April is National Poetry Month. For fun, and in honor of great poetry the world over, I’ll provide a writing prompt each day. Feel free to respond to the prompt, or ignore it if it doesn’t suit you. The goal here is to write a little every day, if for no other reason than to experience the joy of writing. I imagine that not every prompt will inspire a full poem, but like Natalie Goldberg espouses, we’re going to write for the practice of writing.
If you would like, you may email your responses directly to me at aprilpameticky@hotmail.com, or leave your efforts in the comment section below each day’s prompt. I would be happy to share work and links back to bloggers and poets that have decided to participate.
Many of you may already have a poem or piece that fits the prompt, but try to write and share something new. Flex muscles. Write. You can always revise later.
Prompt #3: Parenthood
Motherhood has been the most significant moment of my life, but it was something I dreamed of long before I was ever pregnant. Having said that, I have a number of friends that NEVER want to be parents, and I can respect that desire. Write a poem about your own feelings on the subject.
And just for fun… my poem, while not new, did inspire the prompt:
(I am hoping to write a new one for today’s prompt)
“She Sleeps”
I am not afraid of the dark,
but fear silence too long still.
I reach out in the night,
across cool cotton sheets,
check her tiny, sleeping form
a half-dozen times. If she is
quiet beyond my inhale, my
breath stops, my heart tripping.
I stroke her to a mild whimper
just to be sure that she lives
beyond today, maybe to be a
prom date, or a graduate student,
or a mother in her own right.
I think of my mother lying still
and listening with her whole body
for a tiny mew in the darkness.
To visit that previous post: https://aprilpameticky.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/she-sleeps/