Day Seventeen on APRIL 17, 2024
Happy Wednesday, everyone, and here’s hoping that poetry helps you get over the “hump” of the week.
Our featured participant today is Karen Morris, who brings us a heartfelt poem in response to Day 16’s
“suprise’ prompt.
Today’s daily resource is My Poetic Side, a website where you’ll find poems and biographies, a blog,
poetry news (mostly UK-focused), and the ability to sign up and share poems.
Last but not least, here’s our optional prompt for the day. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a
poem that is inspired by a piece of music, and that shares its title with that piece of music. Need an
example? Here’s A. Van Jordan’s “Que Sera Sera” and Adrian Matejka’s “Soave Sia Il Vento.”
Happy writing!
Hey friends, you must read this:
“Que Sera Sera” BY A. VAN JORDAN
WOW, right! I will always remember this one!
Oh, and today’s featured poem. Oh gosh, do read that too…
Here’s my poem today:
Total Eclipse of The Heart
(A prose poem)
She polished her exterior well, wore her Sunday best—smelled of mothballs. No one
dare convict her son based on her appearance. Someone ushered her to a seat—in the
middle, the third row. She need not move her head only her eyes from side to side to
grasp the scale of the situation. The rim of her hat and her chest point sharply at the
judge her eyes bounce from the jury to her son, sometimes stopping to pierce the back
of this woman’s fat head set decorously in the front row. What good was that now?
What makes a woman that brazen? To hold the whip, demand he lopes from one job to
another, nixing him repose on their bed—Working cows don’t sleep in beds, insisting.
With stale-larded bread, she sends him off and half a portion, at that, of what she eats
and serves their plump brats. Oh! How she disliked that woman, not fit for her son, who
heartlessly provoked his demise. When her eyes meet the wild wide eyes of her son,
emplaced with his lawyer—strutting a timid little mustache and as scrawny as him—she
sees her boy. Her eyes fog, recalling the many times she saw the universe in those wild
eyes. Those eyes mesmerized her with their neediness and so she served him first—half
of whatever was in the pot while she and the girls made do with the other half. You love
him best, the girls argued as they filed to their beds hungry… Her shoulders deflate, she
slouches and rubs her wrists as if feeling handcuffed. Soon she catches her second
wind. That woman—she was his downfall—they should put her in jail! without
explanation, banning her from stopping home to collect clean underwear.
© selma
note: this poem first appeared in In The Shadow of Rainbows: A Collection of Songs of Presence by Selma Martin. [Poem Title: Sentencing]– https://a.co/30s9HgA
…Thanks for being here with me. For this prompt, the title came
first. And as I sat to begin, I found myself writing THAT poem. Oh, my!
So, I went to my book and… That poem is about a mother who’s eclipsed
(so to speak). I hope this short snapshot speaks to you somehow.
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I have to admit that I am not a Bonnie Tyler fan, but I enjoyed your interpretation of Total Eclipse of The Heart, Selma. I like that her Sunday best smelled of mothballs and ‘the rim of her hat and her chest point sharply at the judge’, and even my eyes fogged a bit at ‘recalling the many times she saw the universe in those wild eyes’.
Hey Kim. It pleases me you read. Thanks most sincerely. Bless you.
My pleasure, Selma.
Likewise 🤗
A very touching scenario
Thanks Sadje.
You’re welcome ☺️
Intriguing characters and solid writing, Selma!
“the universe in those wild eyes” ✨
Thanks Michele Lee. 🤗
Welcome lovely. 🤗
I miss reading your posts, Selma. I’ve been so busy lately. However, I feel like a kid being given a treay when I get a chance to read your poems 😊
Busy busy bees 🐝 all of us.
Don’t stress, pretty lady. Self care is important.
Thanks for coming to read. Always brightens my day. Bless you.
A clever response and a great prose poem, Selma. I love this line: “Her eyes fog, recalling the many times she saw the universe in those wild eyes.” 💞
So glad you caught that line, dear Lauren. Thanks for reading. Bless you and sending happy, calm vibes—may pain free abound. Xoxo
xoxoxoxo
Oh wow, I love your interpretation of the song Selma..and I love the song as well.
Happy 😊 💐
This is great Selma!