PAD Challenge Day #7

Here are my posts for the day. Both are based on real life experiences from today's activities. :-) The two for tuesday prompt was to write a clean poem and/or a dirty poem.

Kids running in the cedar smelling chips
Green slides of every size and twisted shape
spiral down to well-worn holes in the dirt
Blue metal poles that hold them up
covered with bright yellow canopies
Parents help little ones up while older
kids impatiently push right past.

“Wait for me!”
“Here I come!”
“Look out below!”
“I wanna do it again!”

Everyone seems to be having so much fun.
As I watch one little guy wipe his sleeve
across his nose - I can’t help but think
What a giant germ factory!

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

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Ode to the Hygenist

Scrape
Scrape
Scrape
Rinse
Suck
Repeat
Repeat
Repeat
Polish
Rinse
Suck
Whew! My teeth are clean.

PAD Challenge Day #6

I wrote a poem shortly after putting Nicole to bed last night. This morning when I read Robert's prompt I thought that the poem I had written fit beautifully. So, here is today's post - rather early! :-) Maybe I'll even write another later!

She’ll Never Know

just how beautiful she is.
I lie next to her just after
she has fallen asleep.
She has these gorgeous
full, wine-colored lips.
Her nose is so perfectly formed.
Though I’m sure I would never
be able to convince her of
this fact, her complexion
is so flawless, her coloring
so spot-on and her eyelashes
so beautifully long and curly
that she will never really
NEED to wear one drop
of makeup. It’s unfortunate
that we are never really able
to see ourselves through
the eyes of another.

(Don't forget, you can check out all the wonderful poetry posts for yourself at http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/)

PAD Challenge Day #5

Another long day away from home left me brain dead. Or just brain tired anyway. So here is my hastily written contribution to today's PAD.

Yeah Right

Sometimes a landmark
isn't all that helpful.
As for instance when the
landmark offered is
"Turn by the big Mormon church."
when you are in downtown
Salt Lake City, Utah.

PAD Challenge Day #4

We had a long crazy day, so I got the prompt late. This was all I could come up with...but I got it done today!

Cookie

The old man we brought home
You were for me, but you weren’t a “kid” dog
Right away you were mom’s dog

Eventually you tolerated my presence
And over the years you became just one of the family
As you watched other animals arrive and leave

I imagined the speech you gave them –
“I’ve seen ‘em come and I’ve seem ‘em go,
but I’m the king around here.”

You even witnessed my departure
With that practiced eye of yours
I doubt my leaving alarmed you

It was mom you loved and mom you pined for
Those long nights when she was away
Waiting right in the big front window

And she loved you always dearly
Never complaining of your presence at her feet
Mourning for you deeply the day you left this earth

Though you were bought for me
And brought home to be mine
It was mom you were truly meant fo

PAD Challenge Day #3

I had a ton of ideas floating in my brain for today's prompt, but in the end, this is the one that won out:

The Problem With This Wind

is that I feel it will soon
carry me off to the Land of Oz.
And I do not have time today
to deal with overly happy
little people or maniacal
green women with flying
chimps or blissful good fairies
with annoyingly lilting voices.
I just do not have time to mess
with three overly affectionate
men with painted faces dressed
in Halloween costumes and with
a desperate need for therapy.
I simply do not have time for
a long walk down a bumpy
yellow road to a strangely
green glowing city ruled over
by a little man with a napoleon
complex. So I hope this wind
calms down soon because I
purely do not have the time.

And, for fun, (not posted on the PAD blog) here is a limerick that also came to mind:

The problem with shaving my legs
is that I can not reach them.
When the baby arrives
in two months time
then maybe I'll be able to see them.

PAD Challenge Day #2

I struggled at first today with the prompt, but in the end two ideas presented themselves, so again I went with two poems:

Today?

In the mountains for a picnic.
A beautiful day.
I follow the other girls -
doing my best to fit in.
Will today be the day
they will finally accept me?
Someone spots a good hiking trail.
We all rush in one direction.
The girl in front of me trips
over a large stone.
“She pushed me! She pushed me!”
All eyes are on me.
I didn’t push her.
She tripped.
No today is not the day.

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Outsider

"We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings to be fruitful." - C.S. Lewis

Alone among many
crying for truth.
‘There is no such thing,’
they reply with certainty.

‘All is relative.
Tolerate only those
who tolerate.’
Reason spirals downward.

‘Just Say No.’
‘Just Do It.’
The conflicting images
of my formative years.

‘Just give in,
just give up,
just check your brains at the door.’
The majority is the rule.

Though all around
argue against it
I must find the Truth.
In the end it is all that matters.

(Check out all the other poets posts at Poetic Asides!)

April is National Poetry Month. There are all kinds of ways to get in on the celebration of that fact. My own personal contribution will be a repeat of last years Poem-A-Day Challenge at Robert Lee Brewer's blog (check out my cool completion badge here on this page!). Robert is posting a prompt every day during the month of April and the challenge is to complete at least a first draft of a poem for each day based on the prompt. Today's prompt was a poem about an origin. I couldn't decide between two ideas I had, so I posted the following two poems -

Origins

She called seeking answers.

Is this the man’s name?
Yes.
Is this his social security number?
Yes – but who are you?

I think I may bear
a resemblance to the man.
Maybe he and I share
a bit of DNA.

Who is the man?
I think I’d like to meet him.

She came seeking answers.

Do I look like him?
Yes.
Does he want to know me?
Yes.

The greater questions went
unanswered in the end.
Shared DNA aside
too many years had been lost.

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April Fool’s

From whence sprung
this strange custom -
of making a mockery
of fellow man?

Such obscure origins
and no clear indication
as to how it came
to be ingrained tradition.

Suggestions, opinions,
guesses and speculations
run rampant, but none
answer the question.

Perhaps we who consider
ourselves modern folk
and enlightened are in fact
the butt of the biggest joke.

If you aren't into writing a poem every day, but would instead like to read a poem every day (personally, I am all about both) you can check out Poets.org. Not only is that a great website every day of the year, but you can sign up for them to email a poem to you every day in April.

Don't even have time to read a poem a day? How about checking out Poems Out Loud. Here, as the name clearly suggests, you can listen to poems being read out loud by their authors or by former poet laureate Robert Pinsky.

Enjoy National Poetry Month and let me know how you are celebrating!