read write prompt #113, the therapeutic cleanse – a spa for your writerly being
by mary biddinger
Getting stuck in a poetic writing rut? That’s the question, then response for this week’s prompt.
(Read the RWP prompt for full descriptive details.)
(Read other participants responses to this prompt.)
Read my second poem prompt response here.
Writing you
Maybe if I write one good poem
that will satisfy my life!
Maybe life don’t care about poetry.
Maybe, just me.
Maybe that’s what’s meant to be.
Here, take this spoon. Tell me.
Tell me when you think it’s full.
Take salt & pepper from the table.
Bare plate. Two chairs.
Your choice. Throw something over
your shoulder. Salt? Pepper? Me?
Keep the others for your pocket.
I’ll try to fit. Am I in your palm?
But it’s all up to you.
And all down to me.
Maybe if I love one woman, one friend,
with all heart unbleached, that will be
a life!
Maybe that’s what poem means?
Neil Reid © February 2010
bearly audible 
Maybe if I write one good poem
that will satisfy my life!
Or maybe it won’t by itself. But it is a wonderful place to start and to come back to as regularly as possible.
I am reminded of the words from the Russian folksong: “May your life be as a song…” The connection between life and art is both metaphorical and foundational. Nice, Neil!
Maybe it’s the sound in the background? Kind of meant it, and kind of not (but “not” is so persona non grata).
Thank you Paul.
………the thing with the banquet of writing is that where my blog is the entrée your poetry is the glass of wine………and you can never be satisified with just one glass of wine
And you are also the dessert! Very kind of you Sean.
Twaddle!.A young bloke like you should be sampling the smorgasboard ,partying ,get on down and boogie. Take a slow boat to China.Save the checked slippers and the smoking jacket for later.There are plenty of poems in you yet. Life is not a dress rehearsal. What’s that song..Life is a Cabaret old chum!And a poem means life.Vive la vie!It’s
Friday night here and I’m having a few wines myself .
Cheers
This piece is very interesting, but the second stanza really spoke to me…to have poetry mean so much, and have no one understand or take you seriously…these words are something that will stay with me.
Thank you Cynthia.
Knocked my socks off with this, Neil.
I am in agreement with Cynthia regarding that second verse…
Thanks Mark.
‘Lo, Neil. Was wondering where you were. I like the spoon. Also the “choice”–funny, sly, and sad at once. Of course, the sparer the poem the closer the reader comes to him/herself.
Thanks Barbara. That’s an interesting comment you ended with… hadn’t thought about that aspect. Thanks.
(And my head still feels swimming from the last mini-challenge, and actually the one before that too. So Thursday just crept up on me.)
“And all down to me”
That’s the key, IMO. You must satisfy yourself first. Whether anyone else “gets” ones words is really beside the point. We must own our words, our thoughts. The rest will follow.
Thanks zouxzoux! And how to have both? Wouldn’t that be a world! Where is it that all truth is one? (And you’re right too.)
Oh poop. Charlotte is me. I was logged in to my other WP account. meh
A rose by any name… so thanks, twice!
Maybe life is all of these and none at all. Perhaps our life only lives in the perceptions and memories of others — affording us the possibility to be eternal, or fleetingly temporal… and what is ours to hold is only our matter of opinion?
What’s the relationship between art and life? I think Paul’s words kind of hit the mark.
But this one didn’t really break out Neil.
One good poem will call forth another, probably. And it is down to each. I liked that imagery. This one feels so wistful, hopeful and fearful. Kind of like life.
good one Neil…..just let it BE…cheers
Thank you all and I appreciate your attention, kind remarks.
I am once again way behind the mark, so it’s a morning for moving on before I’m late even more. Thank you.