We made it! Fifty-two weeks of paint chip prompts. Thank you to everyone who has participated, whether you’ve written a poem every week or just once, or even if you’ve just come by to read the paint-chip-inspired poems. I appreciate you all. It’s been a blast.
The Challenge
I decided to pull our theme from my second poetry book Rejoice! Rejoice! Poems for the Holidays. However, instead of randomly choosing a page, I picked the first poem in the book. Our theme is Silence. Seems appropriate for a relatively quiet holiday season.
The words and phrases you have to work with are sprig of mint, smoke signal, dragonfly, black cat, faded denim, dust devil, and prickly pear. My challenge to you is to pick just one of these words, the one that most symbolizes silence for you, and write four tercets with a clear rhyme scheme. Or you could choose to write a triolet.
My Poem
The paint chip I’ve selected for my poem has the greatest potential for being noisy instead of silent: black cat. But this Christmas black cat and silence go hand-in-hand for me.
Silent Paws On silent paws the stealthy black cat Sauntered by the back door mat Then quietly in the windowsill sat Yet he could thunder like a cattle herd Racing down the hall quite blurred Scaring away every sweet song bird I remember the days of yore When trouble the cat had in store Trying to sneak out the French door Now he's moved out with our son All is quiet when the day is done Opportunities for a lap cat are none
Your Turn
Now it’s your turn. Pick a paint chip and start writing tercets. You can share your poem in the comments, or you can post it on your blog and share a link in the comments. You can choose to strictly follow the prompt or creatively deviate from the parameters I’ve set out. The main thing is to have some fun.
Since today is Christmas Day, I’d be remiss if I didn’t wish you all a very Merry Christmas. And here’s to a new year of new paint chip prompts. I’ll be mixing it up a bit starting next week. I still haven’t decided quite what I’ll do, but I have no doubt it will be fun.