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April 28th — A Poem A Day

Promptly Sestina, He Said

“Write a sestina,” he said,
and here I sit with eighty seconds to compose.
I hate writing to a time limit and a prompt.
I was suckered in by the romance of, National Poetry Month.
Some of us have to work you know.
I don’t get paid to write poetry.

I write poetry
because I have thoughts I want said —
things I want the world to know.
My words choose their own patterns as I compose,
then I tinker and prod and poke — and rearrange them for a month;
so I hate writing to a time limit and a prompt.

I thought writing every day might prompt
more words from me and enrich my poetry.
Thirty poems in just one month!
“I need the discipline,” I said.
My thoughts were ill composed.
Had I considered the loss of quality, I would have said, “No!”

Yet how was I to know,
that I’d have to be prompt
and learn to compose
instant poetry?
Still, I made a vow and I’m living by what I said —
thirty poems in just one month.

Thirty poems in just one month.
Thirty bad poems, you know;
each with something unsaid,
but I served them up prompt,
with my apologizes to the good poetry
I didn’t have time to compose.

I wish I’d had I more time to compose,
I might have succeeded at writing a poem a month
and offered some quality poetry,
but now we’ll never know.
I’ve hated writing to a prompt.
I prefer writing when I’ve the time to express the things I want said.

I said I would compose
poetry to a prompt every day for a month
and I know I will succeed. But after, will I still like poetry?

CLA

Poetic Asides, Day 28
Prompt: write a Sestina or a poem about a Sestina

12 Comments

  2. Dr John said so too, I guess real poetry does not want to be written in a hurry, or on command. And thirty days is way too much. Oh well, it’s almost done, and then you can go back to whatever it is you’d like to do!
    The new ABC challenge for instance? My first entry is up now!

  3. I TOTALLY agree with this — and I don’t know if I’m going to get it finished or not…. He SAYS we can get them all up by the end of the month… I don’t know… I’ve got to do 3 today and drive…. Ugh! WHAT was I thinking???

    Melli’s last blog post..Puter Trouble

    1. I don’t blame you. This one is a major piece of crap. I posted it only because I swore I’d write a poem a day to the prompt. It was much more difficult than I ever imagined!

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