Prompt #19: Lightbulbs
Today’s prompt is provided by ReadWritePoem:
Visit last year’s prompt at ReadWritePoem. Then, list 3-5 lightbulb moments you’ve had in your lifetime. Is there a way to string them together in a single poem? Try it now.
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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!
This as a hard prompt for me the first time. Didn’t get easier.
He
was
sexy.
He was tall, and blond, and smart.
His older sister drove a red Karmann Ghia and sold black trash bags bursting with Harriman weed, cheap.
His younger sister helped his mother run the studs.
Horses. Spotted ponies. Appaloosa stallions
He and I one afternoon used my Camero as a farm truck.
Hauled barbed wire across the pasture, gullies, mud holes, and all in the back seat, pulled fence posts upright in low gear.
He was sexy.
He had big dark blue eyes. He moved–nice.
He sounded sexy. Hell, he even smelled sexy.
His father was an engineer at Oak Ridge.
I think I was in love with the family that was so different from mine, but I was crazy for him, too.
His mother said he wasn’t good enough for me.
That he was crazy. Once, she said,
he tried to blow the house up, all
of them in it. I didn’t care.
After we broke up, and got together again,
we tried making love in a hayloft. Don’t.
It took me some while to learn: that smell
that odor of concentrated sex,
old love-making,
sweat, leather and hay
was the re-purposed saddle girth he used as a belt.
April 19, 2011 at 7:08 am
Now, That Is Embarassing.
Wrong poem/prompt That’s why I usually post links instead of poems.
my Enlightenment Poem is at http://wp.me/pdTja-1MB
April 19, 2011 at 7:14 am
b_y – i loved both of them – no embarrassment needed!
April 19, 2011 at 7:19 am
Your light bulb moment was hilarious. Chortles smirks and splutters…gave me a good laugh which I very much need today.Thanks.
April 19, 2011 at 5:39 pm
I am posting another moment on my blog. http://www.artsroundup.com/wp/?p=2985
This one’s a little too much still for there.
- – - – - – -
Late night
my thoughts were
splattering everywhere
with news unfurled from
the answering machine.
An offer to make an impossibility
modernly possible
here, my dream, true.
Every scrap of me awake
with every bursting emotion
of potential.
The bed was dark as we climbed in,
a place to touch the tomorrows.
to have the moment of saying yes.
He was asleep.
Asleep.
My brain exploding now broke off
into – how? asleep? now?
joy, possibles, anger, gasping
I sat looking into darkness sleeping.
oh.
It would always be like this.
oh.
Felt like the good deep breath.
Felt like the precious cup of water.
I lay down and fell into blesséd sleep.
No decision to be made at all.
The next morning calm and silent.
“so you want to talk about this?” he asked.
“nope.”
“Shouldn’t we talk about this?”
“Nothing to discuss.”
Leaving me to my own
decision and mourning.
April 19, 2011 at 7:14 am
Long ago
I learned
that I could protect myself
I had to learn this, or die
and death was unappealing
Almost as long ago
I learned
that this precious moment
is
everything
Experience this, and you have lives
Not so long ago
I learned
much to my dismay
that
you
can’t
fix
everything
For this,
I will be sad for a long long time
April 19, 2011 at 7:20 am
might have to nail that to my wall, kam.
April 19, 2011 at 7:31 am
Pingback: National Poetry Day #19
I was going to write about a lightbulb moment. But then I decided to write about a lizard instead.
http://dorlamoorehouse.com/2011/04/19/napowrimo-day-19-4/
April 19, 2011 at 8:30 am
Very nice!
April 19, 2011 at 8:40 pm
wow Kam
April 19, 2011 at 9:34 am
Moment
Open the well-turned
cover to the Book of Me
and experience all the
Feminine Mysteries
filed under “Wow.”
J. Pratt-Walter
April 19, 2011 at 10:33 am
Nearly didn’t make it at all!
http://nikkimagennis.blogspot.com/2011/04/100000-w-bulb.html
April 19, 2011 at 11:19 am
Pingback: éclat « Tony Linde
Mine is someone else’s lightbulb moment, that of Einstein with the geometry of spacetime in general relativity: http://wp.me/sbg4K-eclat.
April 19, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Today’s:
http://yearofthebooks.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/poem-a-day-19/
April 19, 2011 at 1:00 pm
It’s my wife’s 60th birthday, and likely to be the last one she’ll be able to genuinely celebrate. No birthday poem appeared from my unconscious this year, but a magnificent 75-chapter collection of stories and appreciations from family, friends and colleagues did materialize, and I’ve been their assiduous editor in preparation for the big party on Saturday. So here’s my poem for the day:
MULTITASKING
Shrieking kid,
rubber-band legs,
dodging cars
to snatch
a whiffle ball,
bent lady,
blue shopping bag
scraping the road,
porky
pink couple,
one
prissy smile,
scowler
whizzing past
in spandex.
Busy
living.
Just
as busy
dying.
April 19, 2011 at 1:02 pm
(A quickie…very rough draft.)
first came the realization
that there was no need
to keep on taking it
the beatings stopped
when I left him
second came the power
of my own fist raised
in solidarity,
in the good fight,
independent
third was vast,
unending loneliness,
no compass, no direction,
falling into dark
abyss
this fourth way,
opens into unknown
vistas, but not
a path taken
alone
April 19, 2011 at 3:30 pm
This is actually the prompt from a few days ago…
http://teresanoelleroberts.blogspot.com/2011/04/two-down-one-to-go.html
April 19, 2011 at 4:50 pm
I completely whiffed this last year. Maybe this year’s is better: http://lovesgoodfood.com/jason/posts/Day_19_2011-2/
April 19, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Lightbulb moments usually click on dramatically
Like the climax of a movie that moves you so You’re sure your life will change
American Beauty, Shadows and Fog, Office Space
In the moment, that’s all there is
Until you stand up, walk out, shuffle out
Into the sunlight
And then the small things start to creep in
Ordinary worries and concerns, to-do lists
Start living life as every moment counts? yes
But that can be put off until tomorrow…
And before you realize, the moment is gone
But sometimes that flash comes in the mundane
When you’re walking through campus
See an old friend sitting on a bench with another dude
And they’re both wearing the same tie
Dressed completely identical, twin douchebags
You realize it’s a fraternity thing
Conformity for conformity’s sake
He waves weakly, pretending to be cool
You smile slightly, but don’t wave, moving on
You never did like that guy
Turning to the task at hand, crossing the street and down another block
Confronting someone you do care about
Asking why or what or how
It’s some time later
You muse why people act the way they do
Why they lack character, originality
And you realize they’re just like every other organism trying to fit in
April 19, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Resolutely sticking to the prompt as a learning and growth experience. Not terribly happy with this one; feels forced. Meh. I can make something of this later, maybe.
http://feedingthegeek.tumblr.com/post/4771646413/discontinuities
April 19, 2011 at 11:47 pm
Not in love with this one, but love the concept – will probably edit this one in the future.
http://mizadventurez.blogspot.com/2011/04/day-nineteen-ah-hathe-electricitys-back.html
April 20, 2011 at 8:04 am
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