that's mrs. mediocrity to you

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

.

.

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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

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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

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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

.

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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

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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)

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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.

.

you never said and i
never knew
and together
we question
the honesty of memory

i’m old enough now
to remember
how much
i’ve forgotten

and you are
young enough
to believe
in omniscience

you resent
and i smile
and we both get
to the same place
eating dinner at this table
set
with borrowed china

.

.

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 20
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is PAD’s write a poem of what goes unsaid.

.

listen.

you think this will be easy

i’ve heard the teeth of a grasshopper
grinding flour for dinner

and the call of a hawk
making promises of war

submerge.

you think there is no pool

the sound of your heartbeat singing
will carry you home

water is liquid noise
and you are made of water

swallow.

you think you want to scream

there is nothing to hold onto
so why can’t you let go

words never become compass
until you write them down

listen.

.

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 19
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is a combo NaPo’s write a how-to poem, and PAD’s “cool”.

.

given a chance
i will always choose
sky as ceiling
and bird call for music

a carpet of grass
(of course)
and flowers as art
with a landscape thrown in
for a good measure

the sun shall be lamp
and breeze acts as fan
for a notebook desk
and a pencil
scratching words
intended
to be heard

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 18
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is PAD’s write an office poem.

.

tuxedoed robin

singing praise to egg blue sky

inversion revealed

.

.

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month: Day 17
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge

Today’s theme is PAD’s write a Haiku.

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