Eluded - a poetry experiment
I have decided to over-expose myself and post the poem I wrote at the Faithful Writer's conference. We had four options to choose from for this writing time, so I chose the prompt "It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us" from A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean. Just bear in mind that I had just had a birthday by myself, birthdays being the time of year for taking stock, and then I was faced with this sentence. So, I just doodled in response to the prompt, which became the first verse and left me stuck with lines of four and two syllables. (I'm a bit of a stickler for counting syllables, perhaps it's the old mathematician in me, perhaps it's because I need to learn a few more things about writing poetry.) I don't think the order of the stanzas is right (perhaps I'll switch the second and third at least) and I need to change the reference to eyes and smile, because that is all too cliche, but here it is as I wrote it on the day, save one word:
Eluded by
someone to live
with and
to love
a thigh to brush
a place that’s mine
beside
to know that there
belongs to me
next to
an expectation
of together
one half
to know two eyes
one smile, our song
more self
need a bigger
teapot, more cake
to talk
about weather
disappointments
new socks, old wounds
have favourite
things that
matter
I’d like for there
to be someone
that I
should know
ALP 2008