I tried something different for this week’s prompt. I pulled a list of the 1000 most common words in English and then randomly chose three: lady, island, essential. Write a poem which includes all three words and post it in the comments below.
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is one of the organizers of Living Poetry, a collection of poets and poetry lovers in the Triangle region of North Carolina. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he makes money as a computer programmer to fund his poetry habit.
Living Poetry 
What a great idea!
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Posted by Cassa Bassa | January 11, 2021, 7:18 AMThanks. I’m expanding the list to 1200 words by adding poetic terms and the names of famous poets.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | January 11, 2021, 5:44 PMLady Liberty stands
on Liberty Island
She has a history
and she has a purpose
Yes-the original meaning changed
What she has come to stand for
has now become challenged
As immigrants came to Ellis Island
they eventually became citizens
building many of the institutions
we have come to cherish
And now, hate is turning them away
How long will it be
before birthright becomes an awareness
that all citizens have a right to be
and let us ring the Liberty Bell
as a tribute to killing the cancer
that so many have festering in their
minds – not by medical means
but by ignorance and foolish pride
or is this confused
with leadership
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Posted by Lisa Tomey | January 11, 2021, 8:17 AMHear! Hear!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | January 11, 2021, 5:41 PMThank you!
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Posted by Lisa Tomey | January 12, 2021, 10:15 AMBravo!!!
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Posted by Cassa Bassa | January 11, 2021, 5:56 PMThank you!
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Posted by Lisa Tomey | January 12, 2021, 10:14 AMWell said. Congrats!
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Posted by purplestoneblog | January 11, 2021, 9:59 AMA lady wrapped in furs
keeps away midwinter chills
dreams of tropical islands
where sunshine warmth bestows,
‘tis essential to the healthy mind
shedding the brrr from frosty window sills.
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Posted by purplestoneblog | January 11, 2021, 11:59 AMVery nice. This is the time of year for tropical day dreams.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | January 11, 2021, 5:42 PMCute! 😁
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Posted by Cassa Bassa | January 11, 2021, 5:56 PMSomething to be said for being warm and I would love an island in the tropics.
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Posted by Lisa Tomey | January 15, 2021, 12:11 PMLady Liberty
on your lonely island.
Compassion is essential now
Is anyone listening?
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Posted by JeanMarie | January 11, 2021, 7:28 PMWe are but you’re preaching to the poetic choir. Nice work!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | January 11, 2021, 7:57 PMWell done and we are listening in the poet world. Maybe our time to speak even louder.
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Posted by Lisa Tomey | January 12, 2021, 10:19 AMHere’s my poem: http://bartbarkerpoet.com/2021/01/11/boy-in-a-hospital/
It starts:
I woke up empty—
left eye swollen shut
where they pulled
out my memory
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | January 11, 2021, 8:09 PMIf only words fell like iron filings
filling the page in amorphous clumps
with no order, polarity or direction
excitement
lady
gradient
running on
like an old computer room printer
out of control, printing a core
sandy
essential
chiaroscuro
a cantor dust
drifting
in finer and fin^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h
island
gift
furry
My pen, a magnet
pouring forth an image
emanant
connotation
random
unconscious
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Posted by Chris Clarke | January 12, 2021, 9:36 PMVery interesting. Love the first stanza.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | January 12, 2021, 10:10 PMA lot of good vibrations in this poem. Nicely done.
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Posted by Lisa Tomey | January 15, 2021, 12:10 PMI really like the third line of the the one word verses: ‘gradient, chiaroscuro, then furry! Cute and humorous. I am imagining a shaded sketch slanting downwards, drifting onto fur, maybe, say, white ermine? Only, sadly, we don’t know what the sketch was a sketch of..something essential most likely, say, the ever essential, ever necessary lady?
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Posted by ts19page | February 27, 2022, 6:38 PMA Hope Garden
The lady in cargo shorts started planting
In the wee hours under the island moonlight
When the sun was up
I knocked to introduce myself to my new neighbour
Over a pot of Turkish coffee
I came to know that she planted
Wild Iris, Obedient Plant, Marsh Marigolds and Rose Milkweed
I can’t wait to see her garden bloom
It will be a luxury in an island
only sustained with the essentials
Imagine the pretty little pink, purple and gold blossoms
swaying in the pacific breeze
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Posted by Cassa Bassa | January 13, 2021, 3:48 PMI want to know why she started planting at night. Love the ending!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | January 13, 2021, 5:01 PMPlanting at night in island is better for seeds to take roots, the sun is too hot in the day
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Posted by Cassa Bassa | January 13, 2021, 7:33 PMLovely work!
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Posted by Lisa Tomey | January 15, 2021, 12:05 PMOn this island, the lady’s essentials must be covered. On another island, it essentially would not matter what the lady exposed.
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Posted by equipsblog | February 27, 2022, 8:10 AMDesert Island
We played cast up on a desert island,
with water and trees
coconuts, kiwi fruit, mangoes,
and wild goats, Crusoe had goats.
We were beautiful ladies, one dark, one pale
who wove artistic huts of palm fronds,
white sand was such a nice floor.
We lay in rags in our hammocks
in the shade
until the cloth wore out
By that time we realized what was essential;
a single shipwrecked young and handsome man
to share, two being too much to keep.
The game now complete, we reveled
in the isolation that led to being
excitingly known.
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Posted by ts19page | February 27, 2022, 9:39 AMLove that last stanza. Great work!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | February 27, 2022, 1:19 PMGuess which island I want to visit. Thanks for sharing!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | February 27, 2022, 1:07 PMWith time, it is essentially all the same for both, coming or going.
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Posted by ts19page | February 27, 2022, 2:00 PM