Knights And Knaves

I am slow at things. VERY slow. Things stack up that would be fun to do — acres of papers, walls of books like cinder blocks, music (both wave and particle), tempting percentages of DVR candy. I mean to get to it all, I do. It’s often, however, Saturday night and instead of a nice pot of Darjeeling and The New York Review Of Books, it’s cold coffee from before, a spoonful of chunky peanutbutter and Cops reruns. I believe our apartment might actually be made of goldbricks.

Anyway.

A few years ago, Daisy Fried, an accomplished poet and teacher, was serving time at the college where I work, and sent out a campus wide challenge — write a poem a day each day of April, National Poetry Mumf. I was, as I remember, as psyched as I get about stuff that makes me do stuff. I resolved to get up early, take a half-hour-earlier train to work, and use the quiet time before the bedlam to write my poems.

That lasted for three days.

I did get three good poems out of it. Unfortunately, they were the last three poems I’ve finished. Ms. Fried supplied her challengees with daily prompts to fork one’s muse in the ass and get things going. So what I propose to do is work down the prompt list — not one a day mind you, but one whenever Gilmore GIrls is a rerun. After a while, there will be thirty poems. But without the subtle feather-quill fascism of a deadline. Phbbt.

To start things off, here’s . . .

Cruel Month Prompt #1:
Write a ten-line poem in which each line is a lie.

*****

KNIGHTS AND KNAVES

On this island, in this puzzle, everybody lies.
Except for this month, when everybody tells the truth.
Poetry brings that out in people.
For thirty days you can tell who's who with just one question.
Ask, "How's the writing coming?" and you'll get a smile.
Ask, "How's the poem going?" and you'll get a song.
Ask, "Does it even matter?" and the world will be laid out for you in ten true lines.
Everything will ring like beaten bronze.
Thirty fewer lies in thirty days will change your life.
There will be crueler months.

*****

Thanks to Daisy Fried for her talents and prompts. I wish I would have met her.

jm