Writing Group Stuff

My writers' group is kick-starting again for a mini-session. As usual, I'm posting the poems here for a brief time and then I'll take 'em off the site at the end of the day.

We're using prompts this time. The prompt for this day was to grab a random non-poetry book and find a word from a few random pages. I drew the following words:

1. Myself. 2. Speechlessness. 3. Mythologies. 4. Vacuum. 5. Idleness.

I give my students similar assignments. There's something about putting together puzzles that I truly enjoy.

Anyway, I know Blogger is going to kill my linebreaks. The poem's in couplets, so when there's a staggered third line it's because the line was too long.

Also, I have to say, I'm still in love with the couplet. You can't hide in a couplet.

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Poof!

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The Poem's Origins:

The story about my father asking a Japanese soldier for a cigarette is true, from what I understand. My dad was probably five years old when he asked for a cigarette.

My grandfather was a heavy smoker and it wouldn't surprise me that he would tell my father to get smokes from the soldier.

I'm a little unsure about the correct name for the flower. I know it's a lily and I know it's orange with some darker orange stippling. The flower's on a thin stem and there can be clumps of five or six flowers per stem. Our house is along a logging road that's U-shaped. We're adjacent to some DNR (Dept. of Natural Resources) property, and they recently cut back a swathe of about 40 acres, leaving a naked, scarified empty lot. We take daily walks on this road with our stroller.

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Current Spin:

More Summer-ish music.