Into the Blue
Sparkling winter day:
a flock of one hundred gulls
will catch a kettle
to spiral over the ridge
and wink out into the blue.

Prompt for Jan. 6
Here’s “Ten-Minute Spill” by Rita Dove, from The Practice of Poetry by Robin Behn and Chase Twitchell:

“Write a ten-line poem. The poem must include a proverb, adage, or familiar phrase (examples: she’s a brick house, between the devil and the deep blue sea, one foot in the grave, a stitch in time saves nine, don’t count your chickens before they hatch, someday my prince will come, the whole nine yards, a needle in a haystack) that you have changed in some way, as well as five of the following words:

cliff
needle
voice
whir
blackberry
cloud
mother
lick

You have ten minutes.”

Because I wrote one of these a few years ago, I think I will try to select another random eight words to choose from before tomorrow (unless someone posts a list for me before morning). I will also post “Chasing Chickens,” my first Ten-Minute Spill poem–one of mine that I am most fond of.

Gratitude List
1. Those gulls wheeling in the blue above the fields.
2. The beginnings of a fort around the two weed trees in the brushy area beside the Dancing Green.
3. Sarah’s Herbal Vapor Rub.
4. Google Earth
5. Naps.
May we walk in Beauty.