that's mrs. mediocrity to you

of course she had no regrets
she’d wear that red dress again
if she could find it

rubbing ankles in the dark
and smiling smugly at the waiter
with his tray of sweets for the sweet
thinking he knew
the definition
of divine

and the whispers she couldn’t quite catch
shuffling by from two tables over

grief and apology
perhaps
or something smaller

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 27
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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you say age cannot wither her, sir

but i say what a piece of work is man all filled up

with woe is me and heart on your sleeve and

a rose by any other name when what you mean is

love is blind or bag and baggage but i carry you

to the corner of frailty, thy name is woman all

green eyed monster and fight fire with fire

(really, i have green eyes)

and lay you down under the greenwood tree knowing

for certain that all the world’s a stage

and the milk of human kindness will save you when

the game is up and thereby hangs a tale

of more fool you though

this is the short and the long of it

and the course of true love never did run smooth

but all’s well that ends well and we both know

there’s method in my madness

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Et tu, Brute i say, Et tu?*

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Today I took Poem A Day’s challenge one step further and filled a poem with
Shakespeare phrases, in addition to using words he coined in the title.
All phrases in italics are Will’s.

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 26
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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somewhere in a garden in spain
your long lost great-great-grandmother
buried a key on a gold-plated chain

no one knows this but you
and the ghost she still sends
to tease your serpentine dreams
with the scent of yesterday’s roses

one day
as you walk to your car in a hurry somewhere
you’ll notice the nod of a purple veiled flower
and catch a barely-there whisper

spoken
in a language you can’t understand

and that’s when you’ll begin
to listen

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 25
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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i remember the day you died or
to be more accurate, chose to leave,
or to be more accurate still, i remember
when i found out what you’d done

i wasn’t there
but i’ve never stopped seeing
the violence of your last moment
and the lifetime left
wondering
what more we could have done

the first time i understood
that life is precious
was also the first time
i understood
the hole that grows with living

one shovelful each day
until we’ve formed the mountain
we must climb
to jump back in

and i wonder if
on the way down
we think of
flying

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 24
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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what i hold in my palm is not forgiveness, exactly
but my own cracked version of all the ways
i’ve learned to spell

the quest for grace
the call for compassion
the human con(dition)

absolution is not mine to give nor
clemency mine to offer

i can only keep my hand open
mark these trails as map
forgotten

i no longer need
to know the route
taken

for i stand naked in the rain
of evolution
running rivulets of truth
across a river
laced with anarchy
and stone

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 23
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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i want to tell you a secret:
silence is a charlatan and answers are for birds

the sparrow scrapes through a litter of leaves
looking for worm or the snail that will save him

today

but he keeps one eye on the sky for a martyrdom of hawk
and his beak has begun to grow crooked

he knows the dangers of complacency
life or death, work or hunger
boredom is never an option
fight or flight remains a literal refrain

the sky is a cage of infinity
posing as the song of room to soar

the sparrow knows the gravity
of thinking

he’s a miracle in the melt of mirage

he sings so the morning won’t be lonely

he lives to defy his mother’s odds

he sings

he sings

he sings

to tell the nature
of his story

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 22
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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i am bent but never broken

hollow but never empty

spent but never lacking

.

my song is a march

and my step is a rhyme

my heart is a lark

and my hands are sublime

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pain curls inside my pocket

a worry stone of wait

busy fingers

burnished hope

polished imperfection

.

i am magic without chant

gypsy without wandering

woman without definition

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i am bent but never broken

hollow but never empty

spent but never lacking

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 21
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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we both wear time on our face, proud of place
and days spent wandering
through little more than transparent
pages

nothing is smooth these days, sandpaper tongue
and hollowed out heel,
creaking bones in a cold-frame

of continuous growth

and gathered

seed

brittle remnants poking out from all
the wrong places and the crinkle crackle
of your presence

keeps me rooted in this place
of tender spring and brutal winter
as together we weather

broken shovel

and harvested

need

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 20
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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sip sunshine on sundays and wednesdays

marry the sky twice every morning

root for misty maudlin rain

while kissing thunder behind brooding cumulus

dance only with cobalt blue butterflies

(they will always complement your dress)

allow the wind to be your daily stylist

stand tall in the presence of cold shoulders

practice the art of being dormant

scream with joy when the sun promises to hold you

become best friends with everyone named green

(they will all attend your wedding)

sell all your white dreams and buried memories

whisper grace to the stars that burn your name

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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 19
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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this is the way
we learn to love

inhale
exhale

embrace
release

compassion
indifference

respect
disdain

exhale
inhale

we learn to love
this is the way

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..

A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month. Day 18
I’m participating in NaPoWriMo, and Writer’s Digest Poem a Day Challenge.

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