Yesterday was the 24 Hour Project, and I was lucky enough to have my friend Raivenne join me! I’ll put my pics together to share later this week. Suffice it to say that I am exhausted today, beat to the last thread of my socks. And my knee has so many unprintable things to say about me right now. Taking on that challenge was fun, though, and the pain will pass. But, because I was so wrung out yesterday, so other things fell by the wayside. Hence my “A day late” title.
It’s April 2nd, and that means I’m a day into National Poetry Month … and nary a poem written. I thought I might manage one yesterday while I was out and about for the 24 Hour Project, but that proved too much for my super-tired self, so I let it go. And now here I am, trying to catch up on day 2 … not just with my 30/30, but with the A-to-Z challenge as well.
Because I need more writing challenges in my life.
I haven’t made any decisions about a form for this month. Today I have a Zeno that I started on the bus yesterday. Around 5am, Raivenne and I went to my office — we needed to charge our phones, sit in warmth, and use the facilities. The security guard on duty when we arrived, had some beautiful yarn in front of her, and — although she’d given us quite the fish eye when we first walked into the building (it was 5am, after all) — the moment we started exclaiming over her pretty work, we had a very different conversation! After Rai and I parted for the morning, I was on the bus and this poem started trying to be something in my already-sleepy brain.
(A Zeno has a syllable pattern of 8/4/2/1/4/2/1/4/2/1 and a rhyme scheme of a/b/c/d/e/f/d/g/h/d.)
Handmade
She is stitching for her mother.
Unspooling yarn,
her hands
sift
through soft colors,
twist and
lift,
braiding beauty
and love.
Gift.
She was sweet, the security guard, told us that she used to make cards for her mother with artwork and pretty designs, and that she hadn’t made anything in a while and so decided to make her a scarf. And the yarn was some really fun, slubby, multi-colored business that her mom is sure to love.
And, because today on Robert Lee Brewer’s page the prompt is to write a “not today” poem and that fits with how I’m feeling after my 24 Hours, I’ve scribbled up a little tanka for my second poem:
Not Today
Sunday plans cast off —
laundry, errands, all the things.
I am not moving,
not thinking, not doing, not.
Focused inward, refueling.
And I’m all caught up with my poems!
if you want kin, you must plant kin ... 
It had stopped raining by midnight on April 1, hadn’t it? I hope you wouldn’t have been out there trying to take pictures if it had still been raining, but knowing you…
And your poems are so easy reading, but probably not so easy to write? But you did two of them, and followed a form too. I am in awe.
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Oh, we were out there in the wind and rain. It was ridiculously cold. Happily, Raivenne made me go buy a hat before we started off, or I’d have never made it through!
I’m glad you like the poems!
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* reaches for Advil *
It’s near 24 hours later and my calves are still saying unprintable things, but yes it will pass and it was worth it rain and all. Only 354 more days until we do it again! B is for Better Late Than Never?
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I don’t think I really began to feel like myself until late yesterday! Oy. (Already thinking about next year!)
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