It’s the first Friday of March. Time for another Sunday Swagger Challenge. Each month, one member of my critique group poses a challenge for us all to respond to. This month, Margaret Simon posed a very flexible prompt: “Using any book, choose three page numbers. On the chosen pages, find one word to use. Write a poem.”
This seemed very manageable. One of my students has been reading Kate DiCamillo’s books, and Kate’s exquisite use of language has always inspired me, so I pulled a copy of Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures off the shelf and found these three words: variations, floating, glowing
An image of clouds came into my head as I considered these words. Here is the draft I came up with:
Clouds
Tenuous ideas cling together,
like water droplets fusing
into wisps of clouds floating
in an azure sky.
Slowly, word by word,
a line forms.
Line follows line
until they coalesce
into a poemling,
glowing with promise.
Maybe this baby poem,
fragile as it is,
is a variation on an old theme.
No matter.
Just as clouds come in all
shapes and sizes,
possibilities for poems
are infinite.
And so we keep on
writing.
Draft, © 2021, Catherine Flynn
Please be sure to visit my fellow Swaggers to read their responses to Margaret’s challenge:
Heidi Mordhorst @ My Juicy Little Universe
Linda Mitchell @ A Word Edgewise
Margaret Simon @ Reflections on the Teche
Molly Hogan @ Nix the Comfort Zone
Then be sure to head to Kat Apel’s blog for the Poetry Friday Roundup.
Reading to the Core 
I really like this! It’s true that we’re so often writing variations on the same themes, but that doesn’t mean that what we write doesn’t have value. Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
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Love this “a poemling,
glowing with promise.”
It makes me feel like our poems are babies to be nurtured and cared for. Ah, yes, sweet poem, come to me.
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So much truth in this, Catherine. Not all poems are destined to be grand. But they’re still a poem. And sometimes the process is as much as the product.
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I love “poemling”, Catherine! Isn’t it interesting that we both chose to write about writing with this prompt? Or maybe it’s not surprising after all…
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You have a beautiful way of crafting poems. I am drawn to your word choice and line breaks. Like everyone else, “poemling” stuck out for me! 🙂
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I am definitely going to try this strategy for finding poem ideas! Thanks, Swaggers, for inspiring! Your poem resonates with me. I like how it “demonstrates” the way ideas start wispy and gradually (hopefully) coalesce.
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Bravo! Catherine. The image of poems forming as clouds do is really beautiful. It’s an image I want to keep with me.
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Poems about writing always capture me, Catherine, and this one is lovely!
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Love that you captured the essence of a poem, love “poemling” & the connection to cloud droplets. The idea of the three words has helped you all create some beautiful poems!
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I’m struck again and again today by just how OPTIMISTIC we poets are: here we are reminded that all babies are both variations on an old old theme and fresh-poured full of possibility!
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It’s good to be reminded that the ideas for poems are infinite and to find them keeps me searching.
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I love the comparison of ideas with clouds and coalescing into a poem.
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Ooooo. A poemling, glowing with promise? Now that’s a line to borrow. Love this! ,
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