Saturday, April 29, 2017

PAD Day 29: A "Metric Poem" and an Ode to My Wheelbarrow

Before I start, I just want to thank Maureen Thorson for featuring my blog on her NaPoWriMo site. I guess she really enjoyed my silly skeltonic verse about skunks. Thanks, Maureen!

Today's dual prompts from Poetic Asides and NaPoWriMo: (1) write a poem about "metrics" (or, I presume, a poem in metrics), and (2) take a favorite poem, pick out one concrete noun from it, do five minutes of free writing from it, then make a new poem from the result.

For the first time all month, I wasn't able to combine both prompts into one poem. But that means  I have two new poems for today.  Here's the first:

A Metric Poem

We sometimes run kilometers
(5K is popular here).
We drink our Coke in liters,
and water, but not beer.

We briefly employed Celsius
(also known as Centigrade)
to tell just how hot we were,
but that trend began to fade.

We are a land of miles and feet,
and we're mostly metric-free.
If you're looking for a meter,
you'll still find it in poetry.

And yet, that's not quite true of Frost,
who talked of promises kept,
but not kilometers he must go
before he finally slept.


And here's my response to the NaPoWriMo prompt:

No White Chickens

wheelbarrow
you sat inverted, forlorn
in the garage all winter

until now,
hauled out for spring
and you have seen many -

chipped red paint
one screw lost from the frame
a  handle grip gone

when I push you empty
your bed bounces up and down
with a metal clatter

your wheel
slightly bent
has a slight wobble

you are rusting because
like Dr. Bill's wheelbarrow
you were left in the rain

but you still can haul
soil, or mulch, or plants
into the garden

you carry
that musty fresh earth smell
back and forth

unlike your famous cousin
you don't sit beside
the white chickens

but you are more alike
because so much does depend
on you


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Two fine poems. Especially appreciated the WCW reference. I used the same poem as a starting point myself today: https://rlavalette.wordpress.com/2017/04/29/30-in-30-27-free-verse/