PAD Challenge - Days 29 & 30

Today is the last day of the April 2010 Poem A Day Challenge.

Congratulations to everyone out there who wrote a poem a day, and congratulations to everyone else who wrote at least one thing this month that they wouldn't have otherwise written.

Thank you for reading everyone!

I have some exciting news I've been waiting to share with you all.

Two of my poems are going to be published in Phati'tude Literary Magazine!!!

This is the first time I've ever been published and am really excited. I'll post a link here to the online excerpts of the magazine once it's up on their site.

For payment of my poems (oh my, I'm actually receiving payment? Like a real author?!) they're sending me two copies of the magazine. :D

I think that's rather cute. I'd almost rather have those two copies than get actual money since it's my first time in print.

Help me choose!

Robert Brewer is inviting poets who participated in his challenge to submit five of their best poems from the month to be judged for Poet Laureate. I need some perspective on my own writing. Which five poems out of all that I've posted this month should I submit? Or maybe there aren't even five good ones and I shouldn't submit anything? Feel free to vote for which poems I should submit in the comments.

Award time!

Gracia is the obvious winner of this blog's PAD challenge for not only posting poems in the comments, but being brave enough to share her poetry with the world. Thanks, Gracia!

For such bravery, wit of tongue, bearing of your heart and honesty, I hereby give you the

Poetic Perseverance Award! Congratulations!

Now, onto the last poetry of the month...

Day 29 - Write a poem with the title "And Suddenly _______"

And suddenly, there were turtles

From the moment they hatch

Sand grits against their bodies erasing any chance

they have of being slimy.

Then they have to dig their way out of the sand

using only two flippers that are weak and heavy to lift.

They heave their little selves across

the beach to the ocean, hoping nothing will

catch or eat them on the way.

For every five flops of their fins, they rest,

limbs splayed out unashamedly from their bulbous shells.

Slowly and by no means surely, they leave

dimples in the sand as they move towards the ocean.

How they know which direction the ocean is, I don't know.

But they get there.

Can you imagine how good it feels, when, after what seems

like miles of scratchy sand grinding coarsely on bellies

that were made for soft water,

and hundreds of times of lifting heavy, bumbling arms

into the air and doing hundreds of push-ups just to get

to home, and feeling the strong call,

the irresistible pull of nature to get to the ocean,

can you imagine how good it feels after all that

for a little sea turtle to feel the first wave

come up to his chin and slide under his belly?

If you ever see a sea turtle during that first wave,

even though they've been pushing themselves for

hours, when they first feel water, they move faster,

like how a baby kicks when it gets excited.

I wonder, if after eighty years of swimming,

the sea turtle remembers that first experience

of swimming on sand.

Day 30 - Write a letting go poem.

I ended up writing two poems for today, partly because it's the last day, but also because I don't feel like my first poem will make any sense to anyone except for myself, and that's not fair to other people.

So I made an effort to crank out one last poem.

(Fitting that the titles of these last two poems rhyme.) :)

Tectonics of the Soul

Standing in the middle of a sphere

of several plates, with strings

attached leading back to be held

in the hands,

Each plate is a part of life, and each

string is our hold on things.

Spinning around so fast is what

keeps the plates through centrifugal force

outstretched, creating a planet around us.

And then, like the human skull,

over time the plates begin to fuse.

Fissures close around us and the strings

become useless.

Those parts of our lives that we had difficulty

in hanging onto and keeping in place,

become solid, stable and we sigh with relief.

But when we try to let go of a piece of the world

that we don't like, after holding it in place for so long,

we find that we have no control.

It's already fused, held in place.

Eventually, there's nothing more to do,

than let all the strings fall around us

and enjoy the person we have become.

It's hard to let go

The reason things are so hard to let go,

is because when it goes away,

we know there's a bit of ourselves

it's going to take with it.

It's hard parting with one's self,

but that's the whole purpose of letting go:

It's spring cleaning

for our minds.