2022 Poem-A-Day Challenge, Prompts (Days) 15 & 16

I definitely planned to do a reorganization of my book’s Chapter One.

Instead, I’m writing poetry and this blog post. WHOOPS. I’m technically in a writing Meetup right now.

When the line dies down at the coffee shop I’m sitting in, I’ll go get a refill on my coffee. I had a gluten free chocolate donut with my first cup. Dietary alternatives have come such a long way that you can’t really tell the difference. I’ll eat any kind of donut, though. And I’m a sucker for blueberry cake donuts.

Anyway, Happy Easter to those who celebrate. I’ll be celebrating with a low-key brunch involving my first attempt at a lamb cake. (Yes, a lamb-shaped cake. It’s such a thing that even Wilton, the cake tin manufacturer, carried a mold for the lamb cake. I borrowed mine from a neighbor.)

Prompt (Day) 15: Write a Patience Poem

Tanka time! Finally. This one’s about waiting for my tintype to develop.

Tanka are supposed to have 5 lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables. The example given at Writer’s Digest seems to count contractions as syllables. I don’t, personally.

Waves of solution
ripple across the glass plate.
Shapes, then faces,
emerge from chemical depths.
A few minutes more we wait.

Prompt (Day) 16: Write a Touch Poem

A callback to a frustrating experience: Falling down at the Veloway. Other than the hills, I highly recommend the experience of skating or cycling that trail!

This one is nonet style: Nine lines with decreasing word counts from 9-1. I practiced this form last weekend to decent success. Figured I’d try here.

Let us set the scene: I skate the Veloway—
rarely—on account of a few steep hills.
On roller skates, it’s best to carve
down each hill; tamp the velocity
otherwise, you might lose balance.
I lost it once
felt the asphalt
scrape my
body.