Blitz Poem #1: Town of Life

Last Tuesday at a Poetry and Prompts group, a friend of mine wrote and read a blitz poem.  I had never heard of this poetry form before, but I really enjoyed hearing it, and so I looked it up.

Here is my first blitz poem.  It was fun to write.

Town of Life

university days
university town
town so small
town by the tides
tides of change
tides ebb and flow
flow in as students
flow out as adults
adults with ideas
adults with opinions
opinions of ideas
opinions of people
people who cry
people who laugh
laugh at children
laugh at Fate
Fate rolls the dice
Fate ain't always nice
nice little town
nice little shops
shops for the students
shops for the professors
professors of chemistry
professors of history
history in the town
history all around
around the town
around the harbour
harbour the houses
harbour the books
books in the library
books in the classes
classes of people
classes of animals
animals on the farms
animals in the bars
bars on campus
bars on streets
streets lined with shops
streets lines with homes
homes for a lifetime
homes for seasons
seasons with snow
seasons come and go
go back to campus
go on to real life
life lessons earned
life well learned
learned
earned

Poetry and Prompts on Tuesday

A local friend of mine has been hosting “Poetry and Prompts” on Tuesdays for quite some time now.  (I’m thinking years.)  Except for one failed attempt, when I tried from Starbucks but didn’t realize we would be reading aloud, I hadn’t attended.  Since I decided I would be focusing much more on my writing in 2021, I made sure to go today.

The poetry prompt we used today was “Happy _______.”

Sometimes, if I have a poem rattling around in my head, I can just write one, but I usually need a structure to write poetry on demand.  My friend Heather has recently introduced me to the nonet, so I decided I would go with that for today.

A nonet is a nine-line poem which has a structure based on syllables,  The first line has nine syllables, the second has eight, with each line decreasing by a syllable, all the way down to the last line, which has just one syllable.

Here is the poem I wrote:

HAPPY RAILS

The train rolls to a lumbering stop
The conductor drops down the step
Eager passengers detrain
We wait in line to board
Finally seated
Feel brakes let go
On my way
Moving
Gone