon a time she dreamed
of fairy tale princesses and castles
and held aloft the idea
that one day her prince charming
would ride in on his white horse
and carry her off to happily ever after.

It was not long after
she first dreamed those dreams
that a pretender on a fake horse
came along with stories of his castle.
His entire demeanor was charming
so she really had no idea

that all of his so-called romantic ideals
were not really what he was after.
Until the day that he lost all his charm
and shattered her innocent dreams.
So she locked up her heart in a castle
and swore off any man riding horses.

She went to work on a ranch with horses
with only a prayer and the idea
that no one lives in castles
anymore and there is no happily ever after.
But somewhere deep in her heart a dream
still survived involving a man quite charming.

But though many still tried to charm
her, she felt more at home with her horses
and buried quite deep those dreams
until she became very comfortable in the idea
that she would live alone hereafter
and never more thought of castles.

Until the day she realized a castle
can come in the form of a charming
ranch house – it was only after
she saw him ride in on a quarter horse
that she finally understood the idea
that a cowboy could be the man of her dreams.

She followed the dream to his castle
and gave over to the idea that real charm
can be found on any color horse and lived happily ever after.

PAD Challenge Day #27

The prompt for day 27 was a poem of longing:

not knowing

the life that was there
now suddenly gone
why so soon?

now I’ll never know

the color your eyes held
the length of your nose
the feel of your breath on my neck
the sound of your tiny voice

PAD Challenge Day #26

what?

i love you, he said
i love you, too, she said
neither one of them
had a clue what
the other was
talking about

PAD Challenge Day #25

Still playing catch-up. The prompt for Day 25 was to write a poem about an event. Here is the best I could come up with - it is based on a song I heard earlier today and that really seemed to hit home today.

30th Birthday

“I've done some growing up
and I'm still growing up
so I know I'll never be
as smart as I once was
that was back
Back when the world was flat and
mama and daddy didn't have a clue
…
Lord I'm learning so much more than
back when I knew it all”
-Montgomery Gentry
Back When I Knew It All

the day is approaching fast
the third decade almost done
years speeding by in a blur

the first decade
is something of a mystery
many memories just beyond reach

the second decade
was loaded with difficulty
as hormones raged and loyalties changed

the third decade
has been full of lessons
some hard, some wonderful, all necessary

the fourth decade
lies ahead with promise
what glorious truths await to be found

PAD Challenge Day #24

Okay, I am really having to play catch-up. The last few days have been something of a blur. Here is my poem for day 24 - the prompt is a travel poem.

leaving

heat radiated from the pavement
sweat trickled down the end of my nose
as I walked down the asphalt road
I felt the rubber at the bottom
of my Vans sink into the blacktop

my back was sticky and wet
the backpack was getting heavy
dragging me down with the
weight of the world
I was leaving behind

a sound caught a current
of the breeze and made me
lift my head to look behind
a car was coming – just a speck
on the horizon – growing

I continued trudging as it rolled
toward me – within very little
time it was upon me and then
just as quickly it was gone on
down the road to wherever I was going