Wednesday, June 10th, 2009...11:39 am

Learning

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For this week’s High Calling Blogs poetry: another great writing prompt from L.L. Barkat:

Poetry prompt: try collecting phrases from the conversations around you or from street signs, cereal boxes, book covers, wherever. Choose one or two to pop into a poem.

Phrases I collected:

“The moon should be purple.”
“Four-year-olds are big.”
“You should open your eyesight, not close your eyesight.”
“All you have to do is keep walking, don’t stop, and don’t be afraid.”
“It’s bigger than a googolplex.”
“Bye! Have a great dragon day!”
“See my green finger?”

…and the resulting poem:

“Learning”

I’m teaching him to color,
Lying belly-down on queen-size bed—
The very bed he slept in
Every night
During newborn months, his first ten months
Outside the womb
Snuggled every night by nursing mother, his
Three-walled crib snuggle-attached
Next to queen-size bed.

But now is four years after.
Four-year-olds are big, and as we lie
Belly-down on queen-size bed,
I’m teaching him to color
By coloring myself. I choose
A yellow for the moon, but he sees
Something I cannot:
The moon—it should be purple.
I close my eyes to open my eyesight
As I pick up purple marker.

All I have to do is keep the marker moving
And remain unafraid
Of green ink on fingers and unicorn’s mane.

On this dragon day, this mermaid-under-purple-moon day,
I’m teacing him to color
And in googolplex ways
I am learning, too.

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