Letters of a Voyage

This week's (or actually last week's, it's been a little crazy around here on account of workshop being run at second-job) prompt at Big Tent asked us to write a poem inspired by our favorite poem. Although it isn't my favorite poem, my favorite line of poetry comes from John Donne's Holy Sonnet XIV: "Knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend." It has always struck me as good advice about how to live well, so I used it write a sonnet comparing coming-of-age/entering the work force to storming a castle. The reference about tigers comes from the best advice I got heading off to college: "Smile, be yourself, and watch out for tigers." Thanks Gryff.

( Good Advice: How to Storm the Castle )

As always, there are other responses (and some of them awesome--look for the Dylan Thomas inspired villanelle) at Big Tent.

So to start out on a completely juvenile note, I wrote a love poem. I said I wasn't going to, ever, but Big Tent Poetry asked for a conversation poem. They even went so far as to ask "Is there a question you are burning to ask someone? Is there a person (living or dead) you would love to have a conversation with?" And when you put it like that.

I am not named Eve (I am not named Georgie) but the nonspeaking (and for now oblivious) audience member is in fact named Adam. There are a lot of Paradise Lost jokes in our circle.

The full lines are iambic pentameter, mimicking the conversational Lyrical Ballads of Longfellow and Coleridge. But because I don't know a single real person who could get out an entire conversation (particularly of this nature) in iambic pentameter, there are short lines too. The parenthesis are to play around with subtext. I figure even in a fantasy-truth-telling there are still things I wouldn't say out loud.

( To Adam, From a Would-Be Eve )
You can read other great responses at Big Tent's Come One/Come All post for last week, or find this week's new prompt at the same site.

I remain,
Georgie