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Tuesday, April 26, 2016

NaPoWriMo 2016 Day Sixteen: Almanac Poem

An interesting exercise to rev up the poetic juices today:   'fill out, in no more than five minutes, (an) “Almanac Questionnaire,” which solicits concrete details about a specific place (real or imagined). Then write a poem incorporating or based on one or more of your answers.' Well.
The exercise generates lots of topics but, for days, no poem is forthcoming.  I let it sit a few days, and finally decide to put pen to paper (all right, fingers to keyboard) and trust what emerges.
Today I offer this, incorporating one of the  answers: Can you guess what the prompt was?  The word I chose to respond?

Hollyhocks
by Shirley Smith Franklin

Taller than a five year old 
Lean to and fro garages
Thief River Falls alley
Not yet paved in the forties
In her summer vacation
They become playtime allies
Princesses, full pink skirts
They've lost their heads in the dance
Their world turned upside down.

--------------n.b. the NaPoWriMo daily pages this year present a treasure trove of poetry from around the world, translated into English, one poet and links to her or his work per day. "Today's poet in translation is Somalia’s Maxamed Ibraaahim Warsame Hadraawi, a longtime advocate for Somalian independence and peace. " [NaPoWriMo 2016 Day 16] . The link, ( his name,includes a lovely extended poem, an elegant paean dedicated to Mother.  It's one 
of those masterful renderings that unintentionally humbles the makers of other mommy poems in comparison...at least me and mine, for sure.

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