Day 2: National Poetry Month
See Apricots: a Tanka Encompassing Three Prompts for the prompts I’ll be using (if I use any at all) this month. To the extent possible, I’m determined to combine all three, plus the Blogging A to Z Challenge, each day. That said, I reserve the right not to – despite my conviction that creativity thrives when challenged to overcome constraints.
I recommend reading the daily posts at each of these sites to get a fuller picture of the prompts, though I will summarize them here so you get the general idea:
Be sure to check out some of the Blogging A to Z blogs here, too! And do leave comments – seriously, don’t be shy. Real people who still blog still love to get comments! Egg ’em on! I’m number 81 of 133 on the list, this year.
For day 2, my personal challenge is to write an “express poem” – again, not a form, but my interpretation of the word “express” – to “recount a childhood memory,” and to incorporate or be inspired by the word “ubiquitous.” And to start the title of this blog post, if not the poem itself, with the letter “B.”
Bee Sting
Running barefoot
through pink and white clover
heedless of anything but summer
sweat and sunshine, sweet lure
of lemonade, links on the grill –
sharp, sudden sting – howling –
bottom plop, right in a patch
of honeybees and shamrocks.
Childhood memories last
a thousand lifetimes
longer than a bee’s.
Express
I used line length to hopefully capture the child running, plopping into the grass, then the relative shortness of a bee’s life compared to a human’s memories of childhood.
Of course, there’s also the literal “expression” of joy in running barefoot outside on a sunny day, followed by pain and indignation of getting a bee sting in the child’s howling.
Ubiquitous
I chose not to use the word, itself, but to hint at it in the child’s plopping down right in the midst of bees and clover.
Childhood Memory
When I was little, we went to my grandfather’s company picnic. Everything in this poem is a simple recounting of what happened. What I didn’t mention in the poem is that his secretary was the first to hear my howl and ran over to help me. What I remember most vividly is her incredibly long nails. I had already yanked that poor bee right off its stinger, but the stinger was still stuck in my foot with its tiny venom sac still hanging from it like a teardrop. She pulled the stinger out with her nails, careful not to squeeze the sac so as not to deliver the full payload into my little foot. I have no idea how I only got stung once, by the way, other than sheer dumb luck, after I sat right in that large patch of clover!
Other National Poetry Month Posts
- National Poetry Month, Texas Style!
- Apricots: a Tanka Encompassing Three Prompts
- Bee Sting: Day 2 of National Poetry Month
- Cacophony and CBD: Day 3 in Nonsense Verse and Found Poetry
- Technically, a Writer: Day 3 of National Poetry Month
- Dive: Day 4 of National Poetry Month
- Storm Front: Day 4 of National Poetry Month
- Energized: Day 5 of National Poetry Month
- Grump: Day 5 ½ of National Poetry Month
- Future Frittered Away: Day 6 of National Poetry Month
- Hell, Hell, Hell: Day 7 (More or Less) of National Poetry Month
- Insomnia: Day 8 of National Poetry Month
- Juxtaposition: Day 9 of National Poetry Month
- Knife Edge: Day 10 of National Poetry Month
- Lost a Day: Day 11 of National Poetry Month
- Many Definitions: Day 12 of National Poetry Month
- New Form – Quadrille Quaiku: Day 13 of National Poetry Month
- Ode to Imagination: Day 14 of National Poetry Month
- Pixellated People: Day 15 of National Poetry Month
- Quintessential, Querulous Quintet: Day 16/17 of National Poetry Month
- Renewal: Day 18 of National Poetry Month
- Secrets of the Terrarium: Day 19 of National Poetry Month
- Tenacious: Day 20 of National Poetry Month
- Unruly: Day 21 of National Poetry Month
- Villainous Villanelle: Day 22 of National Poetry Month
- Waiting for the Chimes: Day 23 of National Poetry Month
- X: Day 24 of National Poetry Month
- You Are Here: Day 25 of National Poetry Month
- Z to A, a Reverse Abecedarian: Day 26 of National Poetry Month
Your Turn!
Please, leave a comment, a poem, a prompt – I’d love to hear from you.
The poem did a great job of creating a very vivid imagery for me, Holly! And those last three lines of the poem hit a chord somewhere deep…I can so relate to that.
Thank you for the kind words, Esha. Isn’t it funny how some lines just sort of write themselves? That’s the case with those last three. They weren’t part of the original “plan” (if you can call any writing a “Pantser” does a “plan”!) They just came to me as a way to tie it all together. That happens, more often than not, with my short stories – especially the ones that have a twist ending. In poems, it’s usually the opposite – they provide some closure, some way to bring it all full circle.