Here they are!
You can see the prompt for this one in the image on the right: What do you draw energy/inspiration/motivation from? What brings you power? What are vital connections? How do you stretch & strengthen? What do you lean on when you aren’t strong?
As part of the Bad Poetry challenge, we aren’t supposed to edit until the very end. I don’t really count it as editing if I’m doing it on the fly. So that’s why this one is messy. I was editing on the go. The poem reads:
strength used to be
-rugged individualism
(pull yourself up by your bootstraps,
dontchaknow)
-not letting them see me cry
(Big girls don’t do that,
dontchaknow)
-not making mistakes
(those aren’t allowed,
dontchaknow)
but the winds kept blowing
sometimes soft, like a caress
other times vicious and whipping
rocking me back and forth
loosening the dirt around my roots
a blessing & curse
leaving me unstable and shaking
but stripping what never fit
what never should have been
now strength is connection
It’s laughter & tears
It’s celebration & grief
It’s flexibility in the face of the wind
It’s nourishment from the decay of
all that no longer serves
nourishing my core and my branches,
leaves waving in the sky