Feb
01

Why Poetry?

I met a woman once
a writer of science fiction,
who invited me to her
writing group.
She spoke with vigor
and animation, prodding,
querying my affinity for verse,
explaining her aversion.
Why poetry? was in her
countenance. As though
it didn’t appear to suit me in the least.
Said she’d once thought
herself a poet
because she was sad
and broken-hearted.
She met a man,
got happy again.
And with her aloneness
so did depart
her poetic comportment.

© 2011 Shari Lynne Smothers

This post is part of my #SHINEonline challenge commitment for 2 posts weekly; 1 of 2 for the 4th week.

Check out the #SHINEonline paper.li linked at the top of my far right sidebar.

Nov
06

Day 6: Looking for the One Right Word

You know, the one that
compels others to know
you’re the
only candidate for the job;
perfect person to be the best friend;
right one to deliver the opening speech;
best choice to paint walls;
the right girl to be born into
      a family of three brothers.

Somehow I knew them once.
These days they only come
as they choose, through my daily
entreating, on paper, online.
I give them room
encouraging them to join me,
not knowing if they heard my call.

Only after countless lines of
rhythmic verses flowing
dissonant, stilted, rhyming
and not, I’ll read back and find that
some few right words found me
each one at it’s one right point.

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers

Day 6 prompt: Write a “Looking for (blank)” poem; details here from 2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge

Apr
28

Just go Fishing

Turn left at the first phrase
that taps my curiosity.
On the side are the ropes to grab
so I can scale up it
stepping sliding over
the bumps bumping up it.

On top I can see the sea
of all the extending tangents
and extraneous asides
that might be of interest.

What must be written then
are the lines that glow
with the knowing
shimmer of connectedness.
And so, when I see them
at their brightest I simply
reel them in with my trusty ink pen
to splay them open on paper.

And on occasion I allow me
the delightfully twisting query:
Do they glow because they know
to shimmer
or on some level from my high perch
do I in some way ignite them?

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers

This poem is for the napowrimo prompt #28, intuition Visit the post to see the details of this prompt.

Apr
26

Out of Time

Escape to inside
out of regular time.
All my friends are there.
People, objects,
and their experiences
real and imagined,
all present and eager to share.

We chat, muse,
mulling over everything.
I write fast as I can
anything
that catches my attention.

As usual, way too soon
comes the necessary pull
back through my escape hatch,
back into unaltered time
in the land of
distracting obligations.

Still, as usual
I’ve managed to slip back in
with rare, raw treasures
all mine
to refine and polish.

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers

This poem is for the napowrimo prompt #26, get scrappy Visit the post to see the details of this prompt.

Nov
29

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 time will hold on to.

Through this passage we’re each alone
even in the company of others.

Without understanding it,
breathing is to sit with paper
and scribble thoughts that come to me.
Equally as unrelenting and unfathomable
is the desire to share with even one person.

If I had to choose having
a companion through this nebulous ephemeral passage
until our time together is done,
or having a verse known through millennia
I might actually lay down my pen
to share my limited time with one who gets me.
I might…

©2009 Shari Lynne Smothers

Prompt: Take the phrase “Through this (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Day 28 of the 2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge from Poetic Asides

Nov
23

Facing November Week Four

Monday morning I’m
three poems in arrears and some
thousands words behind.

©2009 Shari Lynne Smothers

This is a short Haiku to convey my rising anxiety about the projects I’ve taken on.

I can deal with being three poems behind–on  a regular day. But, because I’ve taken on NaNoWriMo and I’m very far behind, my anxiety is reaching  a feverish pitch.

My writing could well be over for NaNoWriMo, except the characters are still alive in my head. I’ve got all these ideas and twists and I let time get away from me. Well, I let family and events get in the way, cardinal November sin.

Ultimately, I’m not out of the game until November 30th. So, with ideas still to record, creativity still flowing, I need to open their creative outlet. I’ll take these last eight days and make the best of it.

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