NaPoWriMo April 4, 2018

Today’s prompt from NaPoWriMo reads as follows:

“And now for our (optional) daily prompt. Our craft resource today focuses on the use of concrete nouns and specific details, using the idea of “putting a dog in it.” Today, we challenge you to write a poem that is about something abstract – perhaps an ideal like “beauty” or “justice,” but which discusses or describes that abstraction in the form of relentlessly concrete nouns. Adjectives are fine too! For example, you could have a poem about sadness that describes that emotion as “a rowboat tethered with fishing line to a willow that leans over a pond. Rainwater collects in the bottom, and mosquito eggs.” Concrete details like those can draw the reader in and let them imagine the real world where your abstract ideal or feeling happens. Happy writing!”

There is no Dog in this Poem

You ask me:
to describe pleasure, baffled
by its abstraction, a simple dictionary
definition equally abstract.

So I ask you:
To imagine the ripest pineapple, its tender
flesh, the intense sweetness as your teeth
crush the fruit, drawing out each
drop of luscious juice.

Imagine heat
the sun on bared flesh, as you
discard the clothes of winter, raise
your face to feel the warmth
of early May on your left cheek.

Imagine cool
a hot day in August, as you
slide into a turquoise sparkle
of a southern sea, the damp sand
and entwined footprints along the whitest beach.

Imagine a Siamese cat
nose tucked under tail tip, curled
in an afternoon sunbeam, humming
its deepest purr song.
You will have my answer.

Carol A. Stephen, April 4, 2018

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