“And now for our (optional) prompt from Napowrimo: “Today’s we’d like to challenge you to write a poem rooted in ‘weird wisdom,’ by which we mean something objectively odd that someone told you once, and that has stuck with you ever since.”
Oh, how I struggled with this prompt! Truth is, all that weird wisdom has stuck! So here’s the poem for day 6!
The Staying Power of Weird Wisdom
The trunkful of weird wisdom
that I learned as a child never emptied.
My mother rivalled a character in a Flannery O’Connor story
with her wealth of proverbs, warnings, and clichés.
Maybe I lacked a dress for the prom, or a hat for Easter,
or a book for school, but never a lack of weird wisdom.
Necessity is the mother of invention, (how many times did I hear?)
A leopard doesn’t change its spots.
A fool and her money . . .(yes a litany of these!),
a bird in the hand, a journey of a thousand miles. . .,
Oh, and “all that glitters isn’t gold!”
Beggars can’t be choosy, daughter.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, now!
How many times?
Don’t cross that bridge ‘til you come to it?
If wishes were horses, we would all take a ride,
young lady! But the weirdest wisdom
of all that puzzles me still:
“Sing before breakfast; cry before night.”
What? We should all sing like birds.
Sing to sunrise! Sing to the morning!
Sing to the new day!
Moral of the story:
Some wisdom is not only weird, but better left unsaid!
Jacquelyn Markham (4/6/2024)
Poet Voice 