After a minor blip yesterday I am now back on track with poem number 3 written and posted on Day 3.

Today’s optional challenge is to write a fourteener, a poem with 14 syllables in each line. This is completely new to me in terms of writing. A little research showed me that this format was used a lot for lyrical, ballad-style poetry with ABAB CDCD etc rhyming schemes which could be fun to write in a certain frame of mind but really not where I am in my head at the moment.

So here is my first fourteener (without a rhyming scheme).

More information on NaPoWriMo can be found at http://www.napowrimo.com. The good people behind this challenge don’t get bogged down with rules so I imagine you could still join in 🙂

Beyond Suspended Animation

Even the daffodils stopped in shock with the suddenness
of your passing, their yellow heads that should have been dancing
were frozen in a state of suspended animation
as were we, your family, your friends and community.

Two years have passed and dancing yellow heads fill your garden
in tribute to your patience, care and skill in nurturing
stony soil, stubborn seeds and wayward stems; a gardener,
teacher, a mother too, we smile now at your memory.

Two years have passed and the daffodils are in bloom again.

©Siobhán McNamara