Things to Do If You Are a Castle: An Original List Poem

Well, I’m nearly finished with my Things to Do poetry collection. At the moment, the collection includes twenty-seven poems. I’m thinking of adding one or two more. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve changed the manuscript a lot in recent months. I’ve eliminated several of the original poems and added fourteen new ones. The Things to Do collection now takes a young child through a school day from dawn to bedtime. I believe it is a more cohesive collection of poems now. I’m hoping to submit it to a publisher by summer’s end.

I want to acknowledge three individuals for giving me invaluable advice on this writing project:

• Grace Lin helped me to look at my Things to Do collection with new eyes. Grace gave me the suggestion for changing the focus of the manuscript. That suggestion renewed my energy for working on the poetry project again. It inspired me to write lots of new poems.
• Janet Wong read through my manuscript and carefully critiqued it. She suggested eliminating particular poems and gave me topic suggestions for new poems. Janet’s suggestions helped me to provide better “poetry” transitions throughout the collection.
• Brad Bennett sat with me as we went through each poem with a fine-tooth comb a few days ago. I can always count on Brad to help me with the tiniest details. (Brad is a teacher and published poet. You can read three of Brad’s list poems here.)
  

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Here is one of the “things to do” poems that is no longer included in the collection. I was thinking of my daughter and her new husband when I selected the following poem. They recently returned from their honeymoon in Ireland--where they visited lots of castles.

THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A CASTLE

Stand on a stony cliff
overlooking the sea.
Wear a thick wall of armor.
Sprout tall turrets.
Be a haven.
Drop your drawbridge
for damsels in distress.
Shelter proud steeds,
brave knights who do good deeds.
Be a fortress, a bulwark.
Grow strong and stout.
Keep the evil invaders out.

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At Blue Rose Girls, I have a sonnet by Mary Meriam titled The Romance of Middle Age.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Live. Love. Explore!