Traveling Poetry Show travels on...

Welcome fellow transient poets! The Traveling Poetry Show has circled its wagons here at my blog for this Thursday celebration! Imagine hundreds of faded circus train cars, filled with lion tamers, acrobats, gypsies, painted ponies, zebras, elephants & elephant riders. Imagine each rider, emerging from his painted rectangle, reciting a poem. That's the Traveling Poetry Show. Don't need a ticket, just come on board! I know, I know. I mixed my metaphors. Cut me some slack, I just became a soccer mom.

As I was preparing to write this post, it occured to me that I forgot what Polka Dot Witchy's prompt for the week was. So I poured myself a glass of white merlot (which by the way is red) and sat down to check her blog. Are you catching on? Before I poured the wine I had to UNCORK it...

In case you forgot, here's this week's prompt...

uncorked

What are you holding back? a passion for something or someone? creativity? secrets? a kind gesture? an awkward conversation? joy? confidence? your lust for chocolate? the truth about someone? about yourself? What would happen if you uncorked it? Would you feel relief, fear, embarrassment, exuberance? Maybe you could consider (this one hurts my brain so I can’t use this angle) whether you are the cork or is an external “something” keeping it in?
You may want to interpret the word quite literally. Tell a story about enjoying champagne or relaxing with friends over a glass of wine or drowning something out by drinking directly from the bottle. Consider the cork itself: its purpose, its origin, its transformation.
Uncork whatever you want and pour it out into your next poem.

So go ahead, post away. If anything gets caught in spam, well, I will try to figure it out.

As for next week, you all can take a hike!

Actually, more like a walk. When thinking about a prompt, I spied a book on my shelf that I have been meaning to read, Walking in the World by Julia Cameron. It's a creative guide of sorts. I remember that I was pregnant when I bought it. The first chapter talked about daily walking practice. I thought, yes! I should walk for exercise. I should walk for inspiration. Then I remembered that the first poem I ever published came unbidden to me almost verbatim while I was walking to college one day. Just came pounding to the rhythm of my steps.

This week, I urge you to take a walk. Best done alone so you can think, so you can hear the rhythm of your steps, the rhythm of the world around you. Of course, alone may not be possible. But, that's ok. You're the poet, make use of the world around you, no matter how populated it is!

Engage your senses. What do you see? Hear? Smell? How does it feel to walk and be conscious of walking? What do you feel under your feet?

• Other poetic prompts might be: what is the first thing you think of when your mind settles in to your walk? Follow that thought!
• Record the walk, itself. Each step, each house, each bird song (or bird dropping)...
• Maybe you have a particular jaunt you took with someone special. A walk away? A walk toward?

So, walk, hike, promenade. Saunter, dally, sally forth. Take a constitutional, a stroll, an upright meditation.

If you can't walk, or if you can't manage the time to take a leisurely jaunt, imagine where you would walk if you could. Imagine your path, your journey, your destination.

In the end, it may not be about walking, at all!

Next week's host is Tracie Lyn at http://www.thereddoor-studio.blogspot.com/ I can't wait to see your poems!