The Poetry Marathon

some kind of ancient myth. The myth can be from any cultural background or origin, but I am not interested in modern myths. The older the better.

The poem can go into the details of the myth and be a retelling of sorts, or it can just borrow a mythic element and place it the modern world. The details are entirely up to you.

Banished

By Patricia Harris

Forgotten Beauty

Warrior strong,

Because of parentage

Not allowed to belong.

Half in darkness

Death at her side,

Half in light,

Not allowed to have pride.

Forced into exile to hide.

Royal twice,

Strong and  quasi sane,

Watch the dead

Her occupation became.

As her own kin

Could not stand

Her to be a warrior

In any more than name.

Write a poem that contains at least five of the following ten words. Feel free to include all ten if you wish.

Frogs

Evening

Tomatoes

Jars

Raincoat

Steam

Peculating

Children

Elbow

Mystery

Summer Fields

By Patricia Harris

The mystery of summer,

The joys that are contained.

A time for catching frogs during the day,

And lighting bugs in the evening late.

For children and fireworks,

Gardens and jars,

Fresh veggies,

And fried green tomatoes.

Raincoats and puddles,

Songs and dancing,

Wedding parties and fun

On beaches under the summer sun.

In the winds and rain

We walked,

Joined at the elbows

Enjoying the each other

In the summer breeze.

Write a poem that contains no more than 100 words and no less than 90 words. If you repeatedly use the same word it only counts once. For example if the word umbrella was used 10 times in your poem you would only count it once.

The word count feature (bottom left of this text box) is your friend!

Books

By Patricia Harris

Musty old tomes

In plies overgrown

Falling from every corner

Of my home.

Reading each with reference,

Feeling though each is a member

Of my own beloved family.

Words written down,

Read quite often in the passing time.

Well worn spines

On covers handled too many times,

Pages smeared with fingerprints

Still read just fine.

Beloved stories

Standing the test of time,

Reminding me of less complicated

Periods in my mind.

Dreams dripping ink,

In ancient yellowed pages.

Telling childhoods oldest thoughts

For the world to see

The love that remains.

Write a poem where color plays an important role. How you choose to interpret that role is up to you.

Red

By Patricia Harris

Sunset crimson,

Closing the dark eyes

At the end of life.

Seeping,  weeping

Lines too true,

Spreading out,

Staining the floor

A darker than red,

So much darker it’s dead.

Sorrow weeping,

Forgotten shades.

Anger seeping out

Coloring the rest

Shades of only red.

Write a poem about a spider. This poem should not rhyme.

Arachnid

By Patricia Harris

Living in the corners,

Making my own home

Within another.

Crawling around,

Avoiding any trying to smash,

Clearing pests to feed

Trying to survive in the concrete

Jungle.

The prompt for hour eight is to write a golden shovel. Not familiar with the form? That is not surprising, it was created in 2010 by the poet Terrance Hayes in his poem The Golden Shovel.

It is pretty simple though. First you take a line or lines from a poem you admire.

Use each word from the line(s) as the end word of each of the lines in your poem. So for example if you used a line with ten words, your poem should be ten lines long.

Keep those words in order.

Original poem

I shall not care by Sara Teasdale

Golden Shovel poem

By Patricia Harris

In learning more about I,

The ego shall

In all likelihood not

Include how to for oneself care.

“Write a poem from the inside out.”

From the Inside Out

By Patricia Harris

Hiding,

Anxious about what is seen.

Staring,

Through the curtains again.

Knowing,

That I must go out and be seen.

Lifting,

My head up,

Holding,

My hands out.

Starting,

My day off,  anxiously.

Write a poem about a specific location that meant a lot to you as a child or teenager that you have not returned to in many years. It could be a house, a park, a country, anywhere that had particular significance. The focus of the poem could be on the location itself, or it could be on something(s) that happened there, or someone you spent a lot of time with there.

Who I was

By Patricia Harris

The cabin in the mountains

Made me who I would grow to be,

The stream to drink from

Taught me a different

Way to see.

Simplicity

In the way of life,

Makes one realize

More about possibility.

An outhouse and barely even

Has electricity,

Gather water from the stream,

With a natural quiet

That encourages the soul to dream.

Childhood paradises

Are only adult memory.

Time encapsulated

In sentimentality.

By Patricia Harris

Chores to be done,

Weary soul still on the run,

No peace to be found,

No place to lay my head.

Chores to be done,

The list miles long,

Each one something that must be done,

Before I can rest my weary soul.

Weary soul still on the run,

Ignoring all that must be done,

Pretending that I can do it all,

In just one day.

No peace to be found,

In a world of war and strife,

Looking at the way I live,

Questioning how I live my life.

Motel Eternity

By Patricia Harris

Promises broken

Beneath the neon sign,

Under the night sky

I sit wondering why.

Questioning self,

And the reasoning

That I choose to even believe

In an illusion called eternity.

Temporal misnomer,

No longer assured

That I will even see the like

Of an eternity I will ever enjoy.

Knowing the definition

Of now,

Only feeling disjointed

As I realize that my choices

Lead me to see what

The illusion is in truth to be.

Eternity.