Not Quite Write

I wrote this poem for the Wea’ve Written Weekly prompt #216, provided by Nancy this week. The prompt asked us to create a poem about a time when you “soared, stumbled, or did a little of both”. Our family vacation to South Dakota in May 2020 quickly came to mind.

The fact that Mount Rushmore was under construction when we visited seemed very fitting. We took this road trip with three children under 6, at the height of the pandemic, when I was just a few weeks out of my last round of chemo. Chaos was a given.

However, the beauty stands out as well. The front desk clerk seeing my chemo beanie and kiddos and telling us we’d been upgraded to a corner room with a whirlpool. Our dear friend Levi meeting us near the western border (he was living in rural Wyoming at the time (is there a nonrural part of Wyoming?)), and the 6 of us taking a daytrip together to Devils Tower. The unexpected moments of peace and quiet out in nature, and even on the road.

I don’t think I quite mastered this prompt, but I gave it the old try!

Nancy’s prompt: Epic wins and spectacular flops

I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree
A tree that will in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair...

For inspiration, think about a moment in your life when something truly mattered. Perhaps it was a great success, a hard-earned accomplishment, or a memorable disaster that taught you something important. Maybe you organized a major event, won a competition, survived a family vacation gone wrong, or confidently attempted a home-improvement project that ended in chaos.

Write about an occasion when you soared, stumbled, or did a little of both.

Guidelines:

• Use one or more 4-line stanzas;
• Keep each line to 8 syllables;
• Maximum length: 20 lines;
• Humor, reflection, triumph, embarrassment, and self-deprecation are all welcome.