Poetry Prompts

I've carted this little spiral around for too many years to count -- from one move to another, from one classroom to another, just waiting for the day when I would put it to use.  I assumed I'd be using it for its intended purpose -- in the classroom.  A couple weeks ago, though, as I was sorting through the never-ending piles in my laundry room, I stumbled upon it.  I really should just get rid of this. I'm never going to use it. All it is is clutter.  But then I decided to give it one more chance.  To use the prompts for poems of my own this year.  It will get me out of my non-writing funk and out of my always-writing-the-same-thing funk. 

Prompt- You have been invited to a party for poets only. The invitation requests that you respond in the form of a poem. Write a short poem accepting the invitation.

(poem written on 1-2-22)

An invitation for poets, you say?

    For dreamers and wishers

        and hopers and thinkers?

    For word-weavers

        and insight-illuminators

        and bridge-builders

        and thought-tinkerers

    For those who precipitate poems

        when their heads get too heavy

        and their minds get too muddled

        and the only remedy

            is pen to paper

                to soak and nourish the ground

                    and the roots below

    When it has been too long,

        the roots cry out for reflection

        the stems plead for sustenance

    And this cycle

        of thinking and mulling and writing it out

        of evaporating and condensing and precipitating

            is woven into my very fibers

    That's who you're talking about?

Then that's me.

I accept your invitation.

Please reserve a seat.

I'm coming.

Indeed, I'm on my way.