Saturday, April 9, 2022

Day Nine ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2022


Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: “[W]rite a breaking poem. The poem could be about breaking down walls, break dancing, breaking up, or breaking stuff. However you'd like to break it down and then write your poem.”

Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “[W]rite in a specific form – the nonet! A nonet has nine lines. The first line has nine syllables, the second has eight, and so on until you get to the last line, which has just one syllable.”

Today's nonet merges the two prompts in a little ditty about my last dog Blue, who would have loved to escape his leash. I never could get him to heel. This poem is an elegy — Blue passed a couple of summers back.

Off Leash At Last

For I will consider my dog Blue,
soft-coated wheaten terrier,
quiet and stoic old boy.
Loved to lie in the sun
on the patio,
dreaming young days
running wild,
breaking
free!

—Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]

On my last birthday, my artist friend Beverly Cassidy surprised me with a gift portrait of Blue and me in happier days, from his last year on earth.

            Painting by Beverly Cassidy.

Thanks again, Bev! If any of you, friends, are looking for a fine painter, check out Bev's website at Beverly Cassidy Fine Art. Her specialty is pet portraits, but she can paint anything for you! Take a look especially at her portraits of rock musicians in the website.

Gratitude also to my colleague and friend, the poet Rachel Morgan, who gave a poetry reading this morning at the Waterloo Public Library in which she mentioned Christopher Smart's poem about his cat, as a lead-up to one of her poems. My opening line today alludes to Smart's opening line, "For I will consider my cat Jeoffry" (from Jubilate Agno). Thanks for the inspiration today, Rachel!


Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks!

Ingat, everyone.   


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2 comments:

Bruce Niedt said...

Aw, very touching. Love the portrait too.

Vince Gotera said...

Thanks, Bruce. The painting was a wonderful surprise. You may know Beverly as a Wings of Pegasus fan.




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