Category Archives: PAD Challenge 2009
November PAD Challenge Winner 2009
Nancy Posey Wins
The 2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge results.
I had to post this before the month’s end. It’s been out since February 2nd, but I was too busy running between here and New Orleans and working.
The PAD Challenge from November 2009 was a lot of fun to participate in, even though I didn’t win it. [...]
I Knew
I’ll never forget the day—
After doctor visits
just me and him or with other family
in hospitals and waiting rooms,
examinations, procedures, and treatments
hours spent in fruitless and unavoidable worry,
we finally got the doctor’s
last words on the matter;
Whatever they decided to do
whatever dad accepted to be put through
he didn’t have much time to be here with us,
they were [...]
Count Three
Holidays joyful
we celebrate to excess
then resuscitate.
©2009 Shari Lynne Smothers
Prompt: Pick a number, make that number the title of your poem, and write a poem. Day 29 of the 2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge from Poetic Asides
Through this Passage
Through this life I travel
growing, changing, being changed.
My only constant the Self
the core me I can always recognize.
We are here for an unknown finite duration
moving through this ethereal passage.
Present with no reason why I’m here
in my youth I happened upon this affinity
grown into a hope a chance dream
to leave my mark with even one verse
that [...]
Shapes Matter
A lovely face does not a relationship make.
But, in the equation of weighing whether
to remain a couple or separate,
there are some shapes that matter.
For example, there are
the shapes his mouth makes
when he says my name.
The soft arch his hand makes
when it covers mine at a dinner table.
The twist of my arm with his
as we watch [...]
Taste for Gratitude
A luscious menu includes mouthwatering staples.
Family and friends enhance flavors and aromas.
Delectable conversation smooths digestion.
Delightful entertainment devours the hours.
The slightest hint of a taste missed
as I remember my dad and others no longer with me.
And I am thankful for each morsel and memory
that serves and fills me completely.
©2009 Shari Lynne Smothers
Prompt: Write a thankful poem. [...]
Herman and Missie call it Quits
Herman delighted in
the kisses Missie planted.
Even sweetly on his cheek
they seared his skin
with a passion he never
sought as it was unfamiliar
to him. This gift of love
Missie ignited in Herman
was the flame he longed for
though he never knew the
name of it.
No chance to change
his mind; he wouldn’t
be able to keep it.
She touched his chest
in romantic caresses.
He [...]
Everybody says So
Holiday celebrations
pre-empt my writing time.
Antisocial by right of design
still my inclination.
But I dismiss mine
for the sake of family,
habits made traditions
made rituals, now sacrosanct.
And in my ordinary family
like so many others
everybody says
so it should be.
Absence gets me shunned
which works for me
but everybody says
I shouldn’t be that way.
So, for mom’s sake
I fit in as best I can
privately [...]
