April PAD Challenge: Day 5 (& possibly 6)

Okay, apparently libraries are not open in Eastern Tennessee on Saturdays. I’m currently coming to you live from an arcade in a tiny mall on the main strip of Gatlinburg,…

Okay, apparently libraries are not open in Eastern Tennessee on Saturdays. I'm currently coming to you live from an arcade in a tiny mall on the main strip of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Woo-hoo!

The Day 5 prompt is to write a poem of worry. Also known as a worry poem. Anything that causes you worry can be used to help you write this poem. For instance, are you worried about clowns? Because I know I am. Write a poem about your worry of clowns.

Here's what I've got for today--written across the street at the Gatlinburg Pizza Hut. :)

"Gone Fishing"

And when we got back,
there was a message waiting for me,
but I was told to sit down first,
it was something bad,
and so I knew it had to be something to do with my wife,
or with our son she'd been carrying for six months;
I knew it had something to do with one of them,
or both of them;
that's the only reason someone would call
up to these fishing cabins in Canada--
because no one had ever called in more than 20 years
of fishing trips.
So I knew it was something bad--
they were both dead--
killed,
perhaps,
in a traffic accident--
or she lost Ben in some complication--
or Ben was born but she was dead.
I knew;
I knew;
it was something bad,
but I breathed a sigh of relief
when I realized
it was just my grandfather who'd died.

Now this story above is true. The poem is bad. But I should mention that I immediately felt guilty and cried myself to death while taking a shower before driving from Northern Canada to where I am today--Eastern Tennessee. But for a brief moment I was so concerned with my family unit that I did have a moment of relief that it wasn't one of them. Okay--enough of that. Heavy stuff.

*****

Day 6's prompt needs a little warning, because it is a prompt where you record events that happen to you during the day and then create a poem from them. I'm going to post my poem sometime tomorrow, though I don't know if it will be in the morning, day time or evening. I will be back in Ohio tomorrow night--so if I can't find a connection before then, well, you know. Keep an eye out for me. :)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I know I am. Now, time to head up into the mountains and hike around.

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.