Mid-Month Challenge: May

The community poem (Question Tennis) about the questions that arise after loss evoked strong emotions in the few people who commented on it. It was hard to read all these unanswerable questions. I admit that after I was done composing the poem, I was unhappy with it. Actually, I sort of hated it. I just didn't like how it made me feel--helpless, hopeless, lost, left hanging, frustrated...you get the idea. I had a deadline, though, and left the description to reflect my unhappiness with the piece, "I think this poem could have been written a thousand ways." When I come up with the challenges and community poems, it really is so dependent on my mood and creative energy. Sometimes I put the idea out there and have no idea what I am going to do with all the responses when they come in. Other times, I have the idea in my head of the poem, and all the pieces fall into place. For this community poem, I was thinking about how much I love that scene in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which led me to think about how it is very much like grief questions. One question leads to another. I thought something would come to me when I saw all those questions together, but it is just like in your head, they fall flat. Fault.

I have decided to post the challenge this month a bit later than usual, so that you feel the crunch of deadline too. I would like you to do something different with the list of questions we received for the community poem this month. I am interested to see the thousand different ways to write this poem, if there is such a thing. Generally, I take out names/sexes/specifics of a loss in the community poem, because it is supposed to be a general poem written by everyone. I left them in this challenge for you. This is what I received. The only rule I follow is that it needs to be poetry. I am posting these challenge responses on May 14th this month, so all challenge entries need to be submitted by noon on the 13th. Heck, that is Thursday, you best get writing.


Do I have to? (regarding the whole pushing a dead person out of my vagina thing.)
How do I continue to face each day without you here, seeing you grow up to be the woman you were meant to be?
Was there anything else I could have done to protect him?
How are you going to get it out of me?
Who is to blame?
How could I possibly have let it slip my mind that babies die?
What is my purpose in living now that my baby Liam is dead?
Did I know? Did she know? Was she in pain?
How on earth do I help my children survive this?
How am I supposed to live each day without one of my children?