Thirty Days of Poetry: NaPoWriMo Day 1

I am so excited! Today marks the first day of NaPoWriMo; the wonderful holiday (challenge? festival? I don’t know.) that asks that we push ourselves as writers and as interactive creative beings. I’ve been doing so much blogging and writing for work that poetry and fiction have gotten pushed to the back burner. I can’t wait to do some creative writing. But bear with me, it’s been a while! I’m a little rusty.

NaPoWriMo  publishes a prompt every day for the month of April. I may not always use the prompt, or I may change it a bit, but it’s always nice to have a jumping of point. Today’s prompt suggests that we start our poems with the first line of a famous poem and then take it somewhere new. I dislike the idea of using someone else’s words in my work though, so although I used a line from Pablo Neruda as my prompt, I didn’t include it in the final poem.

(The line I used was from Vuelve el Otono or, Autumn Returns. It was the first line, “A day dressed in mourning falls from the bells”)

Pink Flowers Bloom First

The morning cracked alive

with a bite deep in the flesh

of a perfect apple.

Blossoms fell pinkly to where

petals turned brown, silently underfoot.

Leaves that were dead yesterday

are alive today–

branches chalk mosaic on brown skin.

Gnats like dust float in periphery

drifting on tears and skittering

further

away

with each

glance.

Next to me there is you.

I feel apples through the canvas bag in my hand

and my feet point homeward.

 

This is our last springtime.

I can tell that you’re afraid.

 

the angelfish in our hands still swim south.