Day 12: National Poetry Month
One of today’s prompts is to write a “set” poem. There’s a lot of elbow room in the word “set.” Until 2007, “set” was the undisputed leader in the dictionary for the number of distinct senses listed: 430. “Run” overtook it in 2007, but this is not entirely fair – “run” got a nine-month long overhaul, whereas “set” was last revised in 1989.
Down the rabbit hole. Words like set, run, get, and take accumulate unrelated meanings with ease. They do this by “hooking up” with words from other domains to form new phrases and concepts — a kind of semantic promiscuity. Johann-Mattis List uses that term in a more technical, cross-linguistic sense, but the metaphor fits words like set, run, get, and take as well. Technology, especially computing, has played a major role in the explosive growth of senses for run.
Another prompt calls for “a memory of a beloved relative, and something they did that echoes through your thoughts today.” The two together triggered a visual – let’s see where it leads.
One Special Cup
Conversation, coffee
after dinner—adults’ delight,
but for the child, there’s
no respite from the dullness.
No recourse but slipping,
surreptitiously, below
the laundered damask cloth.
Pretend to be one of the dogs—
navigate chair legs,
human feet—escape.
Dogs crave attention,
care what children have to say.
Until at five or six, or maybe seven,
Grandma reaches out
to still, mid-slide, the child,
offering a choice:
one special cup
from the high shelf where
no two cups are quite alike.
No table scraps, no milkbone—
call it training for a day when coffee,
endless cups and conversation, must
be endured. No winding, now,
through grown-ups shuffling feet.
O, temptation’s trap is set—
A cup from which to sip
a sweetened brew
of coffee, sugar cubes,
and cream. This
is how they get you
bit by bit.
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
Your Turn!
What moments do you remember from childhood that started the descent into adolescence and adulthood? Or that marked the moment you started to feel like you were really one of the adults, even just a little bit?
I was among the magical adults long before others. Autism does that – put the responsible 12-year old in charge of her 13-15 year old peers. Put the thirteen year old back to the child table at Thanksgiving and Christmas to control the young-ums and take the 11 and 12 year olds to the big table. There was no magical moment of “welcome to adulthood”, more of shock on my part of “why am I the one in charge so you can have fun?”
The children’s table is more fun.
I was an only child, so there was no “children’s table” for me, ever. 😂