tupelo press 30/30 poetry project: days 12, 13 & 14

while i kept up with writing the poems for tupelo’s 30/30 poetry project, i haven’t been able to get to the blog posts since wednesday.

all three were sonnets, and some end rhyme returned to the most recent one (today’s). and in all three, as i re-read them now preparing this post, my language is clunky. as first drafts, that’s fine, of course. it’s just hard to take on my ear! here are samples/excerpts from each:

• poem #12, “meditations while waiting out in the cold for the dog to do his business:” i take the dog outside after the snow squall lets up. / the moon has already brushed itself off, cleared the ice /so it can skate circles around all of us.
• poem #13, “rush hour meditation:” close your eyes / and press your cheek against the nearest animal: horse, housecat, / 10-year-old boy. on the map of downtown – right here – / you’ll find a symbol that means dare, the option you choose /
  every time between two: truth or.
• poem #14 (today), “a poem with a t. rex in it:” what if every / metaphor for turmoil came down to the t. rex, became cliché: / like claws on the chalkboard, like pulling teeth, like a / carnivore in a China shop, a dinosaur in the rough. at its mention, / the reader rolls her eyes: seen t. rex shred one ex-husband, / seen ‘em all.

so as you can see, divorce crept into one of the poems, but it was a fun one, kinda campy, so i give myself a pass. (and who doesn’t enjoy watching t. rex enjoy himself at the feast?)

to read them in their entirety, as well as the recent poems from all members of the tupelo 10, visit the project’s website.