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It’s Tuesday and the dVerse Poets Pub is open with a big box of Danish pastries, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer and wine, tea and coffee, as well as a selection of excellent poetry.  I’m Kim from writinginnorthnorfolk.com, your host for this week’s Poetics.

First off, a dVerse announcement:

ANNOUNCEMENT!!

Open Link Live (OLN LIVE) this month:

Saturday, April 13th from 10 to 11 AM EST.

***If you’re not in Boston’s EST time zone and wonder what time these OLN LIVE sessions run where you live, go to https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter.***

To participate in OLN LIVE, simply click on the link that will be provided and join us with video and audio. Read a poem of your choice or just come to listen. The more the merrier!

NOTE:  You may still post ONE poem as usual to OLN, even if you do not join us live.

This month is a busy one for those of us poets who take part in NaPoWriMo, writing a poem a day, sometimes in addition to regular prompts and, of course, our other poetry that comes from experience, event, dreams and other things. Which is why I’m keeping this prompt short and sweet.

One of my many favourite British poets is Gillian Clarke, a Welsh poet and playwright. Her work has been on the exam syllabuses for over thirty years, and she performs her poetry regularly for student audiences at Poetry Live. She was awarded the Queen’s Gold medal for Poetry in 2010 and the Wilfred Owen Award in 2012. She has also written radio and theatre drama, and translated poetry and prose from Welsh.

A poem which I think lends itself well to a Poetics prompt is ‘My Box’, which you can read here.  You can also listen to it here.

I love that it is written in free verse, that it explores the themes of relationships, strength, love, and eternity through the metaphor of the box, and that it is a personal poem, in which the narrator speaks about events and experiences in her life, but with which most of us can identify.

I also love how the box is described as being made of golden oak, an evergreen tree, which emphasises the importance of the box, as well as it being a gift from a lover.

There is so much more to love about this poem, which I’m sure you will discover for yourselves.

Your challenge today is to write a poem about your own metaphorical box. It doesn’t necessarily have to be about a relationship, but I would like it to be autobiographical, free verse, and in three stanzas similar to those in Clarke’s poem: the first stanza describes the box; the second what is in it; and the third where you keep it, with a summarising list in the final two lines.

If you are new to dVerse and/or Poetics, here’s how to join in:

  • Write a poem in response to the challenge;
  • Enter a link directly to your poem and your name by clicking Mr Linky below;
  • There you will find links to other poets, and more will join so check back to see more poems;
  • Read and comment on other poets’ work – we all come here to have our poems read;
  • Please link back to dVerse from your site/blog;
  • Comment and participate in our discussion below, if you like. We are a friendly bunch of poets.
  • Have fun.

The link to this prompt closes on Thursday.