As promised in my previous blog post, here is the fourth set of poems I’ve written for the 14th annual Poem-A-Day Challenge as organized by Writer’s Digest. Even though every day has its own unique prompt, I am focusing on “travel” as an overarching theme because I’ve missed traveling so much this past year.
Day 16 PAD Prompt: “Write a city poem. You can make the title of your poem the name of a city and write your poem. Or you can mention a city in your poem. And, of course, you can just set your poem in a city without naming which one it is.”
GALVESTON In Galveston, where gulf greets land, waves crest and ebb against the sand while tanned beachcombers nurse their beers and tourists scrounge for souvenirs in offbeat shops along the Strand. A greedy seagull’s shrill demand competes with music from a band as locals fish off seawall piers in Galveston. But there is more to understand from neighborhoods both plain and grand built and rebuilt across the years. Through hurricanes, life perseveres sustained by human heart and hand in Galveston. Poetic Form of Choice: English rondeau, a thirteen-line poem divided into three stanzas of 5, 4, and 6 lines with only two rhymes throughout and with the opening words of the first line used as a refrain at the end of the second and third stanzas (aabba aabR aabbaR) © 2021 F. E. Greene
Day 17 PAD Prompt: “Write a waiting poem. It can involve any interpretation of waiting. Waiting in line at the store or for a package in the mail or whatever else someone (or something) might wait for.”
ANTICIPATION The hardest part of doing is when nothing can be done, but the task is not yet finished, and the race is far from run. We hover at the starting mark. We languish in the queue. Is life a series of delays we’re meant to suffer through? We cross days off our calendars. We pace the waiting room. But isn’t life its own sojourn between cradle and tomb? If I am waiting, let me wait like waiting is the prize— one eye upon the timepiece, one eye upon the skies. For the sweetest part of waiting is anticipation, and the task is never finished until the race is run. Poetic Form of Choice: Ballad quatrains with ABCB rhyme scheme © 2021 F. E. Greene
Day 18 PAD Prompt: Write an ekphrastic poem which is a poem based on another work of art (painting, photograph, sculpture, mixed media, etc.).
THE WATER LILLIES It isn’t just your construct of colors – abstract dabs, subtle brushstrokes defining a lane, a lake, a haystack or a bridge spanning a garden pond. It’s also how you noticed the glow, a luminosity in what’s common where light elevates the everyday, each masterpiece concealed in a moment. Poetic Form of Choice: Free verse with alliteration and assonance © 2021 F. E. Greene
Day 19 PAD Prompt: “Write a poem with an animal in the title. Titles like “Counting Sheep,” “Beside the White Chickens,” and “Horse” would all qualify.”
A CAT’S (DIS)ADVANTAGE I would not wish for nine lives, not even two or three— one is enough to comprehend a life’s complexity. One life to learn my lessons, to wake and work and tire; one life to celebrate and mourn is all that I require. Poetic Form of Choice: Ballad quatrains with ABCB rhyme scheme and alliteration © 2021 F. E. Greene
Day 20 PAD Prompt: “For this Two-for-Tuesday prompt: Write a love poem and/or write an anti-love poem.”
ASPECTS OF LOVE (in three cinquains) I loved those long summers time spreading like the sea always someone to help or hug – agape. ~~~~~ You leave your door open even when you are out offering respite in your home – xenia. ~~~~~ We talk about nothing the rest would understand but to us, it is clear as day – philia. Poetic Form of Choice: Cinquain (five lines with syllable count of 2/4/6/8/2) © 2021 F. E. Greene
F. E. Greene 