April 2016 Poetry A Day: Week 2/5

Week 2 of the Poem A Day challenge.  It's been a little harder to keep with it because I'm not adding these into my NaNo Camp project, at least not yet, but it's fun.  One of them might make their way into my NaNoWriMo project or another work (My Rock Falls series does have a few writers within.) So Monday's poem theme was distance.  Seriously, 2016 April PAD Challenge: Day 4 is to write a distance poem.  Upon reading this, my brain compared how I learned to tell distance with that of those who learned to use meters or miles.  Surprisingly, this poem gave me it's title before I even started letting it flow.

Varieties of Distance

They say distance makes the heart fonder

yet they contradict with

long-distance relationships won’t work

For distance between cities I’ve noticed

While several use miles and kilometers

Even more go by time

Distance works in length of songs, books, movies, too

But nothing is nearly as long

as the distance of a life

Nothing is as short either

For some life is ended at the start

Gone before they truly live

Others go beyond the distance of their life

Known generations later

For distance is just a measurement

2016 April PAD Challenge: Day 5 was actually a "two-prompt challenge."  He gave us the option to write an experienced or an inexperienced poem.  Since the word experience can refer to so many things, I have to agree with Robert Lee Brewer, the author of these posts, that this should provide a large selection of poems.  My attempt at an experienced/inexperienced poem is actually slightly influenced by the series Dancing With The Stars.  No, I haven't given it a title, but if you have suggestions, don't be shy.  Leave it in the comments!

They dance as gazelles run or grass waves

Magic leads every step

It’s so hard to know

just who is the professional and whom is new

Then there are those who

obviously have two left feet

stumbling, bumbling, and no sense of rhythm

dancing on a stage just to have fun

Does experience always matter

when you love what you’re doing

or when the story is so compelling

it makes a person forget the dismal dance they see

Day 6 was a bit harder for me to actually focus on.  Okay, so it was nearly impossible for me.  2016 April PAD Challenge: Day 6 was to write an "ekphrastic poem".  I'm so glad Brewer gave a definition for this and provides his own example of the poems.  Anyone who knows me well, knows that anything can be inspiration for a new piece of work.  In fact I couldn't tell you the number of times a picture I saw was the inspiration for a person or piece of work.  Look at my NaNo Camp project...it was inspired by a picture I took on my phone!  Either way, apparently an ekphrastic poem is inspired by a piece of art.  For mine I took a pic that I had saved to my husband's computer that had originally been shared by a friend (or was it group?) on Facebook.

Chained by a warrior

Of unrivaled power

She reeks of goodness

Though she appears dark

She seems almost calming

To the ghostly image 

Of a creature much worse

than any she'd known 

It came from a time

ere humans e'er lived

A time populated with

creatures more noble than she

The strength the pair exudes

The grace and nobility within

They eclipse all making night

seem like day and day like night

They overpower even Arthur

with his noble ideals and 

Knights of the Round Table

This flying creature and it's majestic captor

Apparently once again there was no title forthcoming from this poem.  Any suggestions are, as always, helpful.

2016 April PAD Challenge: Day 7 marked the end of the first week which is surprising as the month seems to be flying by.  This time the prompt is "Urban _________".  All I can think is 

URBAN RANGER

Tracking in the sewers

City streets make no difference

This hunter is at home

in a bustling city or minuscule village

They have no need

of learning the ways of the wild

or patterns of the tides

Not when they can weave through a metropolis

They've learned to track in the merchant's home

or through a thieves'guild's den

The urban ranger is no tracker of the wild

they are the bounty hunter of the old days

2016 April PAD Challenge: Day 8 had a prompt that gave me a bit of a memorable trip.  He says to write a doodle poem.  So here's my attempt and a title as well!

DOODLE TO A MASTERPIECE

I sit bored as I wait

Can't help myself 

On the blank page before me

I take a pencil and mark

The lines take a life of their own

the swirls expand to create

a picture of their own

A masterpiece from a doodle

I can't stop the connections

I can't remove the pencil

I don't remember why 

I was so bored before

For 2016 April PAD Challenge: Day 9, we were challenged to write a Hide Out poem.  As you'll see, my hideouts have never been in a physical place.  Likely they never will be. 

HIDEOUTS IN THE PAGES

Pull the blanket over your head

Grab the flashlight from beside your bed.

Disappear a bit from a cruel, cruel world

Into one we know will end happily

It may take hours days, weeks or years

But through the tears a smile will emerge

As each journey ends A forced return

From the hideout that exists between the pages

The stories that are used to hide away

from cruelties of a modern world

Hidden from our injustices 

by following the heroes of other worlds

That's where my hideouts are

They're between the pages of stories

The images in daydreams 

My hideouts have never been on this physical plane

Yes, a library worked 

So would a bed or chair or even hidden room

They weren't where I disappeared to though

It was in the stories on the paper in my hands

It was the romance of the wild west

The adventures in far off lands

Mysteries that needed solving

These are still the hideouts I seek

Today is day 10 out of 30.  A third of the way through the challenge and while I might not have written them daily, I'm proud to say that I have written a poem so far for each challenge.  So today's challenge, 2016 April PAD Challenge: Day 10, the prompt was to write a poem about an emotion using said emotion for the title.  With the wealth of emotions and their synonyms available for usage, I think the option  are endless.  So, here's my attempt.  Hoping you enjoy it!

JUBILANT

Joyous

Until the end

Birth is its beginning

Intelligence unneeded

Love can cause it

As well as

Numerous other events

Transcending most emotions