Day 23 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2021

Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: Write “an appointment poem. My first thoughts with appointments conjure up visions of doctors, dentists, and parent-teacher conferences. But there are also business meetings and romantic dates.” Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that responds, in some way, to another. This could be as simple as using a line or image from another poem as a jumping-off point, or it could be a more formal poetic response to the argument or ideas raised in another poem. You might use a favorite (or least favorite poem) as the source for your response.” Mashing up both prompts today in a small ditty after Emily Dickinson (Johnson 927). Here I'm using her go-to, common meter, either hymnal stanza or ballad. Her poem that begins "Absent place — an April Day —" is written in hymnal stanza, slant rhymed, but I'm employing a ballad, more fully rhymed. In the Katoski Greenbelt — beginning with a line      from Emily Dickinson Absent place — an April day without one appointment. No class, no Zoom, no doctors — just the present moment. Here, in these quiet woods I have an appointment — meeting a sprawl of wild bluebells chorusing an indigo chant. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] I actually did go for a walk this morning in the Katoski Greenbelt, a park in Waterloo, Iowa, and shot this photo as well as many others of the bluebells I found there. Alan worked with both prompts today, responding to "Under Ben Bulben" by William Butler Yeats with an acrostic Petrarchan sonnet. The line he's playing with is the last bit in the poem, and conceivably the speaker's very last stone utterance. Horseman Considering his soul secure in Christ, Assuming his salvation was secure Since ministers had told him he was pure Through his repentance, sins he sacrificed Against his inclinations; what enticed Could trap him, he was careful. He was sure Of every temptation that might lure, Lamenting the restraint he exercised. Dying before he died by many years, Erroneously thinking joy is sin, Yet going through the motions of the good: Engagement, marriage, even fatherhood Of reservation; he could not begin, Never loving fully, hellbent in fears. —Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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