Category Archives: Poetry

Prompt Sixteen from Poetry Superhighway

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“April 16, 2022: Poetry Writing Prompt – J R Turek

Write a list poem titled “Everything is Broken” but offer no solutions to fix anything.

If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Super Highway Facebook Group.”

Everything is Broken

The charger that sits on my night table won’t charge my phone.

The curtain that keeps snow off the deck, doesn’t.

The blind in my brother’s room, hangs crooked now.

My pretty green car has scuff marks on the far side where I didn’t see.

The bird feeder, destroyed over and over by something in the night.

***

And then there’s the body:

my heart, my kidneys, my spine, my thumbs, my wrists, my knees.

Everything hurts, everything objects when I try to use it the way I used to do.

Carol A. Stephen

April 16, 2022

NaPoWriMo Prompt 15

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from https://www.napowrimo.net

…”Finally, here’s our daily (optional) prompt. This one may seem counter-intuitive, but today I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about something you have absolutely no interest in. This isn’t quite the same, I think, as something you’re indifferent to. For example, I have absolutely no interest in investment strategy. Anytime anyone tries to tell me about it, I want to put my fingers in my ears and go “lalalalalala.” My brain tries to shut down! This is honestly kind of funny, and I think this prompt has value precisely because it invites you to investigate some of the “why” behind resolutely not giving two hoots about something.”

So, for this prompt, I did have a couple of things that make my mind go blank, but they never really made me write a poem about them…

My Mind Goes Blank

at the mere mention of numbers

that can’t be divided equally, long numbers

the kind you can’t play with in your head.

***

I know how to do the math; just don’t want to,

that is what calculators are for, and mental

calisthenics just hurt my grey matter.

***

Same for physics. No need to go on about

quantum this or theoretical that. Let the experts

twist their theories into ordinary English.

***

Even then. My brain just says, no thanks,

none of that needed or wanted on the voyage.

Even the words lie flat, splat on the page.

***

My mind just goes blank.

Carol A. Stephen

April 23, 2022

April 2022 Poem 14

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Catching up has been more challenging than I expected, with conflicting demands on my time, and recovering from the arm surgery. So, rather than stress and fret to match the daily prompts, I am going to use the occasional poem if I write one, outside that constraint.

Last night at a reading, someone mentioned thinking poetry was something written by dead white men. I sometimes have a quirky sense of humour, and it struck me that writing while, or after, you are dead, might be a rather unattainable goal. I mean, you’re dead, right? That led to this:

Dead Men Don’t Write

poems, or anything else, I suppose—

not about clouds, nor daffodils, nor

the slick silver fish that takes the bait

and flips off the hook, then flips his tail

and disappears below the river’s surface.

***

Dead men don’t write stories, though

there may be tales to tell about them,

rough and tumble tales, oh-my-gosh

that can’t be true stories, and ones

that go bump in the night.

***

Dead men don’t write memoirs,

yet their lives may have been filled

with adventure, fortune, perhaps fame.

Most just lie there, dead in their little plot,

the earth a dark cover above their last rest.

***

Dead men have lost any inclination,

any ability to hold a pen or tap a key.

Their stories have all unfolded, then

folded up again, a soft shroud around

their molder, there in the ground.

Carol A. Stephen

April 22, 2022

April 10 Books, Books, Books

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Prompt from Poetry SuperHighway

April 10, 2022: Poetry Writing Prompt – Elizbeth Marchitti

Write about your knick-knacks, your chatchkes, your Dollar Store finds.  Explain why you can’t quit buying them, and what you think your heirs will do with them when you die.

If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Super Highway Facebook Group. #napowrimo #poetry

Books, Books, Books

In the kitchen. Living room. Bedroom.

By my bed, in the night tables, on two bookshelves.

In boxes along the floor. In my study, outside

my study. And all the e-ones on my Kindle.

Always buying the next best book, but before

it arrives, another one’s in the cart somewhere.

They’ll build a book table, or a chair, arms

resting on poetry books, cookbooks, art books

and history books. Health books, fiction books,

how-to-do something or other books.

Most ironic?

The how-to books on clutter. Most of mine? Books.

Carol A. Stephen

April 10, 2022