NaPoWriMo Day 28

Today's quote: "Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out.... Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure." ~A.E. Housman

Today's prompt: Take a moment to remember a breakthrough moment in your life or a “freeze-frame” moment from long, long ago. An “a-ha” or an “epiphany” moment or a moment that has a story yet to tell.

Let’s prepare to write a poem using our intuition intentionally today. Write this prompt on your page: “When I remember my “a-ha moment” from my past, I understand the place I am meant to go with my words and poetry today is … ”

Restate the prompt as you free-write and don’t write a poem yet. Instead, go about your business of the day purposefully not writing a poem.

Notice surprising turns of phrases you hear. Listen to people who say things to you that seem especially surprising, lyrics to songs. Eavesdrop intentionally. Wait for at least 2 hours and then write your poem from the words your intuition and your free-writing gave you.

Today's poem:

Intuition

It's hard to just live your life;
I sit on the bus
In the middle of unmoving traffic,
As my mind wanders,
Travelling faster than I am.

A wedding on a frozen lake,
And an invite to an artist's house:
The fragments of a life,
Reflected through the beige slants
Of the office blinds.

“The food van is here”,
A voice announces,
A break in the morning routine,
As we scramble for sustenance.

I strive for inspiration,
Opening myself to feeling,
Intuition, observation, poetry
In the everyday, waiting to be found.


Notes: This feels very much like a 'found poem' to me. I don't know if that is the most effective response to the prompt, but that is where the prompt took me, in the same way that the prompt itself to be open and intuitive, so was my initial response on how to go about this. I enjoyed being more observant and playing around with and incorporating things I had heard and seen throughout the day. It is fascinating what words, phrases, concepts and images are just laying around waiting to be used in this way.