Day 3

100 Words for 100 Days June 13 - Sept 20

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Okay, I am not going to beat myself up about missing a day. That's not what this exercise is for. Now is the time to get caught up and get my homework and writing group stuff done at the same time.

Title: Tree before a storm

What colors are in a tree?
Green, brown, and in bloom? Many possibilities
But mostly people think of green
Have you looked closely at the green?
Have you seen the different shades of that verde when the sunshine illuminates the leaves posed against a mountain of black clouds in the sky?
The new glows with aliveness, welcoming the coming storm.

That's 65 words. Time for some more writing.

Homework Reading Response One:

Elephants Are Not Afraid Of Mice by Arthur Mortensen

An elephant regarded a mouse
Who'd found a seat upon his trunk.
"My trunk is not a mouse's house,"
The paciderm exclaimed, and -- thunk!
He bashed the mouse -- red guts on bark;
A passing dog enjoyed a chew.
A pair of black flies cried -- Hark! Hark!
There is a lovely feast in view.

Had Darwin come upon this scene
He might have learned a handy lesson,
That elephants are rarely mean
But can't abide a second guess on
The subject of elephants and mice:
The mouse that roars won't roar twice.

http://www.expansivepoetryonline.com/journal/indexjournal.html

This poem has haunted me for a while now. I hope it's not due to the violence done against the mouse. First off, it rhymes with rhythm. The next poem I try to write must have rhymes in it, because I'm feeling that I am incapable of writing that way. I know that poetry doesn't have to, but it shows such a control of form.

The vivid murder of the mouse and the title remind me of all the cartoon images seen as a child of the mouse taunting the elephant. Dumbo is a good example. This poem neatly turns that over and squashes it flat. And the last line just makes me smile. Maybe it is the violence.

Note to self: go find all that peotry terminology that refuses to stick in my head for the next response.

That gives me 139 words. So now everything else I write goes in the monthly/weekly totals.