Write with TLC

Today is the last day of the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge , and the prompt is appropriately to write a calling it a day poem. There are lots of ways to look at endings. I'm one of those people who always look for the new beginning waiting behind the ending - well, at least eventually. I thought about endings and clocks and calendars. I thought about the sun and the moon. I thought about life's beginnings and endings - there are many and they often seem never ending as we transition through life. I've come to accept transition in my life as not such a bad thing. It is after all, life itself... As I approached this poem I thought not only about this being the end of the Writer's Digest, but also the end of my challenge to share my experience with the Writer's Digest PAD Challenge on my blog every day. I actually thought it would be harder than it has been... But, we shall now call the day on this project. I hope you've enjoyed it. Here is my poem for the call...

It's Two for Tuesday over on the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge , so we've got two prompts to inspire our poetic musings for Day 29... The two prompts are to write a realism poem and a magical poem... An interesting thing happened this morning as I began to think about these two prompts. I got the song I'll Fight For You by Foreigner stuck in my head, which reminded me of the last time I heard that song. It angered me. I used to love this song, but, man, did it strike a nerve the other day... I wanted to shout at it "Don't fight for me, love for me." I've come to believe that if you have to fight for someone to be in your life, you're better off without them. I want people in my life who are willing to love for me - love when things get tough, love when there's news to celebrate, love when we feel like we're drifting apart, love when life is mundane.... If we have to fight to love or if we force someone to fight to love us, we set up an adver...

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 i...

For Day 27 of the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge, the prompt is to write a monster poem... I immediately knew I wanted to write about inner monsters, and started thinking about how our inner monsters can destroy what we want in life. I began to think about the havoc any "supernatural" being an wreak given proper motivation but also how sometimes there's a thin line between facing the truth and creating drama... Anyway, here's the result... Hope you enjoy! Monsters Meet Love me Like my vampire teeth never drained blood from your veins Like my wendigo jaw never ripped out your heart Like my werewolf howl never pierced your spirit Like the ghost of my past never possessed your soul Like my zombie stupor never infected your mind Like my demon fire never burned all your dreams for us to ashes Like my medusa revenge never turned you to stone Like my mermaid song never seduced your passion Like my witch divination never revealed your deception Like ...

Stratton Pond EKU Richmond, Kentucky We've reached Day 26 of the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge! Today's prompt was to write a water poem... Confession time: water appears in my poetry often in it's various forms - water, ice, the sea, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, waterfalls, storms, rain, snow...I love the symbolism water offers and the inspiration of water itself. So, here's my latest water poem... Water Safe Silent water Still water Secret water Safe water You drank my secrets Like you were dying of thirst Absorbing them through your surface With a gluttony unmatched While I fed you ever more Until you contained more of me than I I stared into your silence I searched your stillness I sought your secrecy I needed your safety Perhaps the secrets you drank evaporated To be rained down on some foreign land To feed souls in need of the nourishment Cultivated in the secrets you so quietly gulped For a secret can’t be lock...

It's hard to believe we're already on Day 25 of the WD 2014 April PAD Challenge . When I read this morning's prompt, write a last straw poem, my first thought was "You took the last straw first" which on its face confused me, but the thought stuck with me all day. Finally I decided to just go with it. Here's the resulting poem... Last Straw First You took the last straw first My heart ached because Your greed made you jump To the end Before we even began I lamented your decision as you Chewed the straw trying to release All the moments that should have come before You tried to convince me One straw was same as the next But the reality is we both know When you take the last straw first You cheat yourself out of the joy Of all the straws leading to the climax Held within the final straw So maybe next time you’ll Leave the last straw until last…

Today's WD 2014 April PAD Challenge poetry prompt, Tell It to the..., intrigued me. Again, there were so many ways I could go with this one, but, to be honest, an idea jelled pretty soon after I read the prompt this morning. It's funny how some days the prompt just takes me for a nice gentle stroll, other days it smacks me down, and some days I pull on its leash while it refuses to take a single step forward until I finally give the leash some slack. This was a gentle stroll day through a meadow kind of day... :-) Here's my Tell It to the... poem... Tell It to the Heart My brain hears your words But my heart can’t make sense of them They resonate on a wavelength my heart can’t find Riding a storm of promise Through the sunshine of doubt On a broken branch of logic Leaving me like a hayfield waving in the wind I long for your words to be cut and dried To feed this aching heart the sustenance it desires Next time you wish to appeal your crime...