The April PAD (Poem-A-Day) Challenge is designed to help poets do one thing and one thing only: Write more poems! The process of revision may go on for weeks, months, and years later, but this challenge is all about getting that first draft. Please poem along with us–either in the comments below or silently at home.
For today’s prompt, take the phrase “In Case of (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem. Possible titles could include “In Case of Emergency,” “In Case of Oversleeping,” “In Case of Snoring,” or something else.
Here’s my attempt:
“in case of forgetting”
remember the day & hour
remember the way he laughed
when you told him who
when you told him how
you could love a man
& he was the man
& he said no way
i don’t fall for dames
i don’t fall at all
but you did
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Writing poetry is exciting, but the hard work of poeming is working through the revision process. The best way to work through this process is to workshop the poems with other poets, and that can be done with the Writer’s Digest 6-week course, Advanced Poetry Writing.
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Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer
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Want some more poeming fun? Check out these previous Poetic Asides posts:
In Case of Contentment
In case you settle in,
in case you find a modest job,
a modest income that satisfies,
in case you decorate your apartment
to lose sight of the mildew stains
and arrange your furniture in a way
that pleases you, in case
you meet your neighbors
and their dogs
and like them
despite their hours of barking,
their slamming doors, their low-brow
taste in beer; in case you forget,
in case you forget your aspirations,
your goal to live in luxury—
a long lane leading to your three-car garage—
look out your window.
There’s Elisha Potts
digging through your trash again.
IN CASE OF HEARTBREAK
In case of heartbreak,
Fill up the glass.
Drown my sorrows,
No need to ask.
Keep the bottle close,
Right here on the bar;
Use it to fill up,
My broken heart.
In Case of Fire
I suppose you could watch
as everything you possess
in the form of me, myself,
my body, catches fire, like
spontaneous combustion,
soul-deep, in your arms,
especially late at night, but
most people know better
than to watch flames burn.
I suppose you could feed
the flames licking at our
entwined selves, because
I know you know that
fire grows in proportion,
directly, to the oxygen
that feeds the hand it bites,
but I should think you
also know better than that.
Then again, I supposed
that you were ready
to catch me when I started
changing against you,
sparks and cinders instead
of flesh and bone, but you
fled before me, and
I could only weep ashes
afterward, unlike before.
“In Case of (blank)”
-KB
In case of a (blank)
it’s simple to just give up
and write a haiku.
In case of fun
In case of fun
Do research
Something is not right
Fun is not allowed in the work zone
Do research
Focus eyes on the scroll of numbers
Fun is now allowed in the work zone
Make your quota send more emails
Focus eyes on the scroll of numbers
Take callaftercall
Make your quota send more emails
With a smile
Take callaftercall
In case of fun
With a smile
As you know – something is not right
In Case of Case
If you find you don’t like
the actual state of things
as may be the case
then write a political poem
If yours is a sad case
then try to be happy
or just be happy
there’s no use just trying
If yours is a case of hardship
hang in there
adversity builds character
so I’m told
If it’s a mystery case
then go investigate
you won’t find it
if you don’t look for it
If someone presents a strong case
then yours has to be stronger
and by stronger
I mean wiser
If it’s a severe case of the flu
stay home from work
take care of yourself
watch bad daytime tv
If it’s the nominative case
then flip it around
make the noun a verb
Google it if you don’t know how
If it’s a briefcase
carry it
If it’s a legal case
hire a lawyer
If you’re the case
hope you have a good doctor
and you’re in a good hospital
and they don’t mess up your chart
If it’s a case of conscience
listen to that little voice
it’s saying the right thing
so you’ll do the right thing
If someone’s on your case
tell them to back off
maybe you need
to get off their case
If you’ve got a case
for the girl next door
or the boy next door
just ask them out
In any case
another stanza can be added
if this is not the case
for you
In Case of a Tie
Decision-making was not my forte,
Back and forth I would swing,
Maybe yes, maybe no
I’d let someone else choose –
I was fine with anything.
What to wear for the day,
Back and forth I would swing,
Blue print skirt? Denim pants?
I’d call a friend for advice –
I couldn’t wear just anything.
On the daily drive to work,
Back and forth I would swing,
Highway? Scenic back road?
Alone in the car, no one to ask –
Oh, I could be fine with anything.
At lunch in the café,
Back and forth I would swing,
Chicken soup or salad?
Someone order for me please –
I could eat just about anything.
Decision-making was not my forte,
Back and forth I would swing,
Until one day I heard a referee say:
In case of a tie
Flip a coin!
So…
I no longer swing back and forth,
Decision-making is now my forte,
With a coin in my pocket,
I can easily say:
In case of a tie
I’ll flip a coin.
Lorraine Caramanna
in case of panic
if you find me on the floor
fetal position
afraid to open my eyes
don’t panic.
lie down and curl yourself around me.
if you find me in the bed
face ashen
buried in blankets
don’t panic.
sit down next to me, massage my aches.
if you find me on the sofa
green sick
bucket next to my face
don’t panic.
bring water and a cold compress.
if you find me in the kitchen
dancing ridiculously
to exciting music
don’t panic.
just join me.
also published on hcfitzpatrick.com
In Case Of Sickness
Call my friend Theresa. She will
sit with you, stay long enough
to match your pace and breathing.
She’ll rub your hands and feet like
there’s nowhere else to be.
Call my sister Karen. She will
bring you homemade soup and a poem
or, more likely, a joke. She’ll sing
if you want her to, or not.
Call my friend Lisa. She will say
Poor, you and Oh, honey and if she’s near,
she’ll stroke your head until you feel
the pain melt away.
Call my friend Becky. She will know,
scientifically, what you need to do
and how to get rid of germs. She’ll make
you feel good about going to bed
on a work day.
Call my brother Mike or Dave. They will
feel so sorry for you, you’ll start to feel
better just for them.
Call my aunt Margo. She’s a nurse
and always on call. She will listen,
advise and check back with you.
She will never hang up before she says
I love you.
Your poem made me stop and think about the people I could call – thank you!
Thank you! I appreciate knowing that. I hope you have a good list!
you’ve got to wear
your prettiest knickers
make sure they’re clean
no holes or loose threads
mum said
in case you get hit by a bus
LOL… and here I thought it was only my mom who said things like this. Thank you for sharing!
In Case of Sobriety
Get off the floor,
raise the shades,
take a shower,
eat,
go to work,
and contribute
to society.
In Case Of….
It was an old wooden box, with no key. She found it at a yard sale in a small town fifty miles away and paid too much for it. Back home, she placed it on the kitchen table and smashed the lock off to see what the box held.
Inside were bits of paper, handwritten, full of advice, contingency plans, exit maneuvers. She sorted them into piles, dividing them by types of paper. Each kind of paper, she soon discovered, had its own flavor of advice.
There were blue squares, with roosters in the corner, shopping lists on one side: apples, milk, roasts, white bread. On the back of the lists, in the same flowing script, motherly advice: In case of rain, unexpected company, wrinkled linens. Another stack: Blue-lined notebook paper in childish handwriting, shaky Palmer script advising her what to do in case of lost homework, bullies, bad lunches. There were index cards with neat, blocky printing and instructions on what to do in case of problems with furnaces, rain gutters, flat tires.
Finally, at the bottom of the box, a few strips of thick, cream colored paper. Some with no words at all, only tiny sketches of trees and flowers that had never grown in this world. The advice, if there was any, tended towards what to do in case of infestations of fairies, how to manage elves who came to visit and wouldn’t go home, plans in case of dragons. The very last slip of paper said, In case you are lost….with a hand-drawn map on the back.
At last. She nearly cried with relief. Practical advice, at last.
In Case You Didn’t Know
The lady in front of you, crawling,
intensely tight, lacking a gas pedal
is not attempting to make you late
for work. She had eye surgery two
weeks ago, and not one of her four
children was willing to take her
to the doctor today, that the boy
presently trudging across the bridge,
looking up as if looking for a space-
ship is not contemplating suicide
by jumping off the bridge as you have
concluded, mostly because you
have never seen someone walk
across that bridge and he does look
spaced and gone from this world,
that when you are thinking you
are a failure, you might be wrong,
that when you also feel gone from
this world, you are here, and some
slice of fucking goodness makes
you persist in this increasingly
futile activity, that sometimes, no
matter how hateful some may seem,
sometimes, some people like you,
that they are battling demons and
they grip tightly to prevent you from
seeing this in them, but you don’t
talk and no one talks to you,
so in case you didn’t know, you are
not alone, but life is the loneliest
plot created by those before us.
.
Wow! Powerful.
In case of Boredom
Read that book, try to cook!
Click a picture, money’s not a stricture.
Ride your bike, or opt for a hike,
Paint a scene, play that game, go fishing.
Paste that stamp, walk the ramp,
Jog to the nook, swim down that brook,
Dance to your tune,
Sing those notes, play that beat,
Hit the garden to prune!
Walk the road, talk to them,
Hobbies from such pastimes stem.
Great advice. Boredom is definitely a choice. Dylan Thomas once said, “Someone is boring me, I think it is me.”
In Case of Edgar
In case of Edgar,
first rule of thumb:
avoid opiates,
though I would steer clear
of hallucinogens
as well.
Steer clear of foggy lanes
and cemeteries,
particularly
on late night strolls.
When searching for that once
in a lifetime love
Lenore and Annabel Lee
are two names that tend to be harbingers of tragedy,
though Virginia certainly
swims in the pool.
Avoid pits, pendulums,
old creepy houses and
letters from old friends,
gold bugs and unsolvable puzzles.
Be well aware that everything has a price.
Oh, and
don’t kill cats,
converse with the dead,
or ridicule crippled midgets—
just a good rule of thumb.
I love it, particularly the title.
Yes, I love this, too. It took me a minute to figure out Edgar, but then it all fell into place.
In (the) Case of Those Meddling Kids
(How to foil four teens and a dumb dog)
Don’t put the lever for the secret passageway
in the wall, especially not as simple as pulling
down a candlestick or grabbing a book.
They may look like a bunch
of hormonal teenagers, but they’re sharp.
The Vampire, Witch Doctor
and Phony Fortune Teller thing has
been done. Find a new schtick.
And for pete’s sake, no zombies.
Cue the mummy.
Coooooin. Coooooin.
Now that’s some scary $%^&.
Put nails on the mansion’s driveway.
The Mystery Machine looks groovy,
but its tires are as vulnerable as any.
Whaddaya mean, you left your scary mask
out in plain sight?
Ruh-Roh.
.
Love this! I am SUCH a Scooby fan. You definitely got away with it.
Roooooby Rooooo! (Me, too.) 😉
So fun! Love the, er um, groovy, style! You definitely get a Scooby Snack for this one!
In Case of Music
In case of music,
dance!
Dance on toes
Dance and twirl
Dance anywhere
Just dance!
In case of joy,
sing!
Sing loudly
Sing in harmony
Sing off key
Just sing!
In case of music!
It made me smile.
In case you were wondering, I like your poem.
In light of all of those suffering poems from yesterday, I just had to post this one:
In Case of Joy
In case of joy,
Relax in garden’s glory,
inhale honeysuckle’s breath,
let breeze ruffle your hair,
splish-splash in the rain,
reconnect with old friend,
welcome a stranger,
touch a baby’s soft cheek,
hug someone you love.
Treasure joy in your heart
and let it bubble out to others.
YES. Perfect, perfect.
In Case of Emergency
“emergency emergency
please to get from the street”
Every day the headlines
scream the sky
is falling we have to get our guns
so there can be armed
guards in every school
no place to hide
from factories being dismantled
and stiff tax hikes.
Sex trafficking is on the rise
keep your kids inside!
Deadly storms sweep
the midwest. Stay off
bridges, out of tunnels we’re advised
our infrastructure is crumbling
and our legislators take bribes.
Did I forget the missile launch
by North Korea? Fracking?
Death zones near high pressure pipelines?
The list goes on and on.
Is there no way out I cry.
Still, ever the optimist,
I sit here
and write poetry.
alana
Poem a day #11 is a response to prompts from NaPoWriMo and Poetic Asides: (1) Write a tanka, a poem based on syllables, with the pattern being 5-7-5-7-7 and (2) write a poem beginning with “In case of…”
In case of tigers
appearing at your back door
with wide toothy grins
remember some old dirty joke
that blushes pride into silent awe.
IN CASE OF JOY
Pinch yourself.
Real hard.
Figure life
is a dream.
But if you
are awake
assume
joy will end
when you do
at last
dream.
In Case of Attention
In case of someone paying attention
to the woman who lives here
please remember to linger on
who she is, rather than what she does
Tread softly over her many inadequacies
and concentrate on her better ones,
like her writing and her big heart.
And whatever you do don’t try to
change who she is.
If you pay her attention make sure
you are doing it for the right reasons.
Don’t call her name when you want a
drink or want her to fetch and carry for you
Ask for her time with kindness and
concentrate on her and not the TV or
your music station
Gush over her novel and drool over
her food lovingly made for you
Appreciate how she opens her
heart for the needy and how she
slips into the lives of the children
she teaches trying to pry open
their brains to fix the wrongs
In case of attention please remember
the above and gently stroke her ego
when it is crying out in pain from the
inattention it receives.
IN CASE OF NEED
in case of
hell
or high water
I’ll bring
an
extinguisher
and
boat.
In case of wiener dogs.
Prepare to have your blankets burrowed off your shivering body
if you let them sleep with you.
Get used to every bird and squirrel and shadow that moves
being the subject of prolonged yapping.
Know that if you walk them past a Great Dane or an elephant
your dog will think he’s bigger.
And be aware that when they lay their head on your chest
your heart will melt.
(when my husband wanted the first one i said “why would you want a hard little dog?” but then i fell in love with them– and now we have 3.)
Amen !
In case of unexpected runaway
If ground burns your feet
Your head dreams with new landscapes
Make an ink river
‘In case of…’
In case of forgetfulness
I leave you this key
Use it to unlock memories
and then think of me
We had some good times
but some were also sad
I’ll cherish the little things
our love wasn’t half bad
We have both moved on
we each have a new life
I wonder what would be
had I made you my wife
Looking back on it now
I surely have no regret
I will always love you
and I will never forget
Wayne Murphy
4/11/13
sweet
Thank you Linda. 🙂
In case of a predetermined life, just add a dash of chaos
Introspection doesn’t get you far in this business especially when you’re running from the Boss and without two dimes between us our options are few but no matter how downright awful it seems we’re never really screwed as long as the stars can be aligned and I just so happen to carry a pocketknife with that curly q thingy
So I flick daylight at you only to make you howl and without so much as a word you nod your head and wiggle your nose as a sign of acceptance of the overall plan that balances time, space and styrofoam peanuts and for the next forty nights we plot out every detail except for the one we’ll leave to chance
When the clock flashes 12:00 and we pull the celestial masks over our heads we realize that there’s no turning back now so we go for broke and send shockwaves across the constellations, take hostage of the moon and negotiate not for one, not for two, not even for three seasons, but for four, count em four and we laugh with the knowledge that we can toy with man through rain and sleet and snow
But we realize that circadian rhythms and total eclipses don’t mix well and the wrath that we strike down, with the locust and African bees and tsunamis aren’t as amusing as they once were and so we wait for hunger strikes and picket lines and fiscal cliff diving to satisfy our need for disruption knowing that in the end it’ll eventually work out as planned.
But hey, you can take a joke, right Zeus?
I like this a lot. Great flow, rhythm, thought, spirit and humor.
IN CASE OF TIME
in case of not enough showing you
in case of wanting to be heard
in case of not seeing who I am
why did you choose to see the worst?
we spent so many years in each other’s lives
I would have thought you’d know me well
but in the end it came down to what you read
between lines not even there
I thought that with enough showing you
I thought that if you really heard
that if you could see me for the woman I’ve
become, it’d be enough—and I’D be enough
but in the case of time
we’re out
and I’m sorry Mom….
How sad ! mother and daughter relationships are often difficult.
I combined this prompt with the one at NaPoWriMo… http://hopefuljo.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/creativity-project-year-two-day-93/
IN CASE OF HUNGER
Two big boys are rocking
the snack machine like its
a terror suspect with vital
intel. They slam into its frame
again, again in hopes to dislodge
a pack of hung-up candy.
They stare nose-to-glass,
the Tantalus twins, fogging
the surface with their
desire, until one writes
Why? with the tip of his finger,
then delivers one last
whack with his fist
while in
a distant place devoid of soda,
honeybuns, and chips, a child
lies in the dust, his stomach
bloated not from chocolate but
want. He breathes slowly
while flies touch and go his face.
And back in the First World,
where food is fun, the boys
grumble, like their stomachs,
wonder if they should break
the glass: after all, they’re starving!
Wow.
Yikes. Nice.
In Case of Heat
This heat between us
curls up, asleep in its turmoil
blowing spits of recycled air
at our toes. This heat manages
a space that should not exist
between the narrow flanks of a single bed,
but yet weighted we boil, stirred by
a breeze conditioned to burrow
and tarnish the hollow ground
on which we totter.
This heat beats our words
in a tongue-race, pushing silence
and miscommunication into our night
time prayers, blanketed with layers of
the unsaid –snug, content, complacent–
it lies here between our backs
as they face each other a bedtime standoff
after a passive disagreement, though we
should not call it that. The heat allows
no combat or fireworks to identify
where there may be bleeding,
but blood is here, sweltering between
our parallel spines as this unbearable heat
conceals our withdrawn weapons in sweaty sheets
and releases murmurs about the morning maintenance.
The heat reveals no fix this malady, no wrench
to lessen this wedge, no ice to calm its destruction.
In Case of Lying
Wounded souls carry entitlement
Puncture easily
Eyes bleed vengeance
Authority is the enemy
Fabricate whirlpools of deception
Plummet deeper into
Sinkholes
She wishes they would
Avoid mocking an accuser
Plead for redemption