April 28th — A Poem A Day

Promptly Sestina, He Said

“Write a sestina,” he said,
and here I sit with eighty seconds to compose.
I hate writing to a time limit and a prompt.
I was suckered in by the romance of, National Poetry Month.
Some of us have to work you know.
I don’t get paid to write poetry.

I write poetry
because I have thoughts I want said –
things I want the world to know.
My words choose their own patterns as I compose,
then I tinker and prod and poke — and rearrange them for a month;
so I hate writing to a time limit and a prompt.

I thought writing every day might prompt
more words from me and enrich my poetry.
Thirty poems in just one month!
“I need the discipline,” I said.
My thoughts were ill composed.
Had I considered the loss of quality, I would have said, “No!”

Yet how was I to know,
that I’d have to be prompt
and learn to compose
instant poetry?
Still, I made a vow and I’m living by what I said –
thirty poems in just one month.

Thirty poems in just one month.
Thirty bad poems, you know;
each with something unsaid,
but I served them up prompt,
with my apologizes to the good poetry
I didn’t have time to compose.

I wish I’d had I more time to compose,
I might have succeeded at writing a poem a month
and offered some quality poetry,
but now we’ll never know.
I’ve hated writing to a prompt.
I prefer writing when I’ve the time to express the things I want said.

I said I would compose
poetry to a prompt every day for a month
and I know I will succeed. But after, will I still like poetry?

CLA

Poetic Asides, Day 28
Prompt: write a Sestina or a poem about a Sestina