I got a little behind, but I am determined to complete this challenge. And when I am determined, I am DETERMINED. So, here we are, N, a few days late.

So here we are, today’s poetry prompt, from Poets & Writers:

Write an erasure poem: rip out one or two pages from a magazine or newspaper. Read through them, underlining words and phrases that appeal to you and that relate to each other. Using a marker or Wite-Out, begin to delete the words around those you underlined, leaving words and phrases that you might want to use. Keep deleting the extra language, working to construct poetic lines with the words you’ve chosen to keep.

 

I love erasure poems. You take one page of a newspaper — stories about business owners, city planning, public school debt — stories that are dull and lacking in poetry, and from it, you create poetry. It’s a fascinating exercise, and a whole lot of fun. What words sound good together? What images can you create with a few words from over here and some words from over there? It’s not perfect, but here we have a poem that can jump off to something much more interesting and profound — eventually.

n

 

The News of the Day

With help beyond limits —
A staggering figure, fueled beyond limits;
It equates a drain.
The advantaged few is given leeway,
Creating the possibility,
As soon as they feel compelled,
The fear that they’d lose.
It was part of
Years of slammed doors;
Ambition from an early age,
The passion, to be great.
A new plan strikes,
Even if nothing ever comes of it…
Make way for art,
For something important,
The power of an idea
Owned by all of us.
Consider that idea seriously,
Throughout the plan,
Now floating what once
Would have been completed.