W3 Prompt #17: Wea’ve Written Weekly

Intro

Dear friends,

Welcome to our W³ Poetry Prompt, which goes live on Wednesdays at The Skeptic’s Kaddish.

You may click here for a fuller explanation of W³; but here’s the ‘tldr’ version:

Part I

The main ingredient of W³ is a weekly poem written by a Poet of the Week (PoW), which participants respond to in verse.

Part II

The second ingredient is a writing guideline (or two) provided by the PoW. Guidelines may include, but are not limited to: word counts, poetic forms, inclusion of specific words, and use of particular poetic devices.

Part III

After four days, when the prompt closes, the PoW shall select one participant’s poem as the W³ prompt for the following week, and its author becomes the next PoW.

Simple enough, right?

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Okie dokie ~ Let’s do this thing!

I. The prompt poem:

‘Straits, or: Expanses’ by ben Alexander (that’s me!)

I struggle every day to make ends meet
Anxieties pummel me into broken gravel 
Worn ragged, it's a stretch to say I'm free

Pressure grinds rough at soul skinned raw
Buses; clocks; jobs; child; chores; back|forth
I struggle every day to make ends meet

Pump me full of alcohol, caffeine, courage
Liquid channels wind through foggy stupor
Anxieties pummel me into broken gravel 

Teetering 'tween survival and destruction
Feathers in wind gusts sucked into abyss
Worn ragged, it's a stretch to say I'm free

II. This week’s prompt guidelines

• Write a ‘Golden Shovel’ poem, using a line (or more) from my poem above.

What’s a ‘Golden Shovel’ poem?

This is a poetic form in which the last word of each line forms (all or part of) a pre-existing poem.

(In other words, you may select a line, two lines, a full stanza, or any segment of the prompt poem, depending upon how long a poem you would like to write.)

III. Submit: Click on ‘Mr. Linky’ below

In order to participate and share a poem, open up this blog post, outside of the WordPress reader. At the bottom, just below these words, you will see a small rectangular graphic with the words ‘Mr Linky’. Click on that to submit.

Submissions are open for 4 days, until Sunday, August 28, 10:00 AM (GMT+3)

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Last week’s W³ poem

This week’s W³ prompt poem (above), composed by little ol’ me, was written in response to last week’s W³ prompt poem, which Punam wrote:

‘Calcutta calling’ by Punam Sharma

sitting in the cramped hostel dormitory
I measured your rain, that splashed
on my hand-washed laundry. Drenching it
in petrichor redolent with first crush

eating griddle hot kathi roll at the corner street stall
I inhaled your smoky, saporous smell
and that piquant, fiery taste of you
still lingers on my fickle tongue

the hole-in-the-wall used-books stores
the addas over endless chais*
nurtured my hesitant, timorous voice
giving it an audience that knew the art of listening

you spread your arms like an aging matriarch
enfolding my bewildered, unsure self
and in the midst of clutter, chaos and cacophony
I found I could stand on my feet

my buoyant thoughts often meander
along the bends of the river Hooghly
Calcutta, your captivating ways often have me
loitering in the bylanes of the yester years.