National Poetry Month: April 30, 2015

Prompt: Today, I challenge you to write a poem backwards. Start with the last line and work your way up the page to the beginning. Another way to go about this might be to take a poem you’ve already written, and flip the order of the lines and from there, edit it so the poem now works with its new order. This will probably feel a bit strange (and really, it is a bit strange), but it just may help you see the formal “opening” and “closing” strategies of your poems in a new way!

 

I decided to go the revision route. Here is the revised poem. The original draft is below.  

Which one do you like better? I'd love to hear. 

Happy National Poetry Month!

Green (2)

down the river

a leaf

I will float

into the green

green world

I will bend

my body

into the wild

under shadows

of tree canopy

lichen

mown grass

corn stalks

I will wear

tree frog

warbler

cedar

chartreuse aspen

just before fall

soft underside

of mallow leaves

pea shoot

spring leaf

sagebrush

I will robe myself

Green (1)

I robe myself                                                

in sagebrush
spring leaf
pea shoot
chartreuse aspen
just before fall.
I wear
cedar
warbler
tree frog
soft underside
of mallow leaves.
I grace my self

with corn stalks
mown grass
lichen
shadows under
tree canopy.
When I walk out
into the wild
no one will see me.
I will blend my body,
fold myself

into the green,

green world.
I will float,
myself a leaf
down the river