This blog is devoted to a select group of poets. We're starting with poets from the Ann Arbor area, but, hey, if you're from Detroit, Grand Rapids, Saginaw or the Upper Peninsula, then that is okay, too. We've even been so generous to accept poets from other parts of the USA and the entire country of Canada!
You may need to have a Gmail or Yahoo or AOL account to post in the comments section. Most of you do have Gmail or Yahoo or AOL, but for those of you that don't it's extremely worthwhile to open up one of these email accounts now! That way you've got a chance to get your work out there in the world.Today's poem or short story prompt is the word "profile."
Our goal is to provide you with a prompt every day from which you are to garner inspiration and submit a poem. How to submit will be very easy. Just put your poem or short story in the comments section and hit post. You may not immediately see your post, but it is there under the "Comments" section. You may need to click on "Comments" to see your poem. It is there on another page.
You may need to have a Gmail or Yahoo or AOL account to post in the comments section. Most of you do have Gmail or Yahoo or AOL, but for those of you that don't it's extremely worthwhile to open up one of these email accounts now! That way you've got a chance to get your work out there in the world.Today's poem or short story prompt is the word "profile."
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ReplyDeleteProfile
ReplyDeleteIf I had nothing to compare my life to
I might have been happy
If I were hatched
Versus "brought up"
I might have avoided lengthy suffering
Or maybe sorrow
(Suffering is what I cultivated from sorrow)
If I had not watched afternoon movies as a child
Hosted by a once attractive starlet
Who gave me the low-down
The back story
On the short tragic life of John Garfield
**
The secret to happiness
Is to hold very low expectations
I don't know where I first heard this
When I was younger I found it
A cynical contemptuous statement
In my forties I thought it a slyly humorous one
Yet I've lived into the accuracy of the sentiment
The wisdom
The sanity and the sophistication
Who'd have dreamed
The genuineness
The gospel I've created from that phrase
I write it in soap on windows and mirrors
I've made dozens of bumper stickers
Given them to my friends as gifts
I share the phrase with co-workers
Who think I think I'm Yoda
Or the Dali Lama's auburn-haired cousin
**
I sit in my bedroom
On the bed with no headboard
Propped up by five pillows
As straight and down-to-earth
As the letter 'L'
If for one hour I stop the comparisons
As I am not a Syria
Or a well-pensioned traveller
Or a woman with a flat belly
Or a woman who loves her husband
I know I will for that space
My parenthesised allotment
I can be happy
I have that potential
Catherine Powers
September 7, 2013
Copyright 2013
SKETCHED IN PROFILE
ReplyDeleteEverything is profile
outline, sketch
approximation
Everything is indicated
pointed-at, referred-to
The center never fully gels
nothing ever goes completely solid
except maybe a slice of cold pizza
left out overnight
because something else
more important
had to be done
The fantasy of the concrete --
knowledge
beyond context,
absolute
grasped once and for all --
is so precious and naive
it makes me smile
the same sad kind of smile
I get when I see the pizza
on the counter the next morning.
- Mike Fedel
September, 2013