LBI Poets Studio

Whether you are an accomplished poet or a new one, our monthly workshop will inspire you. To attend this virtual event please contact Sue Cummings via email scummings817@comcast.net.

This group meets the 1st Thursday of every month from 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm. You may also join the program in-person at the LBI Library in the meeting room each month.

Our Prompt for December is to write a poem that takes as its subject things that don't add up.

Here's a wee bit of inspiration:

CRIBBAGE LESSONS

by Susan Johnson

The summer Dad decided it was time

I learned crib, counting fifteen two,

fifteen four, I loved doing the sums

in my head, tallying up the pairs,

runs, as if life were arithmetic,

which at six it was. Going into

second grade, the owner of three

hand-me-down bathing suits from

one sister, two cousins, I went

swimming five times a day and at

the general store one mile away,

bought a dime’s worth of penny

candy from a woman who had to

be a hundred. In four years mom

would have her mastectomy; in ten

she’d be dead. We didn’t know any

of that then. Just that it all adds up

until it doesn’t. Then you’re skunked.

—from Rattle #85, Fall 2024

As a Bonus Challenge use three or more of the following words selected at random from Alice McDermott's novel, After This.

radiating, framework, siblings, 1960's, underpin, charming, brotherly, strap, doddering, bloodshot, mop, odd, red-rimmed, lock, flesh, waist, Fishkill, Denmark, upright, elope, yellowed, indecorous, drumming, doffing, peas, dainty, tight, strap, pregnancy, commiserating, flutter, flashlight, unhinged, crumbs, blithely, clucked, couch, T-shirt, parable, Christmas, rigorous, parishioners, garner, forefinger, thick, impromptu, heels, hitched, khaki, sinewy, exaggerated, dime, clink, mustard, reciting, flagpole, portrait, certificate, subway, skinny, Jim Croce, Halloween, sleeve, beer, middling, mutt, chuckles, locker, nun, skirts, illusionist

squint, granite, shapeless, breather, hallway, scoured

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