In the next several weeks, my family will make the annual pilgrimage to the farm where we will select walk the maze of dried corn, launch cobs out a canon, take a hay ride…and pick a pumpkin. We’ll take the pumpkin(s) home, gut them and carve faces on them that are silly or scary and leave them on the porch to delight visitors.

The trip to the farm is one of my favorite things about fall and becomes a fun day of togetherness—today, we are going to do a bit of pumpkin carving in the pub—in our own special way.

I want you to think about something you are passionate about—world peace, gun control, child hunger, slavery, politics, homelessness….you get the picture. Now write about them through the lens of a pumpkin.

The exploitation of pumpkins—sold against their will only to be gutted by the new owners. Pumpkins bred using chemicals to make them bigger, more pretty. How only the best looking pumpkins are picked, leaving those that don’t measure up to rot in the field.

Be creative with it, have fun, personify you pumpkin, use the pumpkin as a symbol, the options are endless. If you don’t have issues, then write about denial. Ha. Just kidding, then write about pumpkins. If you have never met a pumpkin, write about an issue. But really, I think you can do both. Smiles.

Look forward to seeing what you bring! If you are new here, let me tell you how this works:

• Write a poem and post it to your web page
• Click Mr. Linky below and enter the URL (web address) to your poem
• There you will find others that have linked in—visit them, tell them what you like about their poem, what line moved you or something like that…people will be joining for the next 33 hours so check back
• Promote yourself on social media—if you use #dversepoets we can find you easier and help promote you
• Have fun.

See you out on the trail, and happy Fall!  ~Brian Miller