National Poetry Month: April 28, 2015

Another combo today.

NaPoWriMo Prompt: Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about bridges. A bridge is a powerful metaphor, and when you start looking for bridges in poems, you find them everywhere. Your poem could be about a real bridge or an imaginary or ideal bridge. It could be one you cross every day, or one that simply seems to stand for something larger – for the idea of connection or distance, for the idea of movement and travel and new horizons.

My good friend Barbara Yoder taught me the technique of rolling a die whenever I become stuck in my writing.  Each number represents a word you can add to your writing to take it further or in a different direction:

1 = But -- add an obstacle

2 = So -- you make a decision

3 = If -- gives you more options/establishes stakes

4 = Or -- gives you options or alternatives

5 = As -- saying more

6= And -- generative/helps create scenes

For some reason, I thought about this today when I began to write about bridges.

Here’s what I came up with:

Decision

a bridge can add and to our lives

but only when we let it take us farther

if we cross to the other side

so we find what is there

there or we can stay where

we are as we figure out this what