Encouraged Writing

I may be a math teacher, but my colleagues are wonderfully encouraging me to write creatively more and more. One colleague and friend was gracious enough to let me read some of his work, and another has now asked me to write a handful of pieces for a publication at the school. So here's round one, first drafts...

Anticipation
Wondering when
Makes it worse
Checking & checking
Again
Still Nothing

This time
Something
But only
Spam

Not you


Contracted
The words itch in my fingertips
Press to flow out the pen's tip
Buzz around between my ears
Rhythm aligning
Rhymes coupling
Each action, observation, conversation
Gives a new twist


Here
I step out the patio door
Close my eyes

Listen to the cardinals
Smell the flowers, freshly mown grass
See the outstretched prairie
Horizon only interrupted
By the occasional hill and tree

Open my eyes
To the brick and shingle
Of the apartments beyond the square of grass
The traffic a block away
The neighbors' conversations and TVs

And I step back inside



Digital Procrastination
Working with my laptop open
Gmail, Facebook, and Pandora staring back at me

Write
Glance at inbox

Calculate
Scroll NewsFeed

Evaluate
Click "Love this song!"

Exchanging higher productivity
For a sense of immediate
Connectedness



Systematic Approaches
The lines only match up
End to end, intersecting
At the correct coordinates
When I make the effort

The lines only rhyme
When the words are
Lame
Naive
Contrived

The lines are too standard
Too forced
Too predictable
Everything expected of me,
nothing of my own.

Today is for free verse,
Squiggles and doodles

Today is mine.