If at first there is no flutter
Will there be no flight?
A caterpillar must chrysalis
Before it butterflies alight
For those that always seek
It is what should be sought
At last let go of think
Find feeling, more than thought
Tag: Poems
Sidequests for December Part 2
There are mostly fails, though some things are resulting in plans for the next few months. The ones that will eventually get done include playing a board game (my boyfriend is curious about the big Descent box I’ve got sitting with my game stuff, and I’ve never really played it either, so we may break it out and try it soon), working out (owing to the revolving door nature of the most stereotypical New Year’s Resolution, and an ongoing gym membership I haven’t been utilizing), cleaning out my car (keep telling myself I will, but lazy and it’s cold out), and visiting a local museum (less than local, but I’ve been wanting to check out the museum of osteology in OKC).
There were a few that I might have done but I didn’t really pick out one particular moment or instance for it. One card said to put on my favorite outfit. I don’t really have a particular favorite, but I do have some clothes I tend to gravitate to, and I’ve worn those multiple times this month. One involves doing something kind that my future self will appreciate. I’m sure I’ve done something or other at some point or other.
Then there were simpler creative ones that I could say I definitely did. One included building a Lego set (or doing a puzzle) and I had actually bought some Lego sunflowers a few months ago. So I finally sat myself down and put them together. The other included making or crafting something by hand, and quite similarly I had bought a Woobles kit months ago and never gotten to it. So I did that. The end result is cute but also kinda not and crocheting just really cramps my hands. I don’t think I’ll ever get into it.
But sometimes you don’t know what sorts of things you’ll enjoy until you try them.
The last two are basically the same thing. One is to write a poem, and the other is to write a poem or song about something I experience that day. I don’t mind writing poems, but have been feeling fairly uninspired, so despite them seeming like simple ones to complete I’ve saved them very last minute.
I suppose it would be cheating to do one and say it counts for both? So how about two very off-the-cuff haiku.
Quick one about something that happened today:
You are a grown man
Talk on your own damn cellphone
What in the fuck, dude
First customer I helped today called his doctor’s office and then proceeded to hold up his phone so I could talk to them for him. I don’t mind when someone presents with an issue and talking directly to the doctor’s office will help solve it (usually in that case I’m dialing the doc myself). But this was someone calling for refills. I already sent a request for that as well. After I make the verbal request for him because he had shoved his phone up to my face to speak for him, he asked the office staff, “so can you just tell the pharmacy to fill it for me?” and was told that the doctor would have to review it and send the refill later. This is pretty standard for most doctor offices, but completely boggled him, and he seemed to think it was stupid that he’d have to wait.
Next quicky haiku:
quick, eager, happy
a morning smile to greet me
on this lazy day
I will try to make up for lazy poetry’ness in April. We are doing a more laid back April Poetry Month, updating either Tuesday or Wednesday every week. Since there are 5 of those in April, there will be 5 weekly poems that month. I will also be updating tomorrow with the new conditions for the 2025 Writing Challenge my friend and I will be doing, and I will update later tonight with my reading list for 2024.
As far as the Sidequests go, I think they were pretty fun, even though I mostly failed or lazied out of a lot of it. None of them were too hard or impossible, and for some that might be difficult they provide alternatives. There are some cards that don’t take a situation into consideration (farmer’s markets aren’t daily, so that would have to be a repull if you got it on a non-farmer’s market day, and depending on the weather I might not want to complete a few of the things). I might randomly pull cards on the occasional bored day off for ideas in the future. Compared to some other challenge cards and books I’ve seen, none of these were out to push you too far out of your boundaries. I definitely recommend them.
The Wait
After awhile they all become amalgam
A blur of possibilities, never becoming
The same emotions, hopes, obsessions
The same disappointment
Tying it all together at the end.
You were also a disappointment
With a different luster
The only exception
That never blurred.
Twenty years of fidelity
And Penelope is rewarded
With a return.
Twenty years is too long
But I have counted
Knowing to expect nothing.
Sir
Darling boy
Everything about you would destroy
Everything about me and yet
And yet
I desire that destruction.
Make me your toy.
And we have reached the last day of April, and finished the poetry challenge! I got lazy here at the finish line and am using the last of my built up lee-ways that I wrote before April started. The other two lee-way poems were April 16th’s “communication” and April 23rd’s “The Game.”
Strangely, up until this week, it hasn’t been too hard to write any of the poems. I don’t typically consider myself a “poetry person,” but I’m thinking I might start cycling it into the rotation. Although I have been awful at keeping up with my story prompt cards, I would like to start getting back into that. And I keep telling myself I need to get back into painting too. Ideally, I would like to do the following things every week: the Sidequest update, a prompted response (either from one of the daily prompts or flash fiction from the storymatic prompt cards), a poem, a painting, and perhaps a serial story. But, I am fairly lazy and I doubt I will do all of that every week. We’ll see if I can at least do a few though.
Regardless of what I intend, things may get a bit quiet after this. Now that we’ve been done with the 2023 Writing Challenge for a month and have had some time to sit on it, my friend and I are going to compile the chapters, exchange feedback, and work on rewrites, with the goal of slapping the polished products on Amazon’s self publishing by 2025. So no serial updates of any sort this year as we finish that out. But once we’re done with that, we can start a 2025 writing challenge.
sealed
i saw it in a movie once.
the best place for a secret –
go deep into the mountains
whisper it into the hollow of a tree
and seal it with mud.
leave it behind you.
why do we do this to ourselves?
harbor these things
and wish to share them?
throwing unspoken desires digitally
anonymously to strangers
in the form of unsent letters
postcard secrets, poems
missed connections, music
and indulging in the idea
that maybe they will see…
or maybe it is the hope.
that maybe you will see
where your secret reached for you?
don’t do this to yourself.
no one is reaching for you.
it is time to let go.
find a hollow to whisper into.
let it out. seal it.
and leave it behind you.
(Non poem related addendums, the movie is In The Mood For Love and it’s fucking beautiful, and I just googled it and can’t believe PostSecret is still running, and every time I sign up for reddit I get sucked into reading Unsent Letters. There is something compelling and beautiful about the things we can and can’t let go of.)
mehryment 