Poetry Peeps! You’re invited to join our September poetry challenge!

Here’s the scoop: this month our delightful challenge comes from Colby Sharp’s book THE CREATIVITY PROJECT on page 257: “It was all my fault.” Peeps will be writing a poem that uses either this exact phrase, the idea of fault mentally, physically, or spiritually, things being your fault, somebody or anybody else’s fault, or nobody’s at all – this phrase is really a jumping off point for you to create a poem that speaks to you. Are you in? Good! Be ready to share September 25th in a blog post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. See you then!

Dear ones, this will be a short post. I am six thousand words from hitting my word count, writing flat out to hit an early September deadline (and itching to begin the all-important pare-down-and-polish stage of revision), so am so grateful that our prompt this month was relatively simple. Of course, relatively is an important word here. A haiku or a sonnet are their own delight, and the two together give one the opportunity to write a string of haiku with an envoi. I was prepared to lock in topically with a bright effulgence of natural wonder. I had thoughts. I had plans! Of course, as always happens, a throwaway comment derailed me entirely.

As I am dead serious about deadlines, I had to phone a former student to decline an invite to her mother’s birthday party (It’s a Zumba party. Can you think of another fête so delightfully original? Ice water, Latin music, and a built-in end point: et voila, perfection.) My autoimmune disorders parcel out even more limited spoons under stress, so I must prioritize. “We really need to reschedule,” my friend said. “It goes by too fast – we need to make time.” Remember I said she was a former student? I subbed seventh grade science while she blushed tomato red through reading aloud about the mating cycles of grasshoppers. It is bittersweet to hear someone in her thirties say that life is going too fast – and yet, like all of us, she knows. She’s lost family members and friends.

“Gather ye rosebuds,” my English major hindbrain lectured. As thoughts often do, that one seeped into the haiku I constructed. I am generally obsessed with season changes and autumn is low-hanging fruit for rhapsody, but I was firmly set on NOT doing that this time, and …well, here we are. Next time, friends. Next time.

Peeps who understood the assignment better include Tricia, whose post is here. Sara’s post is here. Liz’s post is here. Mary Lee’s post is here. You’ll find Laura’s poem here. Karen E’s is here, and Margaret still life poem is here. Linda Mitchell’s poem is here. More Peeps may pop in throughout the weekend to post their haiku-nets, so check back for the full round-up, and I’ll post ’em as I find ’em. Poetry Friday meanwhile is graciously hosted this week by Mona Voelkel – thank you for accompanying us on a joyride this week, Mona.

Unfinished

UNFINISHED

a fog dissolving,
summer subsides. no warning
how is it august?

singing still, crickets
cry aloud. before sunglow
Owl’s last query comes

morning surfaces,
rumpled like seersucker, day
staggers into view

too soon. it’s past noon
days both last forever, and
never long enough

abrupt as a leaf released
a life, littered in changes

I’m back to it, beloveds. Those going back into the classroom or the library, I see you. Those dealing with insane schedules, too many responsibilities and things bearing down on you – boy do I see you. Even if nothing feels as it should, and you’re being required to pull a rabbit out of a hat that only holds guinea pigs, know that you can relax in your weirdness, your mistakes, and your random coping mechanisms because you are just fine and enough and perfect as the light of a clear blue morning. Before you know it, you’ll have done the thing!🎩 As always, you are so, so loved.