Poetry Challenge: Ripped from the headlines.

Hey folks,

Long time no see. I am running out of excuses not to blog, so here I am. I said I would write a poem related to this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, as I will do below. I will expand my inspiration for my readers to be able to select any current event that strikes their fancy. I feel that feature-y news stories work better for this type of thing, but if you find something newsy that works, go for it. If the story is not really familiar, please include a link to the story which provided the inspiration.

Here's mine:


Evergreen

I provided shade for generations
in a peaceful New York suburb.
Only recently have I grown so large
that the family worried at the prospect
of a windstorm bringing me down on them.

The father of the family,
one of New York City’s Bravest,
could not fathom losing any more
people he loved in a senseless manner
if he could help it.

So I was chosen
to be packed on a truck,
carefully pruned and groomed,
fitted with millions of lights
and brighten Rockefeller Center.

When I got to Manhattan,
I had one more surprise:
a nesting bird in my branches.
The bird was carefully removed
and now lives in the Central Park Zoo.

When this season is over,
I will yield myself again
to provide shelter for those in need,
safely sheltering further generations
as I have my whole life.

The story outlining most of these facts can be viewed here.
The rest was reported on the Today Show over the past few weeks, and I think you can probably find it by searching their page. Now, go forth and write!

Where DOES the time go?

I mean, really.

Last Wednesday I turned 32. I had to ask my husband several times leading up to it what age I was really going to be, I keep forgetting.

This Friday my baby boy will be four months old already. He smiles and holds his head up very well while on his stomach, and has the beginning of a cute laugh starting. He doesn't scream through his entire bath anymore, just when I'm washing his hair and face, and then he calms down again as I am drying him off. He likes to "talk" to me if I hold him in front of me. So cute!

My older son is now obsessed with the Ellen Degeneres Show. He particularly loves the beginning of the show; he tries to sing along with the theme song and copies the announcer saying "From the Warner Brothers Studios, here she is now, Ellen Degeneres!" as she walks out of the big doors on her stage. He will do this with two toy cars and a drinking straw or whatever he can find. Too funny.

My husband is doing NaNoWriMo this year, as I did last year. I realized as he began his writing that I had been avoiding the editing process with my novel from last year, and I have finally started editing it. I am 2/3 of the way through it, if only for the very basic edits. I am relieved that it isn't quite as bad as I feared it would be going back through it. I only hope that when I let other people read it they won't think it's worse than I do!

Before I forget, I am going to put here my next idea for a poetry challenge: write a poem based on some interesting news story. Mine will be about this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. I shall also try to get back on here to write that poem within a week or so. :)