30 poems in 30 days - Day 29

THREE

His third try at Algebra, Mike requests
a book number with threes in it. Third time’s
the charm, he tells me they say. They do, but

three days later, he flashes impish blue eyes,
smirks, My dog ate my homework. I smile back,
mark zero in my grade book. I’ve heard that

one too. Now get to work. If three cell phone
companies have different rates, which one
is best for you? What percent of paychecks

go to taxes? How much interest will you
pay over 30 years to own a home?
Mike’s dog gorges on word problems

while text messaging takes priority
for this boy who thinks a man doesn’t think
he needs Algebra to find solutions.

Mike wants to pass this class using only
third time charm. After all, that's what they say.
They say a lot… like… Three strikes and you're out.

... Today's prompt.
2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 29
For today's prompt, I want you to pick a number, make that number the title of your poem, and write a poem. The number could be your favorite number, a lucky number, an unlucky number, a number with some significance (for instance, years jump to mind), or whatever.

Okay, given my lack of inspiration I cheated a bit today and edited an old draft that had not yet quite become a "poem" rather than writing a new one. I'm going to go back and do that for the Shape poem too since it's so bad.

30 poems in 30 days - Day 28

Through this

Through this short life
I want to impact
other lives
want to inspire students
to grow and learn

Through this forty-five
minute class
every day I don’t have
much of a chance
between the two bells

Through this need
to get students to learn
frustration more
common than success
I still press

through this daily routine
aiming higher
than most students want
to take time
to learn how to succeed

Through this short life
I have to take what
I can get.
Some days students get it
It is enough.

... Today's Prompt.
2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 28
For today's prompt, I want you to take the phrase "Through this (blank)," replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Examples could be: "Through this door," "Through this spider," "Through this rope wrapped around this person trying to get free before the bomb stops ticking," "Through this garden," etc.

Still no inspiration, but I guess part of the point is to output every day whether there is inspiration or not. So another crappy poem, but maybe I can make something out of it when the inspiration returns.

30 poems in 30 days - Day 27

THE SHAPE OF DEATH
a jazzaree

Dead
on the porch. Mrs. Jackson’s blood puddles,
throat slit.
Exlover flees the scene, chased off by
Dominic.
The boy holds his mother gently.
Life drains away
from mother and son, one dead,
one wishes to be.
Dominic moves in with
his father, returns to
school. In my classroom,
Geometry, I do not
want to treat him
Differently from other students.
But he has
his own geometry. He has seen
the shape
violence takes, angles sharpened, all sides
dead.

... Today's prompt
2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 27
For today's prompt, I want you to write a poem involving a shape (or multiple shapes). You can make the shape the title of your poem, or you can work the shapes into the actual poem in some way. There are two dimensional shapes, of course, like squares and circles, but don't forget some of the other shapes available out there: horseshoes, coffee cups, houses, etc. After all, some objects become so iconic that they actually are considered shapes unto themselves.

Well, I was totally without inspiration. I shouldn't have been. Hell, I teach Geometry. But I've been not feeling well lately and the inspiration seems to have gone out the door too. So I edited an older draft that never quite made it into my done folder. At least I wrote SOMETHING! LOL.

30 poems in 30 days - Day 26

thankful senryu

i’m not stupid
can earn a decent living
have good health, share love

... Today's prompt:
2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 26
For today's prompt, I want you to write a thankful poem.

I'm getting behind so this will have to do for my thankful poem. I don't feel very thankful these days anyway, but those are a constant.

30 poems in 30 days - Day 25

FLASHING PAST

Most days I’m fine, but then there are those other days
when hot flashes make me flush, remember I am
entering another stage of this finite life,
enjoy each day, try to keep my focus forward.

When hot flashes make me flush, remember I am
a product of all of those years. I proceed on,
enjoy each day, try to keep my focus forward.
I start looking at old people for role models,

A product of all of those years, I proceed on,
wonder what 80 will be like, if I make it.
I start looking at old people for role models,
suddenly cry, blistering tears of menopause,

wonder what 80 will be like, if I make it,
ache when I hear a song from my past, long for youth,
suddenly cry, blistering tears of menopause,
choke with the inability to reverse time,

ache when I hear a song from my past, long for youth,
Time wasted in self-indulgent lamentations,
choke with the inability to reverse time,
finally move past it, cherish what I do have.

Time wasted in self-indulgent lamentations,
entering another stage of this finite life,
finally move past it, cherish what I do have.
Most days I’m fine, but then there are those other days.

... Today's prompt:

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 25
For today's prompt, I want you to write a temperature poem. Remember: Temperature can mean the heat outside, the heat of something (or someone), or even the temperament of someone.

30 poems in 30 days - Day 24

EVERYBODY SAYS
a cleave poem

everybody says	-	she’s a whore
nobody says	-	nothing good
who cares	-	she’s fucking
all gossip	-	having her way
just people who want	-	sex want
to be doing things	-	all the boys do
everybody says	-	too much too often

A cleave poem is really three poems. Read the left side for one poem, the right side for a second and the entire poem for a 3rd.

Today's prompt:
2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 24
Here's the last "Two for Tuesday" prompt in November:

Prompt #1: Take the phrase "Everybody says (blank)," replace the blank with a word or phrase, make that the title of the poem, and write the poem.

Prompt #2: Take the phrase "Nobody says (blank)," replace the blank with a word or phrase, make that the title of the poem, and write the poem.

30 poems in 30 days - Day 23

A TYPICAL GEOMETRY CLASS

The bell rings.
"Miss! I need a pencil!"
"Take the earbuds out!"
"It ain't on. I'm
just saying."

"Ssshhh." "Me? I ain't talkin'!"
"Lips moved, sound came out."
"I ain't talkin' to
YOU. Chivon!
You go to Homecoming?"

"What kind of angles
are these?" "Acute?"
"What he say
to you? Go fight him!" "Ssshhh."
"Supplementary

angles add to
one-eighty."
"Hey Brittany, nice shoes!"
"Sssshhh." "MISS!!! Stop! That is
SO annoying."

"Angel, sit
down! Congruent angles
have the same measure."
"He threw something!"
The bell rings.

... I was determined to write a new poem for each day. No recycling. This was hard because I wrote what I consider my definitive poem about noise called "Silence for a 10-Count", but as I taught all day yesterday, another one came to me. <-;

Here's the prompt for today:

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 23
For today's prompt, I want you to write a poem filled with noise. Or, at least, it should involve noise. There's all manner of noise you could write about: traffic, celebration, panic, nature, etc. You could even write about the space between noises.

30 poems in 30 days - Day 22

EMERGENCIES

I need to go
to the lav!!
It's an emergency!!
Always is. I sigh
and let her go.

Tomorrow
it will be another student,
another place – the nurse,
office, guidance.
All of them

emergencies. Teenage
lives are fast forward,
action movie
video
game speed

twenty-four seven
emergencies.
They can’t live
for forty-five minutes
without some drama.

Drama queens, drama kings
have to text,
have to pee, but the real
emergency is
they have to learn.

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 22
For today's prompt, write an emergency poem. Everyone has their own idea of what constitutes an emergency, so these poems could be about anything from zombie attacks to running out of ketchup.

30 poems in 30 days - Day 21

THE GREAT INVENTION

I have an invention
to get the attention
of people all over the land.
It breaks all conventions
in all three dimensions.
You really must have it on hand.

I know that you’ll buy it,
so that you can try it
and see just how great it can be.
You just can’t deny it
if you take time to eye it,
you will not believe what you see.

I’m not going to tell you
if it’s red, green or blue
It’s beautiful, that is for sure.
Its coming debut
is way overdue
you’re just going to have to endure.

You don’t have to know
if its big or will grow
You know that you want it, okay?
Call in and get it.
You won’t regret it.
Order it! Do it today!

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 21
We're now 3 weeks into November. Only 1 week and a couple days left. Wow!
For today's prompt, I want you to write an invention poem. The poem can actually be about an invention or an inventor, or you can make the invention the title of your poem and go from there. Every poem is an invention of its own, and I can't wait to see what everyone invents today.

30 poems in 30 days - Day 20

AND THEN...

Priscilla May Alice Anne Riverwood-Hawking
Would never shut up, would never stop talking.
She'd tell you a story and finally when
You thought she would stop, she'd continue, And then...

the dinosaur chased me and ate up my lunch
It trampled the rose bushes and swallowed a bunch.
It love to eat thorns, they help make the fire.
I'm telling the truth, I am not a liar.

Her friends would keep nodding, just hoping she'd stop
but she would keep on and on till they'd drop
from exhaustion and go to their homes once again,
but Priscilla May Allce Anne went on with, and then...

last night the aliens came from the stars
and took me up into space to see Mars.
It was beautiful, red and the aliens nice
I'd go back again, I wouldn't think twice.

What to do? asked her parents, to make her be quiet.
Should we put her on a vocabulary diet?"
They told her to stop not later, right then!
but Priscilla May Alice Anne responded, and then...

it's not my own fault! You gave me my name,
which takes me a long time to say. You're to blame
To learn how to say it, I had to keep talking!,
said Priscilla May Alice Ann Riverwood-Hawking.

...Funny, but I didn't get any inspiration for this one until I read today's prompt which is to write about an "invention". I thought that would be perfect for a kid poem. I haven't written one in a long time and I really wanted to do more. Then I realized that this one could be a kid poem too and it was suddenly there...

Here's the prompt for today's poem:
2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 20
For today's prompt, I want you to take the phrase "And then (blank)," replace the blank with a word or phrase, make that the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Some example titles could be: "And then Godzilla attacked Tokyo," "And then McDonald's opened a store on the moon," "And then nothing," "And then everything," "And then you probably have an even better idea for a poem title," etc.

30 poems in 30 days - Day 19

MILES TO GO

I don’t attach myself
to things, to
people or places
like others do.
If I settle too long

in one place
my feet get itchy,
looking for new
roads to travel, for new

horizons.
Priscilla asks how
can I leave all
that I have accomplished
and move on.

I don’t understand
how people stay
in one place for decades.
I want to
live in Tennessee

like I lived in
Pennsylvania, Texas
Germany,
Georgia and now
Connecticut.

I wish I could live in
every state,
try a dozen jobs,
learn, live. There is
much to do before death.

... I'm a day behind again. Going to post this and move on to the next. The "boys" are all downstairs playing xBox, so I can peaceably write. I think this one's going to be a keeper but needs some editing. Some of the ones I've written this month are obvious throw-a-ways, to get something out, and some came out almost fully blown. This is an in-between ones. It's a subject I've meant to write about for a long time, but I know that this is exactly what I want to say.

Here's the prompt that "prompted" it:
2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 19
For today's prompt, I want you to write an attachment poem. There are all kinds of attachments you could write about: physical, emotional, digital, etc. You could even write about your fear of attachment OR fear of no attachments OR fear of seeming to be afraid of attachment when really you're afraid of not being attached but you don't want other people to know that you know that...where was I?...oh yeah, write an attachment poem. Write it now.