that's mrs. mediocrity to you

outrage is the new black
and offended is breathing
down freedom’s neck

swimming in a sea of authentic
epic
mindfulness

and the people that rule us
are confident in anarchy
or ambivalent on war
or curiously human

and the sun keeps shining
insecure and self-conscious
thinking we expect
something more like moon’s mystery
or standing still
or tenderness

when all we really want
is (r)evolution

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 10
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is PAD’s pick an emotion.

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i’ve buried all the pieces no one ever gets to see

fickle fallow and everyday shallow
not enough coin inside oversized purse
cold confidence and chartreuse envy

and in between daisies
tiny fingers
of longing

in my garden i am always
over-exposed
and therefore
hidden

sun beat and wind burn
the torture of
bent back
long squat
digging
in the soil of silence

crows
are my charm
and for them
i leave glamour

gifts of
gilded bone and
beaded sinew

and we dance to the rhythm
of hidden heart broken start ritual
refusing to accept the blue bowl bright sky storm

raging just beneath the lost forget me not sea of invitation

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 9
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is a combo of NaPoWriMo’s lines that scare you and PAD’s: hide-out.

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is not the same as a flower
but neither is a picture of a person

either way

a tulip sings of hope
and i
always listen
because if you can grow
even after
being cut

there is a story

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 8
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is a combo of NaPoWriMo’s flowers, and PAD’s: write a doodle poem.

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you think this means in the country
(where i live)
there is no garbage

you think a centipede is the monster
and the suit is a shield

you think cement is a bed
and people are stairs
and the sky is a mean green blanket

oh, i don’t mean you you
i mean them you

of course

i’ve no idea what you think

tell me

i’ll build a tower filled with wheels
and act the cog

i’ll ask everything you hold
in the talon of answer

i’ll tie ribbons in your wind
and watch the hair

we’re both after flight

we’re both

after flight

electricity

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 7
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is a PAD’s: Write a poem titled Urban ________.

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remember the marriage of pronouns?
i held you tight and we both wish-kissed
and the river ran silent beneath loose boards
and scattered petal

that bridge is still standing
but years ago one side sank deep
into the mud of bottled anger

you can still get across
but you must walk crooked
and the path to the sky
has filled in with unspoken apology

all bridges are metaphors and ours
was no different

any day now the stream banks will sing
with a riot of daffodil trumpet
and we’ll hold hands in the rain
because we have two chairs

and this garden became us
or them or in the evenings at least
you and me

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 6
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is a PAD’s write an ekphrastic poem—a poem inspired by art

devotion is a curious spring
rippling up through time and history

a veil

of interlaced attempt and failure
stubborn reveal
bruised experience

hope

at the bottom of a well named fortitude

drawn up
in a broken-rope bucket
swinging and splashing

despair

on walls built of mud and stone

there is always growth

there is always frustration

there is always

beginning

born

of defeat

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 5
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

Today’s theme is a combination:
Experience from PAD and Heirloom Seed Names from NaPo

Now that March
has put some distance between us
February

I can see you didn’t mean
to be cruel, exactly
and April still holds sway

after all
you managed to hand us
an extra twenty-four hours
pretending it was gift
and not correction

but it was another terse-curt day
just like all your bitter
Napoleonic efforts

and don’t think
this means your dark laughter
has suddenly become okay

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 4
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

Today’s theme is a combination:
Distance from PAD and Is April the cruelest month? from NaPo

talisman of time
unbreakable memory
society’s weapon

you can always
refuse to choose but
you will be followed

return to the mountain
live with rubble
carve your freedom

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 3
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

Today’s theme from PAD is three (fill in the blank)

sitting shoulder to shoulder on on earth’s last boulder
remembering things we thought she said and forgetting
the way it rained on the night we learned

forgiveness.

in a drawer upstairs lies a box full of words
mine, not yours, his, not hers, lined with the echo
of unspoken progress. we never stopped moving

and thought shelter

was hidden in a shadow somewhere deep
beneath the ocean of your bed. i never asked to be held
and the waves kept breaking, even after the whisper:

you won’t drown.

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 2
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

Today’s theme from PAD is he said, she said.

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we all play the fool

for a sky

fixed with one blue chance

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 1
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

Today’s theme is a combination: fools and lunes.