Happy National Poetry Month! This April, I’m getting a bit of a late start with NaPoWriMo (though not as late a start as I did last year). I hope to write and post a new poem here every few days. In between, I plan to enjoy and comment on the poems posted by writer-friends who are also participating in this poem-a-day challenge.
My first poem is inspired by yesterday’s prompt from NaPoWriMo founder Maureen Thorson, to “write a poem that has the same first line as another poem,” and by David J. Bauman’s (a.k.a. The Dad Poet’s) lovely reading of Frank O’Hara’s poem “For Grace, After a Party.” (Instead of following the instructions, however, I borrowed O’Hara’s title, not his first line.) Here we go:
POEM BORROWING A TITLE FROM FRANK O’HARA
For Grace, after a party is the best time
for getting back into dancing.
For Grace, after a party is never as sweet
as that span of time just as the second drink
is kicking in and everyone is beginning
to feel hopeful.
For Grace, after a party means she can stop
apologizing about her hair.
For Grace, after a party is a time to uncorral her feelings
and watch them buck and snort across the pasture.
For Grace, after a party is an interlude
for considering which loved one to forgive.
For Grace, after a party is the perfect time
to practice scrambling eggs and holding
the weather, warm and calm, in her spoon.
Jennifer Bullis 