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!
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! This 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 "problems"
Pressure
ReplyDeleteNew studies suggest that barometric pressure affects mood
Particularly depression
Which is my default predisposition
Since turning fifty
I used to think my melancholy was genetic
Since bad problems have run in the family
Varicose veins and early hysterectomies
Poor impulse control and loud voices
Yet information
From reliable sources of a scientific nature
Have proven what were once invisible theories
That there's only a dozen spots on earth
Where that air density is stable and trustworthy
Where when you get up in the morning
You're guaranteed a happy day
I don't live in one of these fortunate places
Once again
Victim to forces outside my control
Catherine Powers
October 2013
Copyright 2013
SOLUTIONS
ReplyDeleteIn the song
"Watching the Wheels",
John Lennon said:
"I tell them there's no problems,
only solutions"
There is a popular notion
that the Chinese character for
"crisis" is comprised of
the character for "problem" and
the character for "opportunity"
Some smiling people tell us that
God will never give us
more than we can handle
Lennon is wrong,
though what can you expect
from a guy who believed
"All you need is love?"
The Chinese character ji
in weiji means
"incipient moment; crucial point"
which only an optimist
would interpret at "meaning"
"opportunity"
and God?
She's just shaking her head...
Mike Fedel
- October, 2013
For more on weiji,
see http://www.pinyin.info/chinese/crisis.html