Day Three ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day

New day, new potential, new poem (one hopes). Today's instructions from our Writer's Digest guru Robert Lee Brewer: For today’s prompt, there are actually two options, because it’s Tuesday, which means a "Two for Tuesday" prompt. They are:         •  Write an apology poem, or . . .           •  Write an unapologetic poem. Your choice. You can be sorry — or not. Or write about someone who is sorry — or not. Let's start today with Catherine's third-day poem. When she sent me the poem this morning she said, "It is neither an apology nor a non-apology although it could be either. There are many possibilities for apologies here, but this is an acknowledgment, I guess." "Sure it's an apology," I wrote back, "but not a very apologetic one.  ;-)  Isn't an acknowledgement a kind of apology, however back-handed it might be?" Be that as it may, O Gentle Reader, you decide which way her poem leans. ====== ====== = ==== = == === === === === ========= ==== === === === === ======= == === ====== === ===== ===== == ====== = == === ====== ===== ====== === === === ==== == === ====== == == ======== ======= ========== == == === ===== === ==== ========= ==== ==== ====== ===== ===== ==== === ==== ===== === ===== ==== == ==== ==== ====== ===== ==== ==== === ==== ==== ======= ====== == ====== ===== ======= == === ========= == ==== ========= === ===== ==== ===== == ====== ===== === === ======= == ===== == ====== =========== ======= == ====== === ==== == == === ===== ===== ==== == ==== ====== == ===== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== === === ====== == ==== === ==== === ====== ========= ====== === = =====                         Poem removed for publication purposes. Sorry. It may return at some point. Thanks. —Draft by Catherine Pritchard Childress     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] Catherine, every day so far, you've knocked the proverbial ball out of the freakin' park. Keep up the scintillating work! Now to my third-day work. I'm giving Jack Frost a break today. Instead, a sort of in-crowd poem. A little snarky or maybe a lot snarky. I don't know. Again, O Gentle Reader, you decide. Nonetheless, it's an apology that isn't. I think. Thoughts? Signed, Poetry Editor Dear Poet: I know our stock rejection says We are sorry to have to return your submission, but we are limited by space in the review and must often turn away strong work. We wish you all the best in placing your writing elsewhere. but actually, I'm NOT sorry. Your poem sucked. There was just one flower species too many in the second stanza. Who do you think we are, the New Yorker? I mean, really. Also, you might want to consider never illustrating your poems with Hello Kitty skulls. Though the little band-aids are cute. And what's with those words sussurus and pyewacket in line 12. Especially rhyming with thesaurus and can't hack it. Let me tell you who can't hack . . . whoa, whoa. I just remembered that at the Doomsday Quarterly Review we're not supposed to critique. But how can I not? After all I'm here to serve. I hope you will grace DQR with more poems. We won't put them up on the bulletin board and throw darts at them. We promise. We cross our hearts and hope to die. Don't forget to sign your check. G'bye. —Draft by Vince Gotera     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] What do you think, then, O Gentle Reader? About both poems. Please jot a quick comment below, okay? Catherine and I would like to know what you're thinking about these poems, about the project, about anything poetic and NaPoWriMo you want to discuss, really. P.S.  I just found out yesterday that my poem "Leviathan," which appeared in the blog in April 2009, was recently published in The Daily Palette, the University of Iowa's online venue for art and writing. Quite timely because I wrote that poem in response to one of Robert Lee Brewer's poem-a-day challenge prompts during National Poetry Month 2009. Cool, huh? P.P.S.  I'd like to thank my friend Marc Dickinson, English professor at Des Moines Area Community College, for inviting me to read at DMACC's "Celebration of the Literary Arts" this week. And also for lending me his office and computer where I'm now working in order to get my third-day poem out on time. POEM-A-DAY 2012 • Pick a day in April: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30