Poems in Limbo

I have a number of writing journals in which I jot down ideas for and rough drafts of poems. Many of these ideas and drafts never become polished poems. I do find that keeping the journals is a good writing exercise for me. Sometimes, I am able to revisit a particular piece and rework it into a final draft. It’s also interesting to read through the journals and find things that I had forgotten that I had written.


Yesterday, I looked through two of my journals to see if I could find some of my poems that may never be polished but remain forever in a state of literary limbo. I thought I’d post a few of them this week for Poetry Friday.

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My Poems in Limbo

I’ll eat so much
Before you know it
I’ll need a new skin.
I’ll have to grow it—
A nifty new suit
In a bigger size
Before it’s time
To chrysalize.
I’ll pupate in
A little case
Where I’ll change my
Body, legs, and face…
And grow four wings.
Then by and by
I’ll be a
Monarch butterfly.


Prepared for rain, our
trash waits for the garbage men
in dark green slickers


Bee,
busying yourself
in a bright pink peony,
save a sip of nectar
for me.



In daylight
stars vanish
as the sky erases them
from her bright blue memory.
At night
in the sleepy dark
she dreams them alive
again.


Meteors
stitching stars together
on the dark cloth of night.


Clicking
Lock step, as
One turns—so turn all the other gears,
Clicking, ticking, tocking together
Keeping in time through the years


Here’s a poem in which I finished the first stanza—but never completed the second stanza.



I’ll wrap you up
in darkness.
I’ll hide away
the sun.
I’ll hush
the singing birds,
and switch the stars on
one by one.



At Blue Rose Girls, I have a great mother-daughter poem by Marie Howe entitled Hurry.

Irene Latham has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Live. Love. Explore!