Slowly keeping up with the challenge. The following two poems I wrote while I was waiting for my tax appointment to begin. I typed them on my phone in an email to myself.
Poetry can strike anywhere even in a tax office!
The first one is about cliches because whenever I sit to write poetry, I find myself facing them as though they are dragons (hm, maybe that is another poem in the making). However, I find that during these challenges I always end up writing about writing and it takes me a bit to start writing about something other than writing and time (clearly these things take the forefront of my mind, ha.).
So, as a challenge to myself to write about something else, I wrote Poem 5. For example essays, I often use the topic of cake to show that you can argue about anything for my students and it is a fairly benign topic that allows them focus on structure instead of content. So, it was a default choice I think. However, I've always thought of donuts as really just cake for breakfast, and that is what this poem started as -- merely pointing that out -- and then it took on a life of its own as most writing should.
Both poems surprised me in some way. The cliche poem I started as an attempt to defend the occasional use of cliches, but instead, I ended up explaining exactly why I dread them. The cake poem, well, you'll see.
NPMC15 Poem 4:
"No cake for Breakfast"
Or maybe coffee cake
It is all that is left in your fridge
And it might go bad later
or someone else might eat it first
Or you enjoy it as an appetizer
Something to hold you over while the eggs sizzle
It is the day after your birthday
And you are hung over
Or you never went to sleep
as long as you don't eat it at the table
Eat it standing up in your underwear
Crumbs bouncing down your chest
Icing clinging to the corners of your mouth
And you can damn well eat cake for breakfast
Poetry can strike anywhere even in a tax office!
The first one is about cliches because whenever I sit to write poetry, I find myself facing them as though they are dragons (hm, maybe that is another poem in the making). However, I find that during these challenges I always end up writing about writing and it takes me a bit to start writing about something other than writing and time (clearly these things take the forefront of my mind, ha.).
So, as a challenge to myself to write about something else, I wrote Poem 5. For example essays, I often use the topic of cake to show that you can argue about anything for my students and it is a fairly benign topic that allows them focus on structure instead of content. So, it was a default choice I think. However, I've always thought of donuts as really just cake for breakfast, and that is what this poem started as -- merely pointing that out -- and then it took on a life of its own as most writing should.
Both poems surprised me in some way. The cliche poem I started as an attempt to defend the occasional use of cliches, but instead, I ended up explaining exactly why I dread them. The cake poem, well, you'll see.
NPMC15 Poem 4:
| |||
"The Problem with Cliches"
Why must I fear
That if I write about my heart
It will be dressed in cliche
And dismissed?
That if I write about my heart
It will be dressed in cliche
And dismissed?
If my heart beats just like yours
A trillion trillion times
Is it not meaningful?
A trillion trillion times
Is it not meaningful?
If my roses are just as red as yours
Does saying so make it somehow
Less true?
Does saying so make it somehow
Less true?
Does anyone steal things
If they have no value?
If they have no value?
But therein lies the guilt.
How can I speak my truth
With stolen words?
How can I speak my truth
With stolen words?
Even if my truth is your truth
Even if our experiences
are universally shared in private
What is yours can never really be mine
What is mine can never be yours
Even if our experiences
are universally shared in private
What is yours can never really be mine
What is mine can never be yours
To imply otherwise
even through cliche
Is immdiately false
Immediately empty
Even if it's true
even through cliche
Is immdiately false
Immediately empty
Even if it's true
Npmc15 Poem 5:
"No cake for Breakfast"
he didn't convince our parents otherwise
And as we aged he didn't convince us
And as we aged he didn't convince us
either
You can't have cake for breakfast
Unless. . .
It is round
And small
With a hole in the middle
Or filled with cream
Or jelly
Or sold as one of a dozen
With coffee
Or orange juice or milk
And not called cake at all
And small
With a hole in the middle
Or filled with cream
Or jelly
Or sold as one of a dozen
With coffee
Or orange juice or milk
And not called cake at all
Or maybe coffee cake
Otherwise, no cake for breakfast.
Absolutely not.
Absolutely not.
Unless...
It is all that is left in your fridge
And it might go bad later
or someone else might eat it first
Or you enjoy it as an appetizer
Something to hold you over while the eggs sizzle
Or maybe if
It is the day after your birthday
And you are hung over
Or you never went to sleep
as long as you don't eat it at the table
Eat it standing up in your underwear
Crumbs bouncing down your chest
Icing clinging to the corners of your mouth
and you can't quite be held accountable for your actions
And it isn't really breakfast anyway
And it isn't really breakfast anyway
Or because you are an adult
And you can damn well eat cake for breakfast
if you damn well please
Yes. Except for those reasons. . .
There is no cake for breakfast.
There is no cake for breakfast.
Comments
Post a Comment