Ariel, Pacific NW poet

Day twelve – You know how I said at the start of them month how sometimes things come up in life – and you may not be able to make  the goals of the day … “just roll with it”, “it’s a marathon”, “endurance test” …

Well, Tuesday was one of those days for me. Life happened to some friends, and I needed to switch tracks for today and roll wiith it. Poems and web pages just have to wait because I had a bigger – human – priority. And afterwards.  I am really emotional, so everything went catawhompus on me – including the cats & laptop. So … today is another day and I’m getting back on that NaPoWriMo track.

So let me cut to the chase and share today’s prompts …

Robert Lee Brewer’s AprPAD challenge prompt is guilty.

NaPoWriMo’s featured participant today is Tidbits by Shannon, & their “Bop” poem ; the featured poet is Ocean Vuong, a Vietnamese-American poet raised in Hartford, Connecticut. According to NaPoWriMo’s post “Vuong’s poems incorporate uniquely startling images with a tight attention to sound.” Which I believe led to their prompt for today:  write a poem that explicitly incorporates alliteration (the use of repeated consonant sounds) and assonance (the use of repeated vowel sounds) – something I love incorporating into poems..

As for my personal Poem A Day Challenge , today’s PAD is … fresh applesauce.

I did accomplish one small goal today.  April is usually when I place a poetry box in the front yard to share my poems with the community. (It’s also a great way to use extra or older printings).  It wasn’t ready on April 1st – and the neighbors have been asking when will it “come out & play?”.

My poetry box consist of a clear plastic “realtor’s flyer” box on a post. I’ve really liked it because – with it see-thru, I can see from the window when the box gets empty & refill it. Unfortunately, it has already weathered two years & the plastic and sealed edges has gotten brittle over time.  This year it has taken some creativity to make it serviceable again. Remember that crazy duct tape I mentioned yesterday? That’s the new sealed edges; All the paper is, once again, protected from Oregon’s wet.  I dug into my paints & found a complementary green. So, first thing Tuesday, I got it finished, reassembled, filled and planted.  Gee – I made it sound like a garden … I filled it with a mix of old and new poems. One promise to my neighborhood – checked!

Like the past two years, it will be in service until the winter weather hits.

Of course – this might be a good time to note that the Mid-Valley Poets Society does have a beautiful oak poetry box inside Salem’s own Broadway Coffeehouse.  And usually contains one or two of my poems in it.

Any other poet out there with a poetry box?