I have a new poem in Otis Nebula. I was overjoyed after the editor told me the news... until I remembered I'd have to write an Otis. Poetic forms I've never tried always fill me with trepidation, and it spread exponentially when I found out it had to be completed in 24 hours.
An Otis starts with twelve seed words. You can't change the forms of the words and have to use one word in each line of the poem. The words must be used in the order they are given. The poem should be completed quickly.
I wrote two in the span of twenty minutes because I was terrified of not having it done in time. I submitted one after stressing about spelling and coherence. Afterwards, I found out that it was optional to participate in the prompt. My contribution is the first one on the group Otis page.
The other one I wrote with the same seed words:
You make this walk whimsical.Water steadily touches the weir
the way you caress me, no maybe
in our patient, relentless love
we can’t squeak a dime through.
Leftovers await us back home,
bulb over the yellow kitchen sink
still broken. It matters not. You're a goof who
dances with me like we're in a courtyard
in Portugal, phantom terebinth tree waving
a hello like reeds in a marsh to frogs.
My worries are a ghost when you smile.
I'm glad I attempted something new, but I don't think either poem is my strongest work.
No comments:
Post a Comment