All of life falls vaguely under one of these categories. Write your poem with one of these aspects as your inspiration. Be as literal as you wish, or take them to extremes.

It could be a person, pet, a wild beast, Sasquatch…
It might be asparagus, a fern, bread mold…
Possibly something from the periodic table, table salt, or **BLING**

If it grows, breathes or carries its weight, make it rhyme.

Marie’s Sweet Children’s Poem:

NONNA’S CHERRY TREE (A poem for children)

A limb that’s low enough for me,
Lifts me up so I can see
Nonna, picking sugar peas,
Apron blowing in the breeze.

A comfy spot to read my book
Overlooks a lively brook,
Where the water froths and foams,
Tadpoles scurry to their homes.

In a hollowed knot, I spy
Rotting wood, and ants that fly.
Up above, I spot a nest.
Momma bird fights off a pest.

Cherries, juicy-ripe and sweet,
Some for baking; some to eat
Just-picked with my own two hands,
Dropping into metal pans.

Oops! I find a worm in one
That’s when I decide I’m done.
So, I climb down from my spot;
Dump my cache from pans to pot.

Nonna helps me carry them,
Then I help her pit and stem.
Next, I help my Nonna bake
Cherry pie; black forest cake.

Nonna lets me spend the night,
Tucks me in, and says, “Sleep tight!”
Then I dream I’m flying free,
Smiling down on Nonna’s tree.

(Note from Marie Elena: Though this poem is make-believe, it was inspired by my own Nonna’s cherry tree, which was quite special to all of us grandchildren.)

Walt’s Elegy:

HEADSTONES

Your place marking time,

I trace your name with a finger

and linger long in thoughts of you all.

I miss you and ache greatly for it.

But it is the way life transpires.

I never tire from coming to spend

a moment with you; a minute, an hour…

I water the flowers we had planted here,

as you had always done for your parents

who lay next to you. And you two together,

a forever shared in the embrace of Him who made

us all. He had called you all home. Leaving me

to roam between these stones of marble and granite

marking this time; my words marking this place

until we are all face-to-face in the renewed Light of Love above.

My heroes all in one spot and a lot of love still remains.

(Waltz Notes: I have finally gotten my chapbook, WOOD, into the hands of all my siblings and they were astonished by its honesty, weight and heart – their words, not mine. I visited the cemetery this afternoon and spent time reading it aloud to the people who mattered the most. A nerdy thing to do, I know, but something I needed to do. WOOD lives on, as do my parents and grandparents in these heartfelt words.)