I’ve participated in the Writer’s Digest Poem A Day challenge in November and April since 2007. This April I’m having a tough time staying away from the coronavirus pandemic topic and how it’s affecting me as I participate in social distancing. As a result many of my poems are about the COVID-19.
Here’s a small sample from the fourteen I’ve written so far, and please remember these are just first drafts.
Write a new world poem. There are new worlds and there are new worlds. You could write a poem about discovery of an actual planet. Or maybe your new world is actually a state of mind—or a series of books! In a way, I consider each new challenge a bit of a new world. Let’s explore this one together.
The outdoors near my home
has become a whole new world
for me. For years
I exercised indoors in a dingy lit
gym surrounded by folks
I’d see everyday – some saying hi
others too intent to break a smile.
Now my gym is closed, and those folks
are scattered in all directions
like me. I walk in the mornings now
through a new part of my city every day.
Today I walked for a while north
on our woody mulch path
surrounded by a plush garden
of trees and bushes of all kinds.
After a while it became too squishy for me,
so I turned back and walked
on the sidewalks to my town’s
south end – admiring in the variety
of beautiful homes squeezed
closely together along the way.
All the while I had to
side-step away from people
coming upon me to keep my distance.
We have to do that these days
of quarantine to stay safe.
I couldn’t even yell wait up
At the man a half a block ahead of me.
He is a guy from the gym.
I’d know him from his walk
and bowled legs any day.
- Write a lucky poem and/or…
- Write an unlucky poem.
Dumb Luck
Luck is in danger
of becoming obsolete.
Instead of luck
we need to work hard
to get what we need
and help others as well.
We just can’t sit back
on our haunches and expect
dumb luck to find us
and make everything better.
That’s not the way
it works anymore.
Our sick and dying world
needs a lot more than luck.
Write a time poem. I don’t know about you, but I’ve felt in a time warp the past couple weeks—with a day feeling like a week (or even a month) and a week feeling much longer. So your poem can about that, or it can deal with time travel. Or write about being late, being early, or right on time. Heck, do a countdown. There’s no time like the present.
Time has changed
now that I’m stuck inside.
I don’t have to be anywhere
on time anymore.
I rarely set my alarm,
I don’t have a gym to get to
In the morning’s wee hours,
I don’t have to be at
my writing desk anytime soon.
I can drag out whatever chores I have
over the course of my long, long day,
over time that feels still, forever,
and eerily empty and calm.
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