{the #MoSt Poetry: 3}

Write a poem in response to this idea: The Graceful Stumble. This is a prompt from the contest portion of our MoSt 8th Annual Poetry Festival, which will be held on Saturday, February 1st, 2020. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, January 11th, 2020. For more information on Festival registration and contest submission, go to our website. Ready…Steady…Go~~~

Ach, stumbles – there’s nothing graceful about my stumbling, so this one is topically challenging! Mainly, the phrase “graceful stumble” reminded me of watching my eldest sister and her classmates wear high heels at their eighth grade graduation – I was so very impressed at their three-inch lift! Obviously, I must have ignored a lot of …erm, graceless flailing, but I was so impressed. Learning to stumble gracefully was a learned thing.

rising

peace to the road
we all are occupying –
as we race forth, our
goal becomes surviving

we runners fall –
pant on our backs, recover –
(despite good shoes, we
all fall, we discover)

this, our best hope
when life defies objective:
stumble with grace –
and falling, gain perspective.

all grace is learned
and learning graced with trying –
our stumbles, earned, mean
bruises preface flying.