Tuesday, April 1, 2014

NaPoWriMo: Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Poetic Engines!

Okay, here we go again- Happy National Poetry Month! I'll be participating once again in the Poem-a-Day Challenge on Robert Brewer's Poetic Asides blog. There are actually a lot of good NaPoWriMo challenges out there this month, but I've been faithful to this one for the last few years, and this year is particularly interesting because Robert has enlisted 30 poets, some quite well-known, to judge each day's prompted poems to pick the best of the day.  Among those names are Thomas Lux, Bob Hicok, Andrew Hudgins and Daniel Nester. After the month is over, the 30 selected best poems will be published in an anthology. Needless to say, the blog is buzzing with activity - close to 700 entries just on the first day. Historically, that much participation slacks off a bit as the month wears on, but it looks like there will be some stiff competition to be selected.

Today's prompt for Day 1: Write a poem about beginning and/or ending.  Here's mine:

Red Shoes

They peeked out from the white hem
of your wedding gown as you strode
up the aisle. Vivid as your lipstick,
they flashed as you sat playfully
on your groom’s lap for the wedding album.
At your reception, they kicked and stomped
all evening on the dance floor.
You looked like a Vogue model, someone said,
or a movie star. One guest compared you
to Audrey Hepburn, slim and classy.
But everyone remembers those red pumps
with the ankle straps you wore that day,
the ones in which you walked into your new life,
shoes as bold and unique as you .
Now you’re a new mom, and your baby daughter
gets bigger and brighter every day.
When she takes her first steps,
what color will her shoes be?

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