Prompt #02: Unwritten Desire
Today’s prompt brought to us by poet Christopher Luna.
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Write a poem in the form of a letter to a person you desire but have not told, telling him or her what you would like to do to them.
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Reminders for Participants: You can post your poem below in the comments, offer a link back to your site where the poem is posted, or comment about the experience of writing the poem (without actually posting the poem). If you’re going to comment on other participant’s poems, please remember that this is not a critique space — comments should be kept thoughtful and supportive. Lastly, remember you don’t have to use the prompt to write your poem — they’re here for your inspiration but they’re certainly not a requirement.
Let the Wild Poeming Being!
WELL RED
Happy birthday, Shanna
In my revised version of the ancient story
she comes trooping in her crimson cape,
beautiful with her basket of cookies,
and offers me — well, nearly anything.
C’mon, she says, admit you want it,
and I do, I want her seductively crooked
nose and her dark graceful prose,
and what I‘m sure are implied promises
that soar far beyond any possible fiction
to perfect quivering submissiveness
and all her pent-up rainy season passion
if I’ll just write her a poem every single day.
April 1, 2011 at 10:56 pm
Today’s effort can be found at http://feedingthegeek.tumblr.com/post/4278457806/symphony-of-the-unbegun
I swung at the prompt, daring myself to “go there”. This was a bit scary to write and a bit scary to expose.
April 1, 2011 at 11:18 pm
Jason, that was incredible. The object of your desires is a lucky one!
April 2, 2011 at 5:52 am
really enjoyed it, Jason. That was fun, passionate, and erotic.
April 2, 2011 at 7:22 am
Beautiful poem, and very clever ending!
April 3, 2011 at 10:17 am
Oh, I’ve swerved away from the erotic potential of this prompt!
Here’s my offering:
http://nikkimagennis.blogspot.com/2011/04/taboo-and-more-lines-of-poetry.html
Happy happy birthday, Shanna!
(Bill, what a lovely gift.)
April 2, 2011 at 12:56 am
Again, I didn’t do the prompt. Got some bad news last night and chose to respond to it in poetic form: http://dorlamoorehouse.com/2011/04/02/napowrimo-day-2-4/
April 2, 2011 at 5:34 am
Going to do the prompt soon myself! Awesome poem/b’day gift, Bill — thank you!
April 2, 2011 at 8:50 am
I WAIT FOR YOU AND THE HAZEL-EYE DOG
You walked like you owned every inch of the earth you step on
I said, “I can help you with that.”
Everyday you are a different kind of fierce
The first time you broke my heart
You were lying at the very end of a brown suede couch
and had just told me a secret
You folded inwards, limbs out
a bird
your house rocked and the river was dark.
I wanted to fill my lungs with your breath
I know you would stay by my side if I were dying
I know you would stay by my side if I were dying
It’s a window left open
in the heat of mid-day in the South of France
It’s about a breath that shouldn’t have been on your neck
it’s about being so Southern-proper but saying fuck
and saying it so that
every drop of blood every cell every molecule of oxygen explodes in your eyes, it’s about your red nails your perfect feet your ivory teeth your neck I dreamed about for a blink,
It’s about all that and
knowing
i will never see the moment, the seconds
The lost breath of a first kiss.
April 2, 2011 at 9:44 am
This is a beautifully passionate poem, Chloe. I love the repetition “I know you would stay by my side…”, and the line “every drop of blood…”
April 3, 2011 at 10:32 am
Thank you Jacque
April 3, 2011 at 10:43 pm
I’ve come back to read this again. Thank you.
April 3, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Pingback: Poem-a-Day #2 « Shanna Germain
Eeps! Today’s was hard. I’m loving reading all of the other poems — such a treat!
http://yearofthebooks.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/poem-a-day-2/
April 2, 2011 at 11:00 am
Here Is My Promise
http://lanijo.com/poetry/here-my-promise
April 2, 2011 at 12:42 pm
@ Lani Jo -Exquisite!
April 3, 2011 at 10:52 am
My second, somewhat tangential to the prompt, is up at http://wp.me/pbg4K-2s .
April 2, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Liked it a lot.
April 2, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Today’s haiku:
Wild geese unlatch voice
and blade the broad sky northward–
spring seeps from the cut.
Hopefully it is not considered cheating to use the haiku form repeatedly for this endeavor!
April 2, 2011 at 1:19 pm
Phew – I just barely beat the clock yesterday…my friend and I finished our poems at 11 something. Today, just a tad earlier. Here is my piece:
http://thegermoftheidea.blogspot.com/2011/04/wronged-one.html
April 2, 2011 at 3:31 pm
Wake-up Call
What if that dream—
the one I had—where
you and—
ooh, and ooh,
and I, aaah,
and politeness falls
away, the look,
surprise, the wow,
and now, you
find me,
and it is.
April 2, 2011 at 4:10 pm
Here’s today’s.
http://erobintica.blogspot.com/2011/04/when-you-desire-more-time-to-write-day.html
April 2, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Great idea!
April 2, 2011 at 8:24 pm
white shoulder softness
smooth supple shadowed hair
so much desire
April 2, 2011 at 4:26 pm
http://www.artsroundup.com/wp/?p=2813 for it on my web site. I debated posting it just here but what the heck. Let all the poetry hang out this month I say!
=======================
To one whose virtual ear I stroked
Dear one,
We met by chance when
I wandered into your virtual world.
My own familiar world was lost.
You were friendly, you teased me.
Having slain evil and dragons
we chatted more.
I dreamt of a bear that came to
snuffle in my ear.
My old brain said – this is not real.
The rest raced ahead with
what if’s and if he’s and would I’s
In real life, friends saw me smile
and wondered.
I wondered how a night
in a universe so digital
could set my heart racing
as I brushed your long ear.
I had forgotten that rush,
that breathlessness of new love,
no matter how unlikely.
I quest no more so far from home
but think of you still.
I am not so empty as then,
before we met.
If I could see you one more time
I would do this –
I would trace out your ear.
And gently thank you.
I will not forget you
or the possibility of love.
Mary Beth Frezon — 2 April 2011
April 2, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Bonus haiku:
Cold. So very cold.
The furnace took the day off.
Reset stack sensor.
April 2, 2011 at 5:56 pm
“Re:David Foster Wallace–a Wish for a Writer”
To a dear writer departed too soon:
I saw your photo on the back of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. You look
straight into the camera with a bemused smile,
eyes kind and warm,
like a Famous
Writer should look to his fans, and I smiled back.
In another photo, on the back
Of A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,
your hair is long and in a ponytail, the literary lion scratching archly against
a conventional post.
If I had you here in the now we’d do all the things you say you hate:
We’d go to the Ohio
State Fair and mingle with the crowd,
We’d do Disney to death,
And take not one, but two Carnival Cruises, back to back,
And cap off our extravaganza of dreck with a visit to the Maine Lobster Festival, where you were once
supposed to write an essay for Gourmet magazine about how much fun the festival is,
and instead you wrote a piece about how much
pain a lobster feels in the steamed heat of the pot.
Your line about the lobster screaming when the heat’s on made me sigh, too,
made my temp rise to an uncomfortable degree,
made me a little jealous of the attention the sea bug garnered from you,
I’ll have you yet, I will. I have a pact this summer with a friend to read Infinite Jest in its entirety,
and I won’t stop until I see the photo at the end.
April 2, 2011 at 6:48 pm
Wow
This is awesome.
Thank you
btw
I am hoping to read Infinite Jest this year too.
April 3, 2011 at 2:06 am
Below is my 2nd, untitled poem, partially following the prompt. It took longer than I thought and feels unfinished.
I see thin clouds of pale pink blossoms – not
your favorite magnolias that I’d
mistake for cherries – but real cherries side
by side along the riverbank. They caught
my eyes with their unusual remoteness
and made me think of spring’s arrival in
the north, in every town on Earth’s skin
where people have been missing or gone homeless.
You must remember that tornado-struck
community in Kansas. “They’ve rebuilt
two buildings,” said a woman. For the guilt
of being passersby we wished best luck
and hardly more. Now tell me we’re not through
and let me learn to love by loving you.
April 2, 2011 at 7:19 pm
Rendering
I cannot ascribe these feelings
To anything noteworthy thus
The reason they are not written down
No imprint exists, no record
But should you ask, or even nod
I will engrave them slowly across your skin
Articulate clearly at every angle the inappropriate spellings
In ALL capital letters and
An old English script, if you ask, if you say please
April 2, 2011 at 7:19 pm
Barely squeaking this in under the wire! It’s not written to the prompt and I’ve gone back to my rhyming here. How do you guys feel about rhyming poetry these days? I don’t seem to see many people writing it. Thanks!
http://otherwaysofspeaking.blogspot.com/2011/04/invasion.html
April 2, 2011 at 7:57 pm
I like it when a required rhyming word comes into my head with a whole phrase, line or sentence that I never thought about.
April 3, 2011 at 9:55 am
still not ready to share anything
many years of dormancy still being shaken off
yet, this prompt lead to very surprising places and a person i wouldn’t have even suspected yesterday
love these daily time capsules
one day i will share….
April 2, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Whew! This one was hard!
http://ontillmourning.blogspot.com/2011/04/day-2.html
April 2, 2011 at 8:18 pm
Here is Day # 2 for me: Flooded
http://jamesestes.tumblr.com/post/4304700275/flooded
April 2, 2011 at 10:31 pm
Happy Birthday, Super Girl
I had lost this page for a minute, but penned it down before mid-naught.
This tan-striped polecat
Opposable raccoon thumbs
Meant for strangling cats
In a black furry mask
Like the one you wore on New Year’s
And little else
Knowing none could match such felicity prancing
Amid shy-spoken dollar bills sliding into
This tan-striped polecat
7 min 3 sec
April 2, 2011 at 11:10 pm
Missed posting this yesterday cuz I was at work all day and all night, but here’s my offering for day two.
http://mizadventurez.blogspot.com/2011/04/letter.html
Can’t wait to have time to read the rest.
April 3, 2011 at 5:02 am
I really enjoyed this prompt! Here’s mine, ‘Spit It Out’:
http://www.fictionaut.com/stories/kirsty-logan/spit-it-out
April 4, 2011 at 1:05 pm
Black hair
Blue eyes
a bit of a tattoo peeking out
You could be 100 different women
or none
or one
April 6, 2011 at 7:37 pm