This began as a game some bloggers played in 2008, to write about people who'd made an impact, in the same number of words as one's age, every day for a year. I did them less often and went on longer, adding one word each birthday. I stopped in 2016 and incorporated them into my main poetry blog. In 2019 I resumed the project and gave it its own blog again, with a new name, where it may unfold at its own (slow, intermittent) pace. I've labelled these verse portraits, but they're more like quick sketches: mere glimpses, impressions....


Monday 17 December 2012

Writers' group: Cheryl

How can I fit her into
seventy-three words?

She'll think I mean
her physical abundance,
but no. It's her bigness 
of spirit — 

                   ready
with tears or laughter,
vocal with passionate rage,
quick to hug me
if ever I'm sad.

She faced down death
with prayer
and black humour

stays alive
in green pastures
with a man she loves
beyond reason
(and sundry pets ditto)

as a writer
fears no confrontation ... 

remembers singing.



[Poem #97]

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