Poetry Day #25

The prompt for today is a struggle, it tells us to use a long poem by James Schuyler as a guidepost – you can find that poem here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/32568/hymn-to-life it is incredibly long and if read aloud takes 34 minutes assuming you are reading at the appropriate tempo, and I have no idea what that is.  Then we got a ton of instructions on how to write poetry by Hoa Nguyen. Here are some but not all of said instructions:

*Bring your perspectives and verbs back to present tense

*Seek the “unforced flow of words”

*Introduce things you might normally deem incidental

*Include quoted speech       

*Build your lines with associative accumulation

*Include 4 colors

*Animate the landscapr

*Use a noun as a verb

*Ask a question

It keeps going on and on – I don’t even know what some of it means

We are to “free write” for 20 minutes and incorporate this laundry list of things. I will in fact free write for 20 minutes, like Schuyler, I will start each line with a capital letter, and I may try to work in four colors. The rest is a total crapshoot.

Haiku

Ask me to free write

View the inside of my brain

Try not to show fear

Set The Timer For Twenty

Typically when I wake up, I lay there and

Ponder a wild list of things.

Whatever runs through my mind is fair game.

One morning this week it was about a dream

I had where tiny elephants, newborn baby elephants

To be exact were dressed in adorable hand knitted

Sweaters and were frolicking about the yard. I was

So excited to see them, and could not wait to show

My sister, niece and wife, but sadly I woke up before

I was able to present my new found pets.

My next thought was, what if I had not woken up at all?

Morbid, to be sure, but it is good to ponder your own

Mortality on occasion, and then make sure you are

Prepared for it. What would happen? I guess people would be sad, some perhaps distraught for a short amount of time, some would not notice at all, and in later months ask “Oh when did that happen?” People

Would say things like “What a wonderful person she was” or “I never liked that bitch anyway”. There would be cards and flowers for my wife and immediate family, and in the days of COVID-19 there would be no service,

So I hope they would wait and hold some sort of Celebration at a later date, and let some people get up And speak. I hope they ask clever and witty people, you Should laugh and cry at death. It is the healthy thing to Do. You should also maybe drink too much for a few Days to numb the pain and some days you should just

Wallow around in it, until you get bored with that.

As I always do I checked the pandemic numbers to see

How many have been diagnosed with our new disease, how many countries has it hit, how many have died,

And then the stats for the United States, and my home

State of Illinois where my sister is a medical professional, and I look at California where my brother is also an essential worker. I don’t really call it praying,

But I say a little something in my head in hopes of

Protecting them from this new nemesis.

Unfortunately that brings me to our president, notice I Did not capitalize that – I never will while trump is in

Office, that is how little I respect him.

His recent idiocy will likely lead to some of his more

Devote followers killing themselves by drinking

Cleaning supplies to clean their lungs. He denies it now

Of course, that is his way. It is not a way of redemption,

Or true leadership, but really to put it quite simply,

Just the way an asshole behaves.

Am I really against a political cleansing of sorts, where

These brainless dopes that live and die by what

The donald says are removed from existence because They listened to him? I am not sure at all that that

Would make me sad. I am an odd mix of incredibly

Callous, and a huge softy, crying at all the new

Coronavirus commercials telling us to stay safe, and

All of the pet commercials, and many movie trailers,

I can literally cry at about anything to do with animals,

And also babies, but not so much with some adults.

Sometimes less is more, and I believe that with some

Of humanity too. I own my cruel thoughts and my ability

To be so mean and unfeeling. We all need to own

Everything we do and say and feel and act on. It is the

Right way to exist in this world.

There is good coming from this, pollution is down,

People are reconnecting in deeper and more

Meaningful ways, people are learning new technology

In an effort to stay connected. If you are swimming

Around in the shallow end of the pool, where I

Sometimes like to stay, you would be tickled pink

With yourself for figuring out how to become a

Potato on a zoom meeting, or a matzo ball. I

Just so happened to matzo ball my wife and myself on

One family call, it was funny – but not as funny as the

Potato, yet at least not creepy, like last night when I

Turned myself into my male twin, and my brother

Was staring back at me. I didn’t realize how much alike

We look! We have the same hands, and same giant

Calves, and apparently the same faces. So I learned

Something there. It was nice to see some of my

Family – I do miss some people, but not all.
I am looking forward to things like new patio furniture, This has brought out a nesting response in me, and I

Have to admit that I really sort of enjoy it.

I think the timer must surely be ready to go off

And save me or anyone else that braved this pile

Of gibberish from having to go on. Even my parrot

Has tucked her head under her wing in hopes that

The prattle of the keyboard will cease. I like this,

I was built for free writing, and I own it.