For JusJoJan day 20, we are prompted to write about humor. I’m not really in a laughing mood, so here’s this little verse:
One must make depression risible,
To avoid being all miserable.
image found on Pinterest, no copyright infringement intended
Eating Disorder Recovery
Gravity (Defying)
For JusJoJan day 12, the prompt word is “gravity”. I am also sharing this with poetry pantry #2.
Gravity pushes down on my body,
Makes me feel weighted —
It took a while ’til it got bothersome;
But looking back I see
No wonder I wanted to sing,
Large voice soaring above my body.
No wonder I fantasized about being
Elphaba, brazenly declaring
“Nobody is ever gonna bring me down.”
Water Under the Bridge?
For the final prompt in the Imaginary Garden, we are revisiting some of the best prompts throughout the years. I chose to write (again) to Sanaa’s prompt about water.
All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.
– Toni Morrison
If all water has a perfect memory,
And my body is 75% water,
Is my memory 75% perfect,
And 25% unsure?
My memory, gaslit,
Is imperfect yet legitimate:
My body remembers
What the mind can’t fathom
In depths of horror.
Is it water under the bridge?
Is it running through 75%
Of the same rivulets,
Memory trying to be made pure?
When the Past Echoes
There seems to be
No organization —
Yesterday is today
Tomorrow is last week
(Tomorrow is bleak) —
Fifty years from now
Is a second ago,
And three years
Three hundred fifty-
Nine days ago
That was is yesterday.
I hope this fits the prompt well enough for DVerse Poetics: Echo.
My Story
I wasn’t going to post my response to this prompt, but I kind of like the resulting stream-of-consciousness poem. We are using the following image as bits of inspiration. The picture is called My Story and is by Karina Llergo.
One book, flipping open across my spine,
Flapping facing backward, paper wings:
Another tome hovers like a hummingbird
Open away from my face.
What I have read is printed on
My body, this paper-thin skin,
As a magnifying glass scrutinizes
My hip. I have closed my eyes.
My legs are turning into rain,
With water-drops becoming red,
Becoming relief for a tree, becoming ink.
I write what I have read.
I give what I have lived.
But I plant one tree, one tree:
Growing a little more beauty.
Update: I am sharing this with DVerse Open Link Night.
To Change
This prompt from Real Toads, Just One Word: Burnished, was difficult today, but here is my attempt. It’s good to try something I’m not necessarily used to.
Do not shrink from the friction or the fire,
To live unburnished is to lack a shine.
The fear is true, yet I am no liar,
It is worth the pain to metal refine,
And it’s the same with hearts and minds, listen —
The surfaces and inside will glisten
To change is hard but start — this is your sign.
Mocha Ice Cream With Peanut Butter
brings me back to my childhood —
not because I indulged in this flavor back then
(I didn’t even think of it
as indulging,
just eating) —
but because I loved ice cream, innocent
and happy.
And it didn’t matter if ice cream loved me
back —
The situation is much more, much too
complicated now.
I wrote this poem a few weeks ago and am sharing it for the first time with Jade’s prompt for DVerse Poetics about food. There is so much I could write on this topic. By the way, if you’ve never tried peanut butter on top of ice cream, you should try it; it’s my favorite!
