As promised in my previous blog post, here is the fifth 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 21 PAD Prompt: “Take the phrase “(blank) Me,” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.
REMIND ME… …what it was like to rise early— house martins twittering busily outside my open window while dawn crawled up the eastern sky, cool air faintly infused with old loam and dew-damp grass …of those unabridged mornings— unrushed and puttering about the house until nine-thirty (or maybe ten) when a half-hour’s drive down the A452 found me traversing castle gates, imagination igniting …how it felt to cross the inner court and climb the northwest tower— Warwickshire broadening before me, its montage of poppies, cottages, drowsy cattle and country lanes snaking between fields ripe for walking Poetic Form of Choice: Free verse with alliteration and assonance © 2021 F. E. Greene
Day 22 PAD Prompt: “Write a nature poem. Write about the natural world if you like, but don’t be afraid to delve into human nature or the nature of love.”
A CONVERSATION WITH C. S. LEWIS CHIEFLY ON THE MALVERN HILLS From your prep-school days, you strolled these slopes, a fact I learned only after I discovered them, grew to love them. No, not love. Venerate. Revere. In fact, I observed that lone gas lamp flocked with ferns – a paradox of location, if not purpose – without knowing you noticed it, too, immortalizing the mismatch of metal and grass in your stories of wardrobes, fauns, and winters. Did you worship here also? Find sanctuary among the bogs and hollows? Wander with aimless intent across pebbled trails tipping like roller-coaster rails into oblivion? Did you? I do. Alone, mostly. Alone, I can listen until the stories emerge, adventures whispering themselves into existence amid clefts and divots sequestered beneath the beacons stippled with bedstraw and foxgloves strung like bells from sturdy stalks. Were you captured? Haunted? Inspired? I was – even before I learned you walked here, too. Poetic Form of Choice: Free verse with alliteration, assonance, and consonance © 2021 F. E. Greene
Day 23 PAD Prompt: “Write an appointment poem. My first thoughts with appointments conjure up visions of doctors, dentists, and parent-teacher conferences. But there are also business meetings and romantic dates.”
FATE’S DIARY When we make an appointment, We make a pact with Fate; We trust saints will preserve us Till that specific date. Although we vow to honor Each earnest guarantee, Fate makes a pact with no one— Who knows where we shall be? Poetic Form of Choice: The style of Emily Dickinson © 2021 F. E. Greene
Day 24 PAD Prompt: “Write a question poem. You can make the title of your poem a question and use the poem to answer it. Or make the title the answer and the poem the question. Or end your poem on a question.”
A VAIN INQUIRY How did the moon reply when the monuments of humankind asked her to shine less brightly? Poetic Form of Choice: Cinquain (five lines with syllable count of 2/4/6/8/2) © 2021 F. E. Greene
Day 25 PAD Prompt: For today’s prompt, write a thought poem that captures a thought or random ramblings running ’round your cranium. It doesn’t have to be a rambling poem, but that’s one thing. Another possibility is having two people share their thoughts with each other and/or NOT share them.
SEASIDE IDYLL Prone to overthinking, I now must think some more. Truthfully, I’d rather ramble along the shore— quench my cogitations churning endlessly, surrender introspections as ashes to the sea; allow the halcyon chorus of ever-cresting swells to dispel my musings like sedimented shells. Poetic Form of Choice: Ballad quatrains with ABCB rhyme scheme, alliteration, and assonance © 2021 F. E. Greene
Follow this link to the Writer’s Digest website and see the details for the 2021 PAD Challenge.
F. E. Greene 