Monday, April 14, 2025

PAD Day 14: Attending the Symphony

 Today's prompts from Wrtie Better Poetry and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a "losing" poem, and (2) write " a poem that describes a place, particularly in terms of the animals, plants or other natural phenomena there. Sink into the sound of your location, and use a conversational tone. Incorporate slant rhymes (near or off-rhymes, like “angle” and “flamenco”) into your poem. And for an extra challenge – don’t reference birds or birdsong!" (Maureen uses a Kay Ryan poem as an example.)

This poem is a sort of take-off or elaboration of a verse from one of my older poems called "Start the Music," which was featured in Tiferet Maagazine several years ago.


Lost in the Chorus
 
A wild wisteria in the woods
droops with grape-like clusters
of flowers. I can sit here for hours
far from the bluster of people
with a book or notepad and pen.
 
I go there again and again
despite my fear of bees,
which hover by the dozens
above me
in the flower-fruit of this tree.
 
They are more concerned
with the blooms, so there is room
for both of us, me and the swarm,
on this warm day in May.
 
I could lose myself in the aroma,
drift into a spring coma,
lulled by the buzz above my head
that says, “You have nothing to dread—
let us serenade you—listen to us
and our monotone chorus,
our winged symphony.”

1 comment:

Vince Gotera said...

Bruce, great evocation of the place. Lovely.