#April National Poetry Month, Day Five
Welcome to the first week of April! Spring is abundantly beautiful, showing up in Red Buds in full bloom no and following close by the opening of our Ozark Dogwood blooms soon.
Today’s prompt offered by the National Poetry Month Page, NaPoWriMo.net, is to write a poem of your own, modeling it after a poem and author you select!
Find a poem, and then write a new poem that has the shape of the original and in which every line starts with the first letter of the corresponding line in the original poem. If I used Roethke’s poem ( using this poem by Theodore Roethkeas) Using this model poem, for example, the first line would start with “I,” the second line with “W,” and the third line with “A.” I would try to make all my lines neither super-short nor overlong but have about ten syllables.
Example from RoethkeI’s poem showing the first 3 lines:
I knew a woman, lovely in her bones = I
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them = W
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one = A
I have selected one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver’s poem “A Thousand Mornings!”
All night my heart makes its way
however it can over rough ground
of uncertainties, but until night
meets and then is overwhelmed by
morning, the light deepening, the
wind easing and just waiting, as I
too wait and when have I ever been
disappointed for the redbird to sing.
My morning lakeside deck writing:
At first
I only hear a whispered bird call
as I wait to begin
heavy rains, lighting flashes, growling thunder
and gusts of wind move through
over the mountains flashes of light
show me quick glances of earthen surroundings
morning continues to break
with a soft blue glow in the eastern skies
morning becomes holy blue
and I begin another new day
with a spring time storm
scrubbing clean the ladden air and
the smell of rain remains held in the air
as a fresh new scent the
day explodes and returns
with a bird song
in the pink glow
of a red bud spring
Shadowleaves on Lake Ann 