2013 Poetry Month « April Halprin Wayland – Children's Book Author & Poet

In honor of Poetry Month, Easter, Passover,
and all things rabbity, my free-verse picture book,
To Rabbittown, originally published by Scholastic,
is 99 cents on iTunes, Kindle, Nook–yippee!

Download the free Kindle for PC
if you don’t have an eReader.
.

…for more children’s poetry links go to
this delicious blog:
Jama’s Alphabet Soup

Wait...what do you mean it needs some editing?????

No, I disagree...I really think the words, "severed head" work in this poem.

Yeah, well, thanks for your suggestions. Let me think about them; NO.

I do believe I'm entitled to a nap after an exhausting session ripping my poem apart..

This is Eli. Pronounced eeee-lye.

Hi there! Welcome to RuffDrafts.com–I’m glad you’re here!

My original poems, posted each day of National Poetry Month 2013, are imperfect. Messy. This is your chance to sneak a peek behind the scenes—before a poem is polished and published! (For my poems in 2010, 2011 & 2012, click on the Poetry link in the menu above.)

My friend Bruce Balan and I critique each other’s poems every day…so you’ll see Bruce’s comments on some of the poems.

Thanks for following so well. I’m tempted to take you to the dog park and let you romp off-leash… Ready? Let’s begin!

April 27

WHAT I HOPE WILL NEVER HAPPEN

WHAT I HOPE WILL NEVER HAPPEN ~ rough draft
by April Halprin Wayland

If you’re my agent,
you tell me my writing stinks
and not to call you
or email
or send you a box of chocolates
or take you to see another Broadway show
ever again.

If you’re my husband,
you tell me you’ve met someone else,
with blue eyes who actually likes to wear high heels
and has a master’s degree in advanced mathematics
and runs a huge corporation
but only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
and she never has bad breath
so good-bye.

If you’re my friend
you tell me you’re sailing away
or flying somewhere far, like, for example, just to be extreme,
to Rhode Island,
and that sometimes, like fairly frequently,
you’ll be off the grid,
not reading emails
and to go away
because you really can’t be bothered
you have two teenagers and a busy life
and I can always check up on you on Facebook
or fly to Fiji, if I’m in the neighborhood,
even though, it takes 10 hours to fly to Nadi.

If you’re my dog
you lie down softly
and close your eyes
and your heavy breathing
slows
down
and when I come to pet you
your tail
barely thumps…

that’s what I hope will never happen.
==================================

This is a list poem.

The title of today’s poem is one of my friend Robin Rector Krupp‘s prompts for a story problem. I put some of these on the board in my classroom one day…and this one inspired me.

Bruce says:
“This poem was EXCELLENT. Heart-wrenching. And it made me cry at the last stanza about the dog (And feel a little guilty about that 3rd stanza)

But it really choked me up.

Well done.

Not sure you need the final line. ADR (Bruce’s wife) says to leave out the last line of the last stanza “And then…” Which is a good idea. Maybe the ellipses after “thumps” and leave it at that?”

This is our old dog, Rosie, when she was 15.
She died in our arms when she was 17. R.I.P, Golden Girl.

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