Friday, April 30, 2010

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.

2 comments:

  1. Wow! That is so exciting, you getting published! Awesome! Which two poems are going in the magazine? ...I suppose you couldn't post them to your blog, could you?

    Haha, why thank you for the award. I am honored, and a bit surprised. I mean, the competition was tough, and I would have never guessed I'd "win". Haha, yes, I am being 100% sarcastic.... No, in all seriousness, thank you. It is an excellent display of photo-shopping. :)

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  2. I like both "And suddenly, there were turtles" and "Tectonics of the Soul". I'd consider both of those for your five. Also, congratulations on getting published!

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