Today marks the first day of the 30 Day Poetry Challenge. I will be posting my poems here and on 43 Things. Feel free to read, not read, critique, love, hate... but really what would be best is if YOU wrote 30 poems too!
It isn't the actual writing it is the the publishing that most of us have problems with. I guess I feel like we have to write a lot of crap before we write anything that is pretty ok. And the truth is that no one really cares if you write shitty poetry.
Yesterday StrangeAttractr on Twitter said yes to the challenge:
My daughter is taking a poetry writing class at Hendrix to fulfill a creative writing requirement. She really wanted non-fiction writing, but it was full. She does not like reading or writing poetry, but I shared with her that it is our legacy. My mom was an award winning poet who kept writing until she died. She was published, she won a bunch of poetry slams in her 60's and she was a prolific writer. It is something I am immensely proud of, even though it really does make the reference to Running with Scissors (please just read the book or see the film) oddly realistic.
So, because of my mom I feel that I can write poetry as well as anyone else. I don't feel like I am living in her shadow, instead I feel buoyed by her experience and ability. So to you, and my daughter, write crappy poetry. Post it on your blog, email me, tweet it - share it. There is something immensely freeing knowing that we are part of a poetic world.
Today's Poem:
Beautiful Brahma
Lying in the corner
pillowed by fresh hay
I gave it up
It's too hot
the pressure to lay an egg each day
the pecking by my brood
It isn't as if I didn't try
I am a first rate Brahma
beautiful in my white
regal feathers
Bred for Chinese royalty
so long ago
I grace this small
Ozark farm with my
commanding presence
My feathers filled the
air with boundless joy
molting during the summer heat
Raised from a chick
in this peasants land
sharing my royal spirit
This last August day
my heart was heavy
as I entered the coop
to sleep the eternal
In memory of our beloved Brahma chicken who died August 20, 2010
