Happy New Year! Life has been a bit tumultuous over the past few months (everyone is fine; everything–the jury is still out) and has left me with no brainpower for writing poetry. Reading poetry, yes, always. Writing, not so much. But it’s time for the Inkling’s monthly challenge. And since it was my turn to pose the prompt, I figured I’d better get my act together.

Even coming up with a prompt was beyond me. Early in January, Molly shared a list of prompts from the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center. I asked her if she would mind if I picked a prompt from this collection. Of course she didn’t. Here’s the one I chose:

Our Lips are Sealed…Or Not
            Write a poem about secrets——family, community/societal, governmental, personal, etc.  This could be a narrative (how the secret(s) started, where it or they led, the along-the-way and final (if any) consequences.  For inspiration or starting blocks for your poem, here’s this poem, “Family Secret” by Nancy Kuhl:
            https://poets.org/poem/family-secret
            Secret loves, guilty (or not-so) secrets, happy secrets (like the gift you bought for __________ and secreted until the Big Day/Right Moment, and what happened next), whistle-blower secrets… It’s an unlimited grab-bag since humans can (or can’t) keep an incalculable supply of secrets.  Maybe there’s a big-box store or warehouse out there somewhere where our discounted secrets are kept until ordered and dispatched with 2-day shipping guaranteed.
            SO:  unsheathe the Shushhhhhh… and happy writing!  Ready and Steady and Go…

As I said, reading poetry, yes. Writing, no. So I decided to create a cento. (But I cheated and added some words of my own to help the lines flow. These lines are italicized.) Source poems and texts are listed in order at the bottom of the poem.

The secret of life
can’t be found in
the whole volume of S…
The secret is that
nothing can be permanently settled or solved;
air takes shape in shadow and light
and
time is the substance we are made of. 

So,
Err on the side of generosity.
When you love someone… offer that person … your presence.
Offer poems of love to a burning world.
Treasure…the greenness that rises out of the ashes.

“The Secret” by Denise Levertov
“The World Book” by Patricia Hooper
The Future, by Naomi Alderman
“Body’s Ken” by Simon West
Jorge Luis Borges, quoted in The Marginalia
“When in Doubt” by Sandra Cisneros
Thich Nhat Hanh, quoted in The Marginalia
“Why Write Love Poetry in a Burning World” by Katie Farris
“Wild Joy” in The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl

Please be sure to visit my fellow Inkling, Mary Lee Hahn, for the Poetry Friday Roundup. And don’t forget to visit all the Inklings to learn all their secrets!

Heidi @my juicy little universe
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche