Image: Jeeyoung Lee
Today’s challenge is to write as many poems as you can in twenty minutes.
We are also asked to submit everything we wrote. Well you asked for it. Here’s what I did in twenty minutes.
1
Twenty minutes isn’t long
Maybe I should sing a song?
Then perhaps she’d stop and listen
See in me such amazing stuff.
2
My bathroom is in tatters
We have gutted it last week
Built in the 1940’s
Asbestos and all sorts of nasties
Have given us some food for thought.
Over time no wall is straight
Working hard to get it all plum.
In time I shall have a new space
In which to bathe and shower my golden body.
But until then it’s down the back
In a makeshift shower
In what was once a storage cupboard.
3
I get lost some days
Not sure where anything is
Is up still up
Is down still down
Yes I discover
Finding myself on the floor
I straighten up
Look around
Oh yes it is breakfast time.
4
Words flow out when I want them too
Like a vacuum they are sucked away
They take a shape in front of me then
I go back and reshape
Refine
Edit
Never happy
Its what I do
When words do come flowing out.
5
If I lost you what would I do?
Always I’d ask why?
Where do you go?
Where do I?
But there is always a reason
Fate you say has a say
Determines what should happen
When we’ve no idea.
6
When I was a boy
I had a toy
A small conglomeration of wheels
It squeaked and groaned
It intrigued me each day
Some wheels went round
Some did not
Some it seemed did and did not
At night I heard it grind to a halt
It sat on the floor
Beneath my bed
I looked at it and it looked at me
It stayed that way
All through the night.
7
Have you much time I asked?
No you’ve used nine minutes already
Bugger I said
I wanted to write an ode
A ballad even
A piece of rhyme
So now I look at this mindless drivel
What literary merit does it conjure up?
Maybe the meanderings of a tired old man
Or the youthful wishes of an even tireder old man.
8
Place it there
Just near my heart
Hold it close
I want to feel its beating
I love to know its you
Who once held it to your lips
Now against my heart I feel
You so close
So close to me.
9
Time is running out you say
Finite it is
Limited today
No chance to reflect
Get down a thought
Its only two minutes and your time is up.
No wait
It’s actually seven
That ode might happen
You never know.
10
I looked down my yard today
Sun was blazing
The first warm day
As spring approaches
The weeds do grow
My garden hungers for new growth
There are new tomato plants to go in
The fruit will be used
Children will ask
For their fair share
I’ll make some relish
A chutney or two
But always knowing it’s from my garden
This bounty has grown.
11
The cows outside my fence graze
They reproduce
They graze some more.
Soon the vealers will be in the shops
The mothers will low and lament their lose
Then the bull will
Reintroduce himself
The cycle will begin again.
12
I discovered the back of my old house
It’s a yellow/orange colour
I knew it was there but never saw it before
I reflected on the days
When so long ago
My great grandparents
Had it painted
Believing it smartened it up
Never thinking it would one day
Disappear behind progress.
13
And now my time is all but up
I’ve managed a twenty-minute piece
She should be happy I could think this long
So who knows if I will or not
Ever make it as a poet
You just never know it.
Written for: http://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/prompt-70-speed-challenge/
Morpethroad 
Wow Michael you were able to write quite a lot! I like this challenge because I can really overthink sometimes and it is quite freeing since I don’t have time to cater my pickiness. I could relate to a number of your poems I find people tend to write more personally about their lives and that is quite refreshing!
It’s certainly a challenge. You tend to just write and hope it makes some sense. So I guess you know a little more about my world now. Thanks Yves for putting it up it was a fun task.
I enjoyed knowing more about your world Michael!
Wonderful…isn’t amazing what comes up when one unfetters the mind in this sort of way. Loved your approach, very real and so human. 🙂
Thank you Helen, you suddenly realise you can write a whole lot more than you think in twenty minutes.
There was a bit of absolutely everything in this. I think my faves are 6 and 8. Great you gave it a go a very freeing experience.
Wow you have favs? I am flattered……thank you Jenny for your lovely comment.
You made me laugh, of course I have faves and you’re welcome Michael 🙂
I’m impressed! I doubt I could write even one poem in 20 minutes, let alone thirteen. It’s quite a mix bag too 🙂
It was a matter of timer on, head down, bum up and think of as many possible topics as I could……..most of them about where I live Lyn. Thanks so much for your comment, I’m sure you could write some……articulate intelligent woman that you are…
You’re so funny Michael…articulate intelligent? Guffaw, guffaw
Hey we shall keep it our secret…..my lips are sealed….
😉
Wow, you are one writing machine this week! I loved these, they were writing on the fly and sometimes that’s the best way to go.
It was fun Jackie, thanks so much for reading through them and your very kind comment.
These pieces brought me along on an interesting journey – from the philosophically wandering wonders of up/down to memories of toys, to thinking about history as discovered in paint. Just a delight to read Michael. 🙂
Thank you Pat, you are very encouraging in your comments.