Poems tend to be short, at least by comparison to novels or short stories, but trying to write one every day for 30 days can be daunting; even more so when you're being inspired by random prompts, which while generally helpful can often leave me at a loss, with either no idea of where to go, or too many directions to choose from. Today they asked for a poem with a number in the title. Doesn't sound too difficult does it? Well, there I stood (figuratively speaking) staring at a sign post with arrows pointing in a hundred directions— (more like metaphorically speaking) with no clue where I wanted to go. I have a very poor sense of direction, geographically challenged on my best days, and have a love/hate relationship with my GPS, but I digress. I mean, where DO you go with numbers? Numbers are everywhere. We use them for everything. I thought about important dates. I thought about lists. I thought about age. I thought about The Beatles shouting 1-2-3-4 as they kicked off I Saw Her Standing There. I thought about 5-6-7-8 as my daughter practiced dance routines. Too many choices. Too many decisions. I tried to focus. Take a deep breath. Poetry. Think about poetry. Then I headed down another rabbit hole. Counting lines, syllables, meter for various forms. I wrote a haiku yesterday—5-7-5. I like short and sweet, but I didn't want to do 2 days of ku in a row. Seemed a bit like cheating somehow. I finally gave up thinking, and began writing this poetic rant. Some days you just have to cross your fingers and hope for the best.
~Elise Skidmore ©2020
