The Empty Notebook

These pages seek words,

notes, quotations from books read,

snippets of conversations, possibilities,

to do lists, bucket lists, and beginnings.

This is where a novel may start, or a poem

incubate, or an essay argue its point.

An empty notebook invites reflection.

Pages devoid of markings stand mute,

unable to discern what remains hidden.

April PAD Challenge

Fill in the blank: "The_____" and make it the title

Let's Stay this Way

I'd rather say miles

instead of kilometers

It sounds like a shorter

distance, easier to spell

and fewer syllables if

I'm in the mood to rhyme 

And I measure in inches

not in centimeters

which sounds too much

like a centipede

Let me luxuriate 

in a non-

metric world

April PAD Challenge

Write a metric poem

I Recall

Do I remember the aroma

of chestnuts or do I only

recall the brown bag

sold by the vendor in front

of the Museum of Modern Art

In the winter the chestnuts

warmed my hands as I

tossed them from hand to hand

Now I recall that when I opened

the bag there was a fragrance,

the aroma of street food

April PAD Challenge

Write a poem about a smell

A Crack in the Decorum of a Garden

I watch the tulips
and encourage them
to open and stand tall
     Please don't slouch
     or bend down until
     you touch the earth
     with your colorful petals
I expect it's hard
to stay put, unable
to ramble to other gardens
I wince when I think
of staying in one spot,
tethered to the same soil


April PAD Challenge
Use three words--crack, ramble, wince in a poem

I'm So Sorry

Please forgive me
I forgot you disliked Brussels Sprouts
when I planned tonight's dinner
Please forgive me
I spilled coffee on the book
you lent me two months ago
I know I should have returned
it sooner to avoid a mishap
I'm sorry that I sent you flowers
for your birthday with a card
made out to another person
Sometimes I forget to keep
things up to date


April PAD Challenge
Write a poem about regrets

A Memorial

Love wasn't enough to save
those who died
The candles they lit
on Friday at sundown
The baking of challah
The gift of the Sabbath
The mezuzah on the front door
didn't protect them nor did
their holy books
Yellow stars
sewn on garments
set them apart
counted them as other
tamped down the love
they offered

Love
brought forth the righteous ones
who lit a candle in the dark
who saved lives



April PAD Challenge
Write a love poem

On Faith

I believe
in what I can't touch,
can't see, strain to hear
and when I read God's word
I know that it isn't transcribed
word for word
It doesn't matter if everything
happened the way it's written
I still believe in those stories
I shout to Aaron's sons
be careful with that fire,
it won't go well
I walk with Ruth
I watch Jesus feed the
hoards of people and I know
that there is bread enough for me




April PAD Challenge
Write a poem about faith

Last Palimpsest

I followed all the directions
First I blotted the paper with purple--
the color of twelve tulips we planted
just before winter set in
Then I crumbled the paper
until it fit into my palm
Then I opened it, smoothing
lines until they resembled
the veins of a leaf
By brushing my thumb across
a toothbrush filled with sap
green paint I splattered
a random pattern the way
time sometimes moves
I dipped a toothpick in lemon
yellow and poked dots in circles
creating a galaxy of color
I splashed those tender fibers
with water and watched
colors bleed beyond the edges
Still following directions
I tossed it in the air,
burned the corners
tore a hole in the center
until it resembled a page
from an ancient manuscript
ready to be deciphered
and recovered


April PAD Challenge
Fill in the blank. "Last____"

Another Take

Notice how animals
pontificate in fables
Notice how one animal
wears wisdom's garment
And note how at the end
of a fable the moral,
revealed and underlined,
is borne on a silver plate
for your edification



April PAD Challenge
Write a fable poem

A Horse Caught in Time

Years ago, before painters repaired
cracks and painted over the surface
of a wall between a pizza restaurant
and a store selling Oriental rugs
I spotted a galloping horse created
out of cracks and peeling paint
He kept moving across the wall
unaware of being caught in one spot


April PAD Challenge
Write a poem about an object

How to Create a Task

Agreeing

 to do something,

 and finding

that it isn't what 

you want to do

It doesn't appeal 

It's boring

You're sorry 

you agreed

You have better

ways of spending 

time

It's a waste

of time 

You wonder

if you can

disappear,

get a one day

cold, find

a plausible

excuse

or even one

that requires

a stretch

If not

you're stuck

April PAD Challenge

Write a poem about a task

Conversion

My next door neighbor brought

a Bible over with lemonade

and homemade oatmeal cookies--

something to sweeten the gift

for someone who thought of

the Bible as a book of myths

Something happened between

the cookies and hikes in the woods

and drives across boundaries--

the myths became real and

interwined  with hammered 
dulcimer music and hymns
strummed on a guitar

Soon I owned a black leather Bible 

and a pen with the thinnest nib

and grew into faith 

April PAD Challenge

Write a memory poem

The Poet Who Wears Blinders

 Cloying words with religious overtones

disturb the universe, they paint distortions

and refuse to hold a mirror up

and view the scars, the roots

that wither from lack of water

Is it unacceptable to flay against

the inequalities --do we only see the rose

without accepting the thorn 

I, too, see beauty in the world

but why clothe it with saccharine words

Speak to me of the real world

with it's brokenness

Speak to me without glittering images

and soft, sibilant sounds

Shout, rant, and  don't be afraid

to get down and view the earthworms

April PAD Challenge

Write a life poem

Dancing in an Apartment

Brush, brush, tap, tap
pounded out on a wood board
in the bedroom I shared
with my grandmother.
Ball, heel, ball, heel
brush, brush,
smile, go slow.
Practice the routine
until it's smooth and relaxed.
     Mrs. Rubin lived downstairs
     and used a broom
     to knock on her ceiling
     and let me know that
     she heard the tapping.
     "Like a drill in my head,"
     she told the mailman
     who told my mother.
     I'm certain she never watched
     a clip of Bojangles
     nor ever dreamed of dancing
     on a wood stage
     instead of wood plank.

     Mrs Rubin wore black tie shoes.


April PAD Challenge
Write a dance poem

A Rebel System

ditch your lists
your calendar
with its notations
ignore to do items
let your phone ring
refuse to respond
to yet another
TelePrompTer
or infomercial
cut your cable
and stare at an
empty screen
send back
unsolicited mail
walk backwards
play tiddlywinks
instead of scrabble
create your own signs
start your own movement
don't accept
the prescribed
social system,
it's flawed





April PAD Challenge
Fill in the blank: "______system"

The Dream of a Child

Once upon a time
is the way a fairy tale begins
But this is once upon a time
long ago when I thought
that if I practiced magic tricks,
tried to converse like a ventriloquist
with a Raggedy Ann doll,
tossed two red rubber balls in the air,
practiced standing on my hands,
and "walked the dog" with my wood yo yo
I might be given a chance
to appear in the circus
-- at least one time
Later on I wanted to fly
like Peter Pan-- at least one time




April PAD Challenge
Write a " one time" poem

Amazing Grace

you can't buy it
or trade for it
you can't go looking
in your usual hiding places
it's right out there
catches you unaware
and if you're not paying
attention you'll just
let it slip right by
cause you thought
it would be wrapped
in glossy paper, announcing
itself with a drum roll
but it's quiet like
and you never know
who is going to be
a messenger



April PAD Challenge
use a song title as the title of your poem

And I'm an Armchair Traveler

My son wears tattoos
as fashion, as art emblems
as a way to fuse an ancient art
with contemporary time
Indonesian artists tapped
out designs cast
in the soul of the islands
on his arms and ankles
My son accepts Buddhist teachings
and wears a Tibetan Dzi bead
on a woven necklace
He will pray in public
for peace, for social justice
My son supports the women
of the Ndebele tribe who weave
hats of metal wire to sell
and purchase medicine
He buys and sells art
and collects the indigenous
art of Maori artists
and of outsider artists
My son and his wife
have a multi- hued family,
Elijah,an African-American child
Zara, whose mother was Mexican
and father was a plains Indian
Phuntsho, who is from Bhutan
and two biological children,
Jordan and Noah
They lived in Colorado
and Israel, New Zealand, and Thailand
They trekked the foothills
of Mt Everest, cycled in Indonesia,
visited India's rural areas, hiked
in China, ran in jungle areas,
and filled their passports
with stamps from places
I read about in National Geographic





April PAD Challenge
Write a family poem

Guilty Of

gossiping
passing up someone pan handling
telling a half truth
hiding what i really think
telling what i really think
changing my mind after
i agreed to do something
sitting on my hands
talking a good game
not walking the path
blasphemy without realizing
blasphemy realizing
being curt
being cloying
ignoring someone
biting off too much
biting off too little
being supercilious
altering where i stand
walking away
not walking away



April PAD Challenge
Write a guilty poem

A Sonnet in Search of a Pattern

I do like sestinas
but find sonnets too
restrictive with given
rhyme schemes and iambic
pentameter reining me in
Perhaps I find it too difficult
and prefer not to fail
while seeking a syllable




April PAD Challenge
Write an anti- form poem

Where to Next?

my travels span the world
from traveling down the nile
to trekking through forbidden
places, from visiting deserts
where my footsteps disappear
to scaling straight faced cliffs--
descending to the deepest caverns
and climbing the highest peaks,
my travels, unlimited by constraints
and confined within the covers of books
know no limits




April PAD Challenge
Write a travel poem

So Surprised

Last week's rain swelled the pond,
water overflowed boundaries
then spread over paths
creating new waterways

Trees stand knee deep in water
Cattails and rushes just
break the water's surface
This altered topography
will last for days




April PAD Challenge
Write a poem " so_____" fill in the blank

Panic

Will I finish the book
before the book club meets
or will I need to wing it
without knowing the ending
depending only on conjecture,
guess work, and my own sense
of how to tie the ends up in a bow
But suppose the author prefers
to leave his readers wondering
what happens next or if there
is another book to follow
A book that picks up just where
our main character was left
spread out on the horns of a dilemma
Ah! What will happen next



April PAD challenge
Write a panic poem

I Discovered a Grass Reed

My cousin held a blade
of grass taut between her thumbs
and the heels of her hands
She drew the grass reed
close to her lips,
inhaled and exhaled
A whistle cut through the air,
high pitched, plaintive
I tried, but only my breath
moved through the space
My cousin picked a flat piece of grass
and placed it just right
Now, she said, blow through the space
as if this is your solo voice,
you are calling the insects to join in
And I let my breath move against
the grass reed until a long whistle
entered the night
Crickets and grasshoppers harmonized
And then fireflies came to dance







April PAD challenge
write a discovery poem

The Third Floor Stacks

Overhead lights buzz
on the third floor of the library
I walk up and down the aisles
Outside rain and a dark sky
contrast with the warmth inside
I pick up Gertrude Stein and read,
"How do they occupy a room. In a way."
In another aisle A title catches my eye,
Girl From Fitchburg,
I went to a museum there,
but I can't recall what I viewed
I open the book and read,
" There are tricks for reliving the past."
as if the author read my mind
Halfway up and in the middle of a shelf
A Heinrich Boll book, Irish Journal
It seems so alien to his other work
He writes, " When God made time," the Irish say,
" He made plenty of it."
Is a walk up and down the third floor aisles
of the library a good use of time?
The title Unruly Places captures my attention
What places do I know that are unruly,
restive, boisterous, robust
Perhaps the closed library stacks


April PAD challenge
Write a poem that incorporates a sound

Helium

She showed up holding a red balloon
and handed me the purple string
We watched the balloon dance
and plump up with the kitchen's warmth
from the moussaka cooking in the oven
We ate dinner, drank wine, spoke
of this and that, while the red balloon
floated overhead as if listening
to our words and offering a blessing




April PAD challenge
"Pick an element from the Periodic Table
to be the title of your poem"

I Met Myself

each poem is a beginning--
a chance to turn a metaphor,
to discover a place you didn't
know existed and then to remain
in that place --digging deep,
following a thought until
you burrow into your own skin




April PAD challenge
"Write a beginning or ending poem"

A Biblio Love

Library shelves filled with titles,
books to learn how to knit a scarf,
or understand quantum physics, or
read the first of Dostoyevsky's tomes
I walk to the top floor and roam
through books about our wars--
The Revolution to Afghanistan,
then take a right and roam through
Ancient Greece and Rome before
going downstairs to find a mystery
and a book dubbed literary fiction



April PAD challenge
"___love" fill the blank

Perhaps Tomorrow

A climb up Cadillac Mountain, but
not today, I'm still not ready
to do more than a flat terrain
with a view of water and a chance
to see the heron who stands watch
over the pond at Great Meadows
The first game of golf this spring,
but not today while the fairway
still labors beneath calf deep
puddles of melted snow
A haddock sandwich at Dairy Joy,
but that will need to wait
until they open for the season
when I'll add French fries
and a twirled Java Berry ice cream
Not today, but maybe tomorrow


April PAD challenge
Write a not today poem

The Forward Pronounced Ferwerts

I walked to the candy store
to buy the Jewish Daily Forward
for my grandmother to read
with her afternoon glass of tea
The Yiddish script danced
on the page until Yette spoke
to me of trade unions, of socialism
and men looking for wives and
women wanting husbands
She read articles about
working conditions,
Workman's Circle lectures,
and where to learn English
My grandmother cut out serialized
stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer--
collecting parts in a wood box
until she could read the short story
from the first word to the last period
Sometimes she asked me
if I wanted to hear the story
and then in English and Yiddish
I heard a short short version
and even when I lost the thread
I loved listening



April Poem a Day Challenge
Write a reminiscing poem.