Relaunch of The Poetry Bug

Once upon a time, The Poetry Bug was a featured column at Perpetual Prose. After that short-lived experiment, The Bug went into hibernation.

But now The Bug lives again. New home. New look. Same premise.

The Poetry Bug will deal with the mechanics of writing poetry and look at resources and markets for poets, but I also want to explore the human factor--the emotions that go into writing a poem, whether negative or positive, humorous or serious. After all, a poem without some sort of emotional context is just words strung together like plastic pearls.

Whenever possible, I’ll also be interviewing poets in an effort to get inside their creative processes and showcase their contributions to the form. If you want to get “bugged” (or make a comment or suggestion), drop me a line.

In the meantime, I encourage all you budding and practiced poets to follow the lead of Robert Lee Brewer, host of the annual Poem-a-Day Challenge at Poetic Asides. The premise is simple even if the task is not. Write one poem a day for an entire month.

I tried to participate once but found myself pulled away by other matters. While some of my efforts were less than stellar, I did manage to surprise myself a few times. 

I’ll share two of my favorites with you right now.

Almost There

Landmarks guide our travels

Over new terrain and old

Familiar sights on a long journey

Taken many times before

Father steers the station wagon

Winding down a two-lane highway

Late at night embraced by fog

Headlights catch the tendril swirl

Broken at last by the crumbling

Yellow hulk, a landlocked berg

Haunted by voices long lost at sea

Still carried on phantom telegraph lines

“Almost there,” mother says

Children shuffle in the dark

Passing, missing, in the night

Souls who echo, “Almost there.”

The Mantle Clock

        tick

tock

         the mantle clock

fly away a faster day

future

shorter than

the past, what’s gone

around

will still be

gone, no turning

back

         tick

tock

         the mantle clock

Remember. If the poetry bug bites, don’t swat. Just write. And let the little guy fly on to his next target.