WATERMARK

I’ve decided to try the poem-a-day challenge issued by Reen at starnosedmole. A list of participants is on that sidebar, and here — some names familiar to me, and some new.

This will be much tougher than the 30DayPhoto challenge. Because my energy is a bit limited at times, I’m going to commit to doing a poetry related post every day. This might be a new poem (in draft) or sketches (like today); or it might be some thoughts of my own or someone else about poems, poetry, or writing. I’ll also be posting a day behind — today I’m posting some sketches I did yesterday. This will give me overnight to decide if I have something worth posting.

Shanna Compton has a unique approach to this:

. . . in a single evolving post, each day’s new poem will replace the poem
from the day before . . . The practice of disappearing drafts eases my
embarrassment over too-raw poems & keeps them from being bot-napped
for search-engine caches. . .

Interesting idea, but her piece today is so wonderful I mourn its passing, and hope she’ll repost it, more permanently. I considered doing the challenge, but not posting the results — but fear that if I don’t promise to post, my commitment will fade.

So:

In the Neighborhood

black dog
looking here, looking there
    where is that human?

spring hail
the crocus
closes

happy squeals
through old walls —
    next door’s grandchildren

race day
    border collie
    herding runners

tea and laughter
    old friends