A Poem and a 2-Line Poetry Prompt #3
Where will this prompt take your writing voice?
This week I hit “yes I will attend” on a Meet Up poetry group’s weekly Zoom Call meeting. The description on the event page said to choose one of three poetry prompts. Being the overachiever that I am, (or chronic over-YES-ing addict, you decide), I did all three. This is my poem response to the third prompt:
Framing your poem. Select one of the following pairs of sentences. Free-write by adding images, characters, ideas to these sentences. The sentences can appear anywhere in your future poem: beginning, middle, end, even back-to-back.
Prompt 3
Opener:
One of these days the earth is going to be covered with a giant spider web.
Closer:
But the burden of proof is in their hands, not mine.
Given the language of these sentences is so far out of my poetic voice, I found this to be a rather challenging prompt. I am not sure if I will leave the poem in its original version or later edit out the prompt and allow the poem to take on its own creative direction, but I thought I’d share my response and invite you to write your own, if you like. Here is my poem:
Mornings
One of these days the earth is going to be covered with a giant spider web, She said over coffee, the haze of morning still in her eyes. She was never altogether good with mornings.
I shifted my weight off a buzzing foot and stamped it on the floor. She took no notice of me, contemplating the ruins of Earth, and all.
I fingered the edge of my glass. That spot where the glass isn’t quite smooth, a lump I tried to avoid with my tongue, it being irregular and I being one to notice such things.
What makes you say that, my Dear? I asked, at length. I could have toyed with her, offered up my counter arguments as quickly as I offered her more sugar or cream.
But the burden of proof is in her hands, not mine.
Poetry prompts are a very healthy exercise for poets to do. They dislodged us from creative style and form ruts that we tend to fall into with our poems. It is so easy to get into that space where all of our work begins looking and sounding the same. For the poet, practice is just as important as it is for the athlete, the public speaker, the surgeon. Practice may not necessarily make perfect, but it will challenge your creative voice to speak in new and compelling ways.