Day 2 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2025 // Stafford Challenge 76

Today is Day Two in April and also Day 76 in the Stafford Challenge. Here are today's prompts: Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: “[W]rite a "from where I'm sitting" poem. . . . From where you're sitting (or standing) at this moment, find something, someone, etc., that interests you and write a poem.” Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “[W]rite a poem that directly addresses someone, and that includes a made-up word, an odd/unusual simile, a statement of 'fact,' and something that seems out of place in time (like a Sonny & Cher song in a poem about a Greek myth).” I have been writing quite a few ekphrastic poems of late, particularly of Grant Wood's images. In March, I was the featured Guest Poet in the Stafford Challenge, where I read some poems and then presented several of my Grant Wood ekphrastic poems. Today, I'm merging the two prompts again with another ekphrastic poem on Grant Wood — a tanka again like the one on his Woman with Plants a couple days ago. Doing the "requirements" of the Poem-a-Day prompt and then the NaPoWriMo prompt in order (and staying within the tanka's syllabics!). I really enjoyed writing this one. After Self-Portrait by Grant Wood (1941) From where I’m sitting, I see you, Grant Wood, golden, floateriffical, flesh balloon by farm windmill . . . no, an alien spaceship! —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] By the way, I cheated a little: rather an "odd/unusual simile" I used a metaphor, odd and unusual enough, I hope. "Self-Portrait" by Grant Wood (1941) https://www.wikiart.org/en/grant-wood Alan also did both prompts. He wrote me, "Directly address someone? Yes. Made-up word? Yes (try looking up the title). Odd/unusual simile? Yes. 'Fact'? Yes. Out-of-place something? Yes (see the simile). “From where I’m sitting”? Yes." Also, Alan has written an acrostic — where the first letters of the lines spell out something. Vermicastigational Really, you want chickens sick? From where I sit, I doubt you Know the consequences. Stunned Rural communities need Funds to prevent illness—you Know that. Herd immunity Rarely works in theory, Forget real life. Again, you Know that. Is this suicide Revengeful, like a worm dead From eating rotten brain cells? Kennedy or not, listen, Junior, you’re killing people. RFK would disown you. —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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