Warm up exercise for April PAD 2011
OK, I got a great crew going so far in this. Celeste, Jessica, Don, and Joy. This is a great core of writing and potential writing talent that is assembled. Very much an nWo styled clique, or perhaps a new Rat Pack for the 21st century. Man, if you got the five us in the same room, it would be the center of the party. The best conversations, the loudest laughter, the most glances given in hopes of being caught in our eyes. The wit of the staircase, so to speak.
Room for one more... or two... think it over. Would love to have you aboard...
The challenge begins on April 1, 2011, but in the interim, founder Robert Lee Brewer has given out a warm up exercise. I'm all for that. I'm interval training for a 5k next May, so I'm all for this:
For this week's prompt, write a spring poem.
Now, if you go to his page, you will see what he did with that prompt, and his style of how he presents is how I plan on presenting for the contest. However, until I write what I need to write. I have to stop reading his posts. Why? Because I am trying to not be too easily influenced in what I write. If he wrote a poem about a red wagon, I would start thinking about red wagons. The trick with everything I am trying to do is to bring a slant, a view, and a verve to a subject. I cannot create in a vaccum, but like everyone else, I am a reflection of influence. There have been events, people, media, and experiences that have shaped me. The trick to being successful, not just in writing but in your life, is to not parrot this, but to evolve with it. It took me a real long time to stop being a parrot and starting singing my own song. That's what life is all about.
But back to the poem topic...
This winter was a rough one where I was learning to dealing with depression and working through it in therapy. I came face to face with my darkest parts, and learned to start disassembling every part of me in order to get a grasp of the big picture. So when I think of winter, I think of a season leading into spring. When I think of this past winter, I think of personal darkness. So as I go into a new spring, a spring that will feel more warm and alive than any other I have ever known, I need to bring this experience to a milestone. To do that, I am going to write this poem from the vantage point of a winter...
I am still in the air
Trying to bring down a cold comfort
Designed to numb the senses
But as the sun rises higher and higher
I know my days are numbered
The days of darkness are my room and board
For where the darkness exists
I thrive
Where there is no life, no growth, no warmth
I exist
When your day to day world needed change
I provided a new color and brightness to the canvas
I brought the means of evolution to the trees and seeds
I gave the air a new quality
And you appreciated my initial gifts
But when you allow change
You also invite discourse
When you allow discourse
You also sent out an invitation to
The disintegration of the familiar patterns
I covered your world with my strongest gifts
Of cold, of ice, of wind, of snow
I tried to comfort you with the only blanket
The only means of providence I can give
For like you, I also have my limitations
When the light has left your eyes
I remain your only constant, your only companion
Do not blame me for what you are feeling
Your experiences through should be no surprise
For I exist as I am without any air of mystery
But life doesn't exist in one state,
And it seldom stands in one place for long
As the sun continues to rise
My means and methods are in tatters
And there is nothing I can do for you anymore
Something new is growing and rising
And what once was old is new again
There comes that moment of realization
Your world has always been, and always will be,
Nothing more than a constant changing of the seasons
J.
http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/2011/03/23/WednesdayPoetryPrompts128.aspx
Room for one more... or two... think it over. Would love to have you aboard...
The challenge begins on April 1, 2011, but in the interim, founder Robert Lee Brewer has given out a warm up exercise. I'm all for that. I'm interval training for a 5k next May, so I'm all for this:
For this week's prompt, write a spring poem.
Now, if you go to his page, you will see what he did with that prompt, and his style of how he presents is how I plan on presenting for the contest. However, until I write what I need to write. I have to stop reading his posts. Why? Because I am trying to not be too easily influenced in what I write. If he wrote a poem about a red wagon, I would start thinking about red wagons. The trick with everything I am trying to do is to bring a slant, a view, and a verve to a subject. I cannot create in a vaccum, but like everyone else, I am a reflection of influence. There have been events, people, media, and experiences that have shaped me. The trick to being successful, not just in writing but in your life, is to not parrot this, but to evolve with it. It took me a real long time to stop being a parrot and starting singing my own song. That's what life is all about.
But back to the poem topic...
This winter was a rough one where I was learning to dealing with depression and working through it in therapy. I came face to face with my darkest parts, and learned to start disassembling every part of me in order to get a grasp of the big picture. So when I think of winter, I think of a season leading into spring. When I think of this past winter, I think of personal darkness. So as I go into a new spring, a spring that will feel more warm and alive than any other I have ever known, I need to bring this experience to a milestone. To do that, I am going to write this poem from the vantage point of a winter...
I am still in the air
Trying to bring down a cold comfort
Designed to numb the senses
But as the sun rises higher and higher
I know my days are numbered
The days of darkness are my room and board
For where the darkness exists
I thrive
Where there is no life, no growth, no warmth
I exist
When your day to day world needed change
I provided a new color and brightness to the canvas
I brought the means of evolution to the trees and seeds
I gave the air a new quality
And you appreciated my initial gifts
But when you allow change
You also invite discourse
When you allow discourse
You also sent out an invitation to
The disintegration of the familiar patterns
I covered your world with my strongest gifts
Of cold, of ice, of wind, of snow
I tried to comfort you with the only blanket
The only means of providence I can give
For like you, I also have my limitations
When the light has left your eyes
I remain your only constant, your only companion
Do not blame me for what you are feeling
Your experiences through should be no surprise
For I exist as I am without any air of mystery
But life doesn't exist in one state,
And it seldom stands in one place for long
As the sun continues to rise
My means and methods are in tatters
And there is nothing I can do for you anymore
Something new is growing and rising
And what once was old is new again
There comes that moment of realization
Your world has always been, and always will be,
Nothing more than a constant changing of the seasons
J.
http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/2011/03/23/WednesdayPoetryPrompts128.aspx
posted by Jim Steinhoff at
8:47 AM
2 Comments:
ok Jim, here's mine (a short one) for the day:
the purple on the altar
seems a strangely sexy color scheme
for the austere season of Lent
I should be meditating on the woman at the well
but Prince floats, unbidden,
into my thoughts
interupting Pastor’s sermon with
a song circa 1984
Man, that is sweet! I liked where you took the prompt. Again, you are gifted when it comes to writing something that both changes the readers view, but also taking them somewhere personal as well. Good stuff! - J.
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