National Poetry Month / NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2017

Happy National Poetry Month, friends. April is the coo-olest month! This year, I see Maureen Thorson at NaPoWriMo.net and Robert Lee Brewer at Poetic Asides are issuing their prompts at midnight. This April "poem-ing" has become a world-wide movement, it would seem, because I think Maureen and Robert are accounting for the International Date Line. Brava and bravo, both of you! Maureen’s NaPoWriMo prompt for Day One is "to write a Kay-Ryan-esque poem: short, tight lines, rhymes interwoven throughout, maybe an animal or two, and, if you can manage to stuff it in, a sharp little philosophical conclusion." Robert’s Poem-a-Day (PAD) first-day prompt is "to write a reminiscing poem." Like last year — several years now, actually — my good friend Thomas Alan Holmes is NaPoWriMo-ing and PAD-ing with me on the blog. And Alan's first up today with a poem that merges the two prompts. Grooming I brushed her fur, and though she bared her fangs and grrred, she did not bite or snap. I pulled dark, matted pills around her paws, her floppy ears, her tangled back, she lying still, red, wiry brush that must have hurt with every tug. What patient dog, what loving dog, my teenage years before I went away to school, I know they cared for her while I was miles away. Some Saturdays, the handle chipped where she had gnawn while lying still, me miles away. —Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] My poem for Day One also fuses the Kay Ryan and reminiscence prompts, as I reimagine a moment from grad school, almost 35 years ago. Flame for KL Heading down the hall toward the dorm elevator, I was stunned by the ravishing woman waiting there. A white peasant blouse, bright blue vest and denim skirt, turquoise sandals, a lioness mane of brunette glory, the bluest eyes I'd ever seen. Little did I know, as we said hello and smiled, that moment would forge my life. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Thanks for reading our first poems, everyone. Come on back tomorrow and we'll do it again but better, always better. Still 29 poems to go! Exciting, ain't it? Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. To comment, look for a red line below that starts Posted by, then click once on the word comments in that line. If you don’t find the word "comments" in that line, then look for a blue link below that says Post a comment and click it once. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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