I recently attempted a 30 day poetry challenge. I say attempted, because, I never finished it. I barely even started it. And it wasn’t because I wasn’t inspired to write or anything like that, it was because I forgot to write. I know it’s an awful excuse, but it’s the truth. I have the worst short-term memory ever. Here’s an example of how bad my memory is:
Yesterday I was sent out to the store to do some grocery shopping, because in my house, I do the grocery shopping, I don’t mind it, actually. When I was at the store, I picked up some pie, because my dad was craving pie. And I thought, I’d better get some whipped cream for the pie, because you can’t POSSIBLY have pie without whipped cream, am I right? But it wasn’t written on my list, and a second later, I completely forgot about it. I check out, get to my car and go, “Shit, I forgot the whipped cream.”
Luckily, my mum texted me then, with even more stuff we needed that she had forgotten to put on my list, so I thought, okay, I’ll write those down, including the whipped cream, and get it when I stop at my next destination… Wal-Mart (shudder). So I’m ticking off my list, check out, load the groceries into the car, and think, “Shit, I forgot the whipped cream,” because I had never written it down on the list, after becoming distracted by who knows what. Maybe a bug flew by, maybe a thought popped into my head, maybe a cloud distracted me. But it entered my thoughts and immediately left. And this is just one example, each day my life is defined by these little memory-lapses. So you can see how easy it is for me to forget to write a poem.
Anyway, I had originally embarked on this challenge to fill out some works for a poetry and short story anthology I’m working on. And I plan on re-starting the challenge (this time with proper notifications) because the poems I did write, when I managed to remember, I really liked.
Meadowlark was one of those late night brain farts. I’d been lying in bed for hours, trying to fall asleep, but I had this line running through my head, over and over, A meadowlark died today. I didn’t know where it came from, I didn’t even know if a meadowlark was even a thing (it is, I checked, it’s a yellow bird), but I just had this line rolling over and over in my brain. So I got out my pen and paper (which is actually just Evernote on my phone) and rolled with it. The result was a poem that I was pretty happy with.
A meadowlark died today
Limp in my palms
I tried to pray
Forgive me the sin
The white archway
Where I can soar so free.
A meadowlark died in pain
I watched it fade
In falling rain
Drenched in dew
And guilt and shame
Or perhaps just my fallen tears.
A meadowlark died today
It's drops of blood
Dried as clay
Cracked and crumbled
Quick decay
Bones and flesh as me
A meadowlark died with ease
A thumb on the throat
One pinch, one squeeze
Spite me for my sin
Oh God, oh please
Were that I that meadowlark
A meadowlark died today
Limp in my palms
You'll fade to grey
Rot in the earth
While carried away
Far from this dreary place
A meadowlark died, farewell
Cleansed of life
There ring death's knell
fly up, higher still,
escape this hell
Where I still toil eternally
A meadowlark was killed this day
Limp in my hands
I tried to pray
Forgive me the sin
The white archway
Where this darkness cannot be.