Back to poetry. I’ll admit, there was a tiny bit of cheating here; I started with one poetry prompt, but as I worked on it I realized it leant itself better to a letter towards the end of the alphabet. So I ran the number generator again, and landed on something that worked out perfectly!

Once again, from Poets & Writers‘s prompt archives (seriously, if you’re ever stuck, they have TONS):

Write a poem in the form of a letter to an imaginary friend in which you ask them for help that begins, Dear Friend. Keeping the person or creature or entity you’re writing to in mind, include details and images that reveal your imaginary friend’s characteristics as you craft your entreaty.

 

This was hard. Like, really hard. The concept of an imaginary friend just needs a more childlike, whimsical tone. And for that whimsy, it really needed a rhyme scheme.

I’m not used to structure and rhyme like this, and it was a fight all the way to the end. I nearly gave up — but that’s not the point of this challenge, and this theme. The only way to be a better writer? Stretch yourself. Think outside of your little writer box. You never know what you will enjoy or what you might be good at.

And now I know — I’m no Dr. Suess. And that’s okay with me.

d

 

Dear Friend

I found your name this afternoon
Written in the corner of a page
Of a children’s tale about the moon,
And it reminded me of a better age.

It spoke of cloudless skies of blue,
Days you were with me when I played;
And in the scary twisty darkness too,
You were with me when I was afraid.

Some might look at you and stare
At just some ugly little gremlin,
With three yellow tufts of hair
Sprouting from purple-tinted skin.

But you I could never despise;
Not the tiny wart on the end of your nose,
Nor your saffron-colored eyes,
Not even your six tiny fingers and eighteen toes.

Now it seems I need you again;
Child dreams have faded far away.
The heart and wonder I had then
Have lost their glow, turned dappled-grey.

Dear Friend, it is your help I need
To find what happened to my child joy;
To get me back where you used to lead
To the sun-sparkled places we did enjoy.