Through the fall, I have been participating in a weekly poetry project called Twenty Word Tuesday which appears mostly on Instagram and via the hashtag #twentywordtuesday. It was begun and has been moderated by Charissa Sylvia who is herself and exceptional poet and writer. You may follow her on Instagram HERE.
Here is a piece I wrote at the beginning of October which was inspired by this beautiful 120 year old chestnut tree I came across while walking one afternoon.
Standing here
I begin to believe
It would be enough
If all I left behind
Were the trees
I’d planted.
Randall Edwards 2022
And here is another twenty word poem written in response to what I think is my enneagram personality type. Piglet may be the most enneagram six there ever was, and the title is, Six.
You asked me for
my Enneagram number,
And I replied,
“There are so many ways
This could go wrong.”
Randall Edwards 2022
November 20 marks the 54th Anniversary of the Farmington Mining Disaster. I am reposting in honor of miners and families who died, survived, and who still grieve.
The Poetry Pub’s Day 13, prompt was “eye contact.” Here’s my response to the prompt, and it is offered in light of the fact that November is Diabetes Awareness Month.
The poem is a recollection of the day my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes which is an autoimmune disease that attacks the pancreas and leaves the individual insulin dependent. For many years it was called Juvenile Diabetes because the disease most often manifest in children.
Our daughter was seven when she was diagnosed. Here’s a picture of her in the ER awaiting admission to the hospital. It was December 7.
Here is a poem based on day five’s November Poem a Day Challenge poetry prompt from The Poetry Pub. The prompt is “telephone.”
Incidentally, November marks the 54 anniversary of Glen Campbell’s release of “Wichita Lineman.” I love what songwriter Jimmy Webb said of his song, “…you can see someone working in construction or working in a field, a migrant worker or a truck driver, and you may think you know what’s going on inside him, but you don’t. You can’t assume that just because someone’s in a menial job that they don’t have dreams…or extraordinary concepts going around in their head, like ‘I need you more than want you; and I want you for all time.’ You can’t assume that a man isn’t a poet.”