"Twenty Little Poetry Projects"

Our challenge today is to use all of Jim Simmerman's "Twenty Little Poetry Projects" to write a poem. I'll do my very best! This is bound to be absurd...

The stage

She was a swan, floating on stage,

though her wings were flesh not feathers

The stagnant air smelled of sweat and hairspray,

bloodied pointe shoes

and burnt matches to stop ribbons fraying

Hair in stiffly pulled back buns,

smothered in sticky gel;

not a hair was allowed out of place

The anxious violins of tension 

spun the dancer around the floor,

flailing, begging for her life,

While Annie will stand in the wings,

hoping that the reek will disappear

- it will affect the taste of her apple -

"Man, but this place is minging,"

She'll say

The dancer slips, but her wingless wings

let her glide across the floor

before she finally dies

in the stench

Andrea Vermaak © 2020

My poems do pliés

Our challenge today is to write a poem which "incorporates the vocabulary and imagery of a specific sport or game."

As I am the least sporty person I know, I will take my chances and say that ballet (which I do know and understand) is a sport (though I dare say it is more an art form, as fit and toned as you have to be!).

Perhaps writing poetry is both art form and sport too: flexible mind, quick fingers...

 Poetry is ballet

 The mind stretches and pliés 

At the barre to warm up

Before it attempts to 

Glissade reluctantly across the keyboard

Fingers' ideas begin to frappé 

As words balancé

Across the page

All may seem as complicated

As a pirouette

Yet the poet attempts a finale

With a chassé, coupé
and grand jetté

Words assemblé and grande reverence

Andrea Vermaak