that's mrs. mediocrity to you

what’s around
the next corner is always mystery

walk anyway
heart open

be a little naive
on occasion

grin at corny jokes
and let a child win

there are a million second chances
and there are no second chances

the path always starts at the beginning
but we never know where it ends

keep walking

sing

spread your arms wide

twirl in circles

be the fool
filled with wonder
be the fool

laugh like there’s no
tomorrow

.

.

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

Today’s theme is PAD’s write a dead end poem.

i remember:

racing barefoot through wet grass at first light

northern lights glowing green above a broken picnic table

three moons on three nights

innocence and wonder (lost and reclaimed)

the sound of my own heart breaking

forgetting to look both ways

holding the feather of your hand in a sea of rough sheets

scattered petals on a bridge leading forward

the owlish sound of love

being here being there being here

remembering

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 29
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is a combo of NaPo’s I remember: and PAD’s write a haphazard poem.

buy me an election and i will sing a song
or crow at least
about
wide avenues and what we all deserve

as if deserving
was a right handed down
by a king in midas disguise
and you think that’s a joke

but i saw him once
touch a baby and just after that
a dark weapon
and neither one has the nerve
now to tarnish

and no one’s listening

no

one’s listening

there is music in every
hallway
but the lights are out

and we are all pretending
not to hear

we are all too busy
being busy
fighting
for the corner office
in a building
shaped by vaults
and steal

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 28
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is PAD’s write an important _________ poem.

thanks to frost
we all have a path
mapped out in our minds
marked with the sign
of less taken

the squirrel doesn’t care
if you’ve been here before
he only knows
you’ve disturbed
his last nap

he’s marked anyway
with numbered days and
peanut offering
drowning out the sound
of fancy rodent

and you take possession
of land you’ve just stepped on
thinking mine and wild
and go away and
meanwhile the sky

is laughing

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 27
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is PAD’s take off.

we spend our lives
learning the truth about love

how some days it shares
a pocket with hate

and there is never enough
or too much
or any amount just right

we get all twisted with
lust and false longing

in over our heads
thinking we must choose

there is never a choice
and it all seems so
brittle fragile

strong enough to kill us
strong enough to be there

on a day sixty years and
several winters from freedom

when a heart left hanging
stops beating and we know
we know

the (w)hole
we’ve fallen into

.

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 26
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is PAD’s write a love poem, or, write an anti-love poem. Clearly, I couldn’t decide.

The tulips turn to me, and the window behind me*

singing red in a song i have no words for

and you think blood, but i think crimson

and that is the way of things

between us

always

.

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 25
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is a combo of NaPo’s use a line from another poem and PAD’s exercise.

*This line is from Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips”.

can pull you sideways with searching
and there is no path but
convoluted

i want to notice the last leaf
hanging lost
on the tree
and the dragonfly
stone-skipping
across empty sky

but there is weather
and living
and love in the mix

gravitational distraction
and mythical escape

and you bend don’t break
one thousand times
every day

with the
left-to-chance
breath
of found

growing

.

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 24
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is a combo of NaPo’s mix-and-match and PAD’s lost then found.

the way it’s always been, you rolled in knots
on the couch of digression and me
caught in some web created
by midnight

we think
this is not the way it’s all supposed to be
but there are no rules

you see

empty

and i mark increment
knitting versions of safety net
and woolen boot

protection from frost and sudden
burn but
there’s always the forest

ripped out and rooted
redone and repaired
ribald and raucous

when the wind grows wings
to beat hard against cages
built to surround us

or keep us

or display
the truth we see
in windows

late at night

she threads
a third
needle

.

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 23
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is PAD’s write a poem that mentions footwear.
Hey, there’s a boot in there, somewhere.

the sky is full

but we are drawn

to those that fall

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 22
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is PAD’s write a star _______ poem.

and here we are
far past spring
and rusted out

high stepping with
slightly more creak
than strut

these days the
rain never ends
and the wheels

have all stopped
spinning
locked in place

by expo-
sure
and
inning

. . . . . . . . .

(in response to:

XXII

from Spring and All (1923)

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

-William Carlos Williams)

.

.

.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 21
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is PAD’s write a poem in response to another poem.

.