PAD Challenge - Day 28 - Rose Petal Stones

The prompt for WD 2014 April PAD Challenge Day 28 is to write a settled poem. I like to read the prompt early in the morning and then go about my business while I let the prompt settle into my thoughts, find a place to resonate, and then bring forth something I can write. Today, I felt slightly unsettled by this prompt because nothing started churning for awhile. Then it hit me. I wrote a poem, but I wasn't happy with it. I pushed it to the background on my screen and worked on some other projects. Then a power failure occurred, and the poem was lost. I had to start over. The initial thoughts I had about roses and stones was still there, so I went with it. So, in reality, I wrote two poems for this prompt though one of this has disappeared forever...

Here's my settled poem...

Rose Petal Stones

You scattered your love on my heart
Like rose petals on flowing water
Where it settled into the sediment
Like stones skipped across a creek
Your love found residence in the creek bed
Of my overflowing heart
Rose petals turned to stone
Stony garnet rose petals
Sparkling amongst the sediment
Left behind after previous droughts
Where love turned to dust
When I settled for less
Today I cried tears that washed away the debris
Revealing the delicate rose petal love stones
Flowing out of the tributaries of my heart
Floating like rose petals
With the staying power of stones
I’ll settle for nothing less than

Rose petal stones
T. L. Cooper is an author and poet whose work aims to empower and inspire through an exploration of the human condition. Her poems, short stories, articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her published books include a collection of short stories, Soaring Betrayal, her Silhouette Poetry Series, and a novel, All She Ever Wanted. She grew up on a farm in Tollesboro, Kentucky. She currently lives in Albany, Oregon with her husband and three cats.

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