Day 31

[A. Wilder Westgate]

I've told myself for so long that the words just weren't coming to me, so I kept waiting for inspiration. You helped me find it with just one word a day, and you helped me find words for thoughts I hadn't been able to articulate or planned to share. Reading everyone's poems every day has given me a sense of connection and community that I didn't expect at the beginning. This has been beautiful gift.

[Sarah Masterson]

Thank you so much for this month of prompts, Kaitlin. You have helped to gently guide me into what I want to do with my words. My final poem for the month:

Now I'm a writer.

I have found the niche

where my soul was meant to reside.

As I take the next steps with my words

may this now be a baptism

into whatever comes next.

[Steve Peterson]

Now is not yesterday

It’s not tomorrow

It’s my 5 minutes ago

It’s the meeting in

20 minutes

It’s not the thing I did or

Said that I wish I hadn’t

Yesterday

It’s not what I’m worried might

Happen tomorrow

It’s not even my next breath

It’s this breath.

And now this breath

[Steven Barbery]

Now

In this moment

be fully present

I feel my feet on the floor

and the warm breeze

I hear the crickets and night life

I see the lights of the cars

I smell the humidity in the air

I taste the cool water

but that doesn't seem to describe

there is a

power to it

is it immediacy?

no, I don't think so

it is the liminal moment

the past is behind

but

the future

readies itself

to burst forth

to new opportunities

like kinetic energy

now

has potential energy

waiting to be unleashed

now

[A.M. Brannigan]

Now

I am sitting in a lawn chair

watching the neighborhood swim

team.

I am watching my kids wait

for their next event, the sun

long set.

I am wishing for my bed,

but for now, I will stay in my chair.

I am hearing splashes and shouts,

I am now joining the cheer.

[Jane Longley]

Now

Not

Only

Waiting

Worrying

Over

Nothing

Not

Observing

What is here

Wishing for

Other people and places

Now

[Roderick Malloy]

Now

Alone with my thoughts

Feeling the effects of too much sun

Missing the warmth of the sun rays I lingered under too long as they burned my skin

Now

Focused on juggling several projects

Questioning my passion, my purpose and my prescriptions

Now

Alone in sweet solitude

Letting go of all pain, regrets, lives and loves lost

Now

Breathing in

Breathing out

Now

[Lisa Strader]

“Stop living in the future

and the past,” my therapist tells me,

but how can I possibly follow these instructions?

How is it possible to go through life

as if the moment is all that exists,

without the layers of anticipated nostalgia?

The moment’s pain and sunburn

turns into memories on the beach.

The sweat and the swearing up the mountainside

turns into “remember when we hiked up that 4,000-foot mountain

in the 97-degree heat?

Good times!”

we say, and mean it,

though we did not mean it in the moment—

the future transforms the present,

a miraculous alchemy

that gets me through the hard days,

that reminds me that no matter how horrible the moment is,

a year from now,

it will be a year from now.

Things may not be better,

but they will be different:

The blessed march of time has

never failed me yet.

This moment holds the present and the future.

It holds what it is and it holds the stories we’ll weave.

I live in “the already and the not yet,”

listening to birdsong

and not trying very hard to simply exist—

my storytelling runs too deep.

I am here now. I am here later. I am here both times,

present and future,

in conversation with myself.

“Good times,” I say,

“Good times.”

[David Christianson]

'Now' is a word.

but 'Now' is a concept,

that has many different words in different cultures.

Like a sacred pipe that has been loaded but not smoked.

The word 'Now' will ring in our brains till when,

till when?

[Diane]

Now

Not looking back with regret

Not looking forward with worry

Breathing, now

I still have breath

I am lucky enough to see, hear, taste, feel, smell

Life is good in the Now

I hope I never forget that

[Steve Peterson]

Thanks Kaitlin for building a community for a month from poetry prompts, for your poems and witness to truthful and creative living. Thanks everyone for your poems and through them a bit of your lives and your witness to the beauty of life reflected on.

[Chuck]

Now daddy?

No.

Now?

not yet.

When?

You'll know.

But i don't want to miss it.

You won't, it belongs to you.

shhh, there it is.

The first time....

[Chuck]

Hey thanks to each and every one of you all for sharing 31 days worth of such great stuff and for letting me play. As if you can't tell, i have never ever fiddled with poetry before, and even though my eyes narrowed down on day one, i found this to be a fine and good adventure. Thank you Kaitlin.

[A. Wilder Westgate]

Now is a space that

I struggle to stay, between

the past and future

Anxiety keeps

me moving through time, even

as I stand here, still

Sometimes, leaving the

present is a respite, and

others, staying is

It never feels like

there is enough time, whether

I'm present or not

[Diane]

I've looked forward to reading and writing poems each day. I loved the sense of community and reading everyone's perspectives on a single word. I think I might start doing this myself, just as a morning exercise. Thank you so much for this.

[Steven Barbery]

Thank you so much for this. You have helped me explore more fully poetry that I just started days before unknowing what would become of it. In the midst of many things going on, I am finding my voice that various forms of trauma and abuse had turned into frustration. Now, it is expression like I never imagined. Thank you and blessings.