Regular readers know that I’m in training for a week-long poetry workshop that starts a week from tomorrow. As I have said often, writers need to practice, so I’m taking my own advice and attempting a poem a day. I know my own process–journal until some image/phrase/discovery flows onto the page. Write and write with the associations in mind, be they auditory or visual or some memory that gets triggered. Here’s what I wrote yesterday:

FAMILY FEAST

Stories handed round like

whoopie pies, like wild

Maine blueberries–the one about a drunk

whom Gram secretly let sleep

on the porch, or the house fire

and the rescued kittens,

a child born with a broken clavicle.

Surprise twins, one tender, one

tough. Maggots on the turkey

left three days in the oven,

how a snowball led to marriage.

Stories for dessert–

peaches, apples, grapes.

Sorry about the spacing but WordPress insists that each return be followed by extra space. I’m sure some html thingy would fix this but it’s not worth the time to figure it out, and I still have a poem to make for today. As yet, no prompt or imagery to get me started. But it will come. As you’ve heard before, “Notice what you notice.” Then write, write, write, and follows every discovery to its deepest level.

Thanks to the aunts and uncles who over the years have provided me with these stories. This poem may not be great, but it’s better than a felony conviction. More next week. Be well, be happy, be safe, be generous and free.