April PAD: Day 9 "Welcome To High School"

Today's Prompt: For today's prompt, I want you write a poem about a memory. The memory can be good or bad. The memory can be a blend of several memories. I suppose it could even be a memory that you're not sure you remember correctly. Take your time finding a good one (or good ones).

Welcome to High School

Tenth grade
Right after lunch
we enter the room
for an hour of intense learning

What I remember most
is that feeling
on the first day of class
when our teacher said
our tests would be
open notes

I can't recall
but I must have smiled
if only to myself

The notes I took
all year long
were thorough, quite complete

and yet

as I sat
in that same chair
looking down
at each exam
the memory
of my inner smile
of my naive joy
rushed back to me
and the fear plunged deeper
as I realized
again and again
that it's only open notes
because it didn't really help

April P.A.D. Day 8

Wow, I actually managed to do it! It almost didn't happen, considering I've been struggling to get my computer working like it should for this new project I'm on. I'm commuting 30 minutes for the first time since the summer of 2000, and while I'm on the job, I'm struggling with a system that doesn't want to work for me! What a pain! And so in the evenings, after putting the boys to bed, I'm trying to get the computer fixed, and it hasn't happened yet. So yes, I am surprised that I managed to get this written.

Today's Prompt: For today's prompt, I want you to write a poem about either a specific routine or routines in general. Maybe something related to taking out the trash each week or washing the dishes every night--or something more bizarre (yet still a routine).

Here's what I managed to spit out... I know, not particularly creative. At best, I managed to rhyme. Sorry. I'll try harder next time...I hope!

Weeknights

I put the kids
to bed each night
a little after eight

I head downstairs
to watch tv
relax and vegetate

A happy time
A restful time
Two hours just for me

Forgetting work
Forgetting kids
De-stressing, being free

The clock ticks on,
approaching ten,
When I should head upstairs

Sleep awaits
But much to do
Before I can get there

Let out the dog,
make lunches three,
And clean what has been messed

And once upstairs
there's more to do
before I get to rest

wear my pj's
brush my teeth
make sure the kids are fine

so once again
I dread the ten
And the end of resting time

For once I sleep
It starts again
Restart the daily grind

Until, of course,
The weekend
When we all get to unwind

Poem-A-Day: Day 7

Today is our first "Two for Tuesday" prompt of the month. On these days, I offer two prompts. Don't worry: You don't need to write a poem for each prompt (but you're more than welcome to if you feel up to the challenge).

Prompt #1: I want you to write a clean poem. Take this however you wish. Clean language, clean subject matter, or cleaning the dishes. Of course, some twisted few will automatically link "cleaning" with hired hitmen. That's okay, as long as your poem is somehow linked to clean.

Prompt #2: I want you to write a dirty poem. Take all that stuff I wrote in the first prompt and twist it upside down. The opposite of clean is dirty; so, do what ya gotta do to produce a dirty poem. (Gosh, I hope this challenge doesn't get too messy as a result.)

My Poem: Untitled

A baby's voice, so clear and clean
The gentle babble so sweet
How fun to interpret those first words
To figure out what they meant

And just a few years later
The only thing that I hear
Their favorite words all seem to be
related to excrement

Poem-A-Day: Day 6

Today's Prompt: For today's poem, I want you to write a poem about something missing. It can be about an actual physical object or something you just can't put your finger on (like "love" or "the spirit of Christmas" or something).

Here's mine, which I forgot to title when I posted it, but my working title is:

Abstract Amber Alert

I used to want to save the world,
I used to be so sure
I always could tell right from wrong
And evil versus pure

And then when I had children
I found the lines had blurred
What seemed so right at twenty
Now seems quite absurd

I want to teach them tolerance
Of everyone around
While teaching them all how to live
a lifestyle safe and sound

Is there a way for me to walk
along so thin a line
And end up with that confidence
That for now is not mine?

April PAD 5

For today's prompt, I want you to write a poem about a landmark. It can be a famous landmark (like Mount Rushmore or the Sphinx) or a little more subdued (like the town water tower or an interesting sign).


A Landmark Decision

She watches as her children play
A well-earned afternoon off
The BlackBerry buzzes, and she responds
Her life is balanced enough.

Her lingering doubt about her choice
fades at moments like these.
This is why they did what they did
Though the choice was not made with ease

A sigh of relief crosses her lips
That the choice was hers to make
When she needed control over her life,
Control many wish to take.

She pondered where her life might be,
Would she now work on Wall Street
Or maybe she'd still be a waitress
struggling to make ends meet

Where would she be now
If the right choice weren't made
in the decision in the landmark case
of Roe v. Wade?

April Poem-A-Day

For today’s prompt, I want you to pick an animal; make that animal the title of your poem; then, write a poem. You could be very general with your animal title (“Bees” or “Lion”) or specific (“Flipper” or “Lassie”). You could even be very silly with something like “Tony, the Tiger,” I guess (that tiger on the cereal box).


Squirrel

Enemy of dogs
Bushy tailed nut collector
Runs across my lawn

April Poem-A-Day: Day 3

Today's prompt: Take the phrase "The problem with (blank)" and replace the "(blank)" with a word or phrase. Make this the title of your poem and then write a poem to fit with or juxtapose against that title. For instance, you could have poems with the titles of "The problem with government," "The problem with advanced mathematics," or "The problem with bipolar penguins." You know the drill: have fun, be creative.

The Problem With Optimism

I want to have a crappy day
The weather fits my mood
But since I have to stay inside
With friends I'll have good food

I want to be all bitchy
The kids are driving me mad
But look how well they get along
and it's good they have a sane dad

I'm overwhelmed at work today
Too many tasks are due
But I guess I don't have to do laundry
Until my work is through

I dipped my hair in syrup
Got my hand pooped on by a bird
My kid needed a diaper change
The situation was absurd

But the day was warm and sunny
And the kids and I played outside
And when he handed me fifth row tickets
I was certainly surprised

Forget the glass half full crap
I'm grateful for the glass
If you hate your life, then change it
Or, accept it with some class

The problem with being an optimist
Is that you see the best in life
Which is fine as you live day to day
But a writer needs some strife

April Poem-A-Day: Day 2

Today's Prompt: Today, I want you to write an outsider poem. You can be the outsider; someone else can be the outsider; or it can even be an animal or inanimate object that's the outsider. As usual, get creative with the prompt and don't be afraid to stretch the limits.

And my poem (which, I admit, is borrowing from a story I've previously written):

Seeking Tolerance

I only wanted to stay warm
And find a place to rest
But the loud noise startled me
And now I am a pest

You stayed away another day
I thought you'd welcomed me
Instead you set out mothballs,
which smells painfully bad to me

I cannot help biology
I wish you'd let me stay
I'll eat mice and other vermin
And try not to spray

Although it is my only defense
I know it has no place
But perhaps we could coexist
If you'd just accept my race

Instead I wander aimlessly
Surviving, hungry and sad
It's hard to be a skunk in the suburbs
When your disappearance makes people glad

Poem a Day

So today starts the Poem-a-Day Challenge (create one poem each day this month based on the poetry prompt provided at this site.

Today's prompt: "I want you to write an origin poem. It can be the origin of a word, person, plant, idea, etc. Have fun with it."

So, here's my poem:


Conficktion

It started with a fear
that he would die alone
but more than that,
that he would die unknown.
Alone before his screen
he typed in solitude;
his antisocial tendencies
left his manners crude.
But still he yearned for more,
some credit, some attention,
and so he wrote an app,
an innovative invention.
But it wasn't quite enough
the popularity it did gain,
for he remained unknown
and that did cause him pain.
He sulked, until his thoughts
reached a dastardly thread:
instead of a popular app,
a virus he would spread.
And so began his life
as a computer hacker,
and night after night he coded
a veritable peace attacker.