Thursday, April 3, 2025

PAD 3: Sculpting Words

 Today's prompts from Write Better Poetry and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a "short" poem (a short-form powm and/or a poem about something short), and (2) " write a poem that obliquely explains why you are a poet and not some other kind of artist – or, if you think of yourself as more of a musician or painter (or school bus driver or scuba diver or expert on medieval Maltese banking) – explain why you are that and not something else!"

II don't know how "oblique" my poem is today - it's a pretty starightforward metaphor - but here it is, in two verses of the Spanish short form called the shadorma (six lines with syllable count of 3/5/3/3/7/5.)

Why I Am Not a Sculptor 

If I were a sculptor,
But then again, no… Elton John
 
When I chip
and chisel down words,
grind, polish,
sand and buff,
there’s a luster to the form,
the shape of language.
 
But if I
tried all this with rock,
it would crack
and splinter,
my chisel just a weapon,
rubble on the floor.

2 comments:

Vince Gotera said...

Wonderful. Great job with the shadormas!

Vince Gotera said...

I tried to tell you earlier but I guess it didn't take. You inspired me to write me two shadormas too. I added another. Take a look!