It’s been a while since I’ve participated in a Poetry Stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect. In fact, I haven’t been doing daily poems, either. I had to put that ritual and several others on hiatus this winter in order to meet deadlines. It’s been about two months now without some of my daily creative habits, and I’m missing them!
Anyway, I read Tricia’s poetry prompt early this week, and Wednesday, I woke up with this poem blowing around in my head. It’s rough, but it was fun just to give myself a few minutes to actually get it down onto the screen!
This week’s prompt was to write a poem about your favorite way to travel. Here’s mine:
I Sailed a Poem to the Grocery Store
I sailed a poem to the grocery store
The bus was late
My bike had a flat
I was too lazy to walk
But it was all right
Words like "feather" and "easement" billowed the sails
and I floated right over the asphalt, above the exhaust
anchored by the twin hulls of "only" and "below"
I took aboard two brown grocery bags,
raced waves down Portland Avenue,
and tried to keep apples and cheddar cheese and Diet Coke
from spilling overboard onto the real world
(I think one apple hit a taxi,
but I considered that fair exchange
for the nightmare ride to
Dance Expo last month, when the driver
didn’t even look before
streaking onto wild, honking 3rd Street)
I tacked the poem
tried to control the wind
until I woke up
and realized I was wasting a perfect sailing day
So I just followed the lead of the breeze
I climbed its mast up into clouds and
let the poem sail itself
–Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved
You can still participate in the Poetry Stretch–it’s not too late! And don’t forget to take some time to enjoy this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at Becky’s Book Reviews.