GloPoWriMo Day 9: Love In A Time Of Corona

           Click to enlarge! It eats the picture if I set it larger, grrr...

Prompt: Our prompt for the day (optional as always) is inspired by Kaschock’s use of space to organize her poems. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a “concrete” poem – a poem in which the lines and words are organized to take a shape that reflects in some way the theme of the poem. This might seem like a very modernist idea, but poets have been writing concrete poems since the 1600s! Your poem can take a simple shape, like a box or ball, or maybe you’ll have fun trying something more elaborate, like this poem in the shape of a Christmas tree.


I am a fledgling calligrapher who hand letters sometimes, and my skills have gone so rusty I figured I'd use today's prompt to attempt to brush up on them. Since I also detest trying to write shaped poems on my computer (since the formatting always goes wonky) I decided to do it the old-fashioned way instead - pen and ink.


Here's the non-shaped poem in case it's difficult to read (I did try for legibility but may not have succeeded). There've been two deaths in two days in my circle - my SO's beloved 13 year old cat who was taken by gut lymphoma, and my friend's grandmother who succumbed to Covid-19 just today. There've been other deaths too, of frontliners here, and that, perhaps, influenced the poem (which I hope isn't appropriating or inappropriate because that would be bad.)



Love In A Time Of Corona

we’ll go to australia you said

we’ll count the oceans and i laughed

the moon outside our window

bright as the bat signal

make a wish on the moon love

you told me

make a wish

hold out your hands and hold the moon

and a day later you answered the call

(bat signal disguised

as a cellphone you

a superhero disguised

in mask and scrubs)

and now six weeks later

you’re gone without even the dignity  

of a farewell or a last kiss from me

(the virus gave you that)

when this grief is over

i’ll rise i’ll rise

but first let me hold the moon in my hands

and remember that when i woke when i slept

you were the first thing the last thing

imprinted on my eyes

and now you are gone

your imprint remains

set me as a seal upon your heart you said

on our wedding day

no no you are the seal

binding this box of memories

that holds within it

australia and all the oceans

of the world