Saturday, May 7, 2011

Poetry Prompt #52 - Junk Drawer



Our lives can be like junk drawers, filled with clutter we keep. For this prompt, I’m not thinking about a literal junk drawer but, rather, an emotional junk drawer (psychological baggage, failed relationships, memories that should be forgotten, griefs and grievances that “mess” with our happiness, broken dreams that need mending, reminders of people and places we’ll never see again).

This week we use poetry to jettison some junk. The goal is to write a poem about the clutter in your emotional junk drawer. (Try using the imagery of an actual junk drawer, and let the poem take you where it wants to go.)




7 comments:

  1. I _thought_ I smelled a prompt in this poem. Working on it.....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey, David!

    :-))

    Hope to see the poem!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The beginnings of a poem. Comments are most welcome.

    A challenging prompt, Adele!

    Thanks,
    Jamie


    AND WHAT IF I NEVER

    And what if I never looked at these things again:
    the holy card from my mother's funeral, the

    envelope opened to the broken petal from a rose,
    the wedding band I wore before I knew what

    loneliness is. Each is its own sadness, what
    is left, what is tangible -- more real now in

    this drawer that I rarely open, more real than
    their memories and what I try to forget.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is wonderful, Jamie! I'm so glad the prompt is working for you!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very nice, Jamie!

    I think most of us can identify with your poem (the details may be different, but the feeling is the same).

    ReplyDelete
  6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS


    My old “to do” lists unfinished business
    In junk drawers (yellow, irrelevant).

    Remember the look on my face when
    you gave me T. S. Eliot’s poems?

    Since then I've become a junk drawer,
    a list that falls behind like payments

    on a loan; days go by, interest piles
    high, time runs out, and my

    business career persists as
    “Practical Solutions” instead of

    things I should have done
    if only for the want of time.

    Basil Rouskas
    All rights reserved

    ReplyDelete
  7. Looks great, Basil! Thanks so much for posting!

    ReplyDelete