ManicDDaily

(Imagine Pen and Sunset)

Charles Miller is hosting a prompt at dVerse Poets Pub about writing what’s behind the poem.  Here are some of my somewhat disjointed thoughts:

Old Poems/Kids in the Sea

So, I used to rely on the sonnet,
and yes, it scares me to see them out there,
bobbing up and diving down, the wet
glisten of shoulder at high surf, where
I lost all my breath trying to swim back
this morning, my lungs shot from who knows what
(waves tugging at what seemed to be chest’s crack)–
I found that a form would anchor words, not
tie, give meaning a lane, a buoying up–
choppy out, sun setting rust, still I know
they’re strong, try to sing as I wade about,
salt cupped–fearful, I needed a flow
that followed a channel; I relied on
the sonnet; they splash to shore, free, prideful.

(In keeping with the exercise, I should probably note that I wrote this poem, more or less, at the beach, watching my kids – or those I was responsible for–swimming very far out.  Also it is a sonnet, of sorts–this, a form I used to write quite frequently.)