This month’s prompt comes from The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach, edited by Robin Behn and Chase Twichell. The idea is to write a poem in which we build and/or take apart something for our reader. I tried this several ways and am going to include two attempts here.
Building the Backyard
Liz Garton Scanlon
The backyard isn’t made of
lawn or lounge chair
so much as property line,
fence post and picket –
a frame with the power
to make the picture
to shape the soil and sod
to direct the sprinklers
to contain the thistles
hackberry and dandelions,
to determine where
the swing set should sit,
where there might be
a slice of shade
over the kiddie pool,
where a patch of grass
gone brown remains
once the pool is drained
once the dog’s tracked in the mud
once the babies have outgrown
the pool, the fence
the frame, leaving
behind the bed and block
of childhood
Deconstructing a Mushroom
Liz Garton Scanlon
It is the cap I notice,
round and rusty red,
like a driving cap
my grandfather
might’ve worn
And tucked beneath it,
these papery gills,
that strong stem,
this ring and cup,
pushed open
as an Elizabethan collar
by the rusty-red cap
by the strong stem built atop
mycelium, the threads of family
Go here to read the others:
Tricia
Tanita
Mary Lee
Laura
And thanks to Carol Varsalona for hosting Poetry Friday this week!
