My apologies for the late prompt. This week let’s write an upheaval poem. How do you feel when the unexpected and unwelcome storm into your life? (Like when you weekly poetry prompt appear twelve hours later than usual.)
Post your poem in the comments below.
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. 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 lives and writes poetry.
Living Poetry 
I’m shook.
For 12 hours
Poetry was off the hook
I survived
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Posted by JeanMarie | January 14, 2025, 6:44 AMGlad you survived the half-day poetry vacation!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | January 14, 2025, 5:49 PMFurnace Sings
Pushcart winners and Pulitzer nominees
populate my online writing community
masquerading as ordinary writers,
intimidating late-in-life novices like me
living out here in the boondocks,
goldilocks looking for her perfect fix.
Collectively they publish in New Yorker,
Rattle, and every other major journal,
poems complex, thoughtful, funny.
My brain tries to jump out its lock,
the oft stated, think outside the box,
but I am not as agile as I was years ago,
fear I’ll trip on box’s side and break a leg,
land me in expensive rehabilitation.
Left side and right get confused
as to which is scientific, which creative.
This morning dawns clear, five below,
furnace sings along with my typing,
encouraging me to stay inside, snug
in my heated, cushion-filled house,
like my dog Pickles curled up in her bed.
I need a wakeup call, an upheaval
to my safe existence. Time to go
online, plan a trip with gusto.
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Posted by llzranch | January 14, 2025, 12:06 PMNicely done. I especially like your playing with the “think outside the box” cliche. Thanks for sharing!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | January 14, 2025, 5:53 PMThanks for your comments.
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Posted by llzranch | January 14, 2025, 6:16 PMLikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by crazy4yarn2 | January 14, 2025, 2:04 PMIt’s not easy being verdigris. Thanks for sharing, Nolcha!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | January 14, 2025, 5:58 PMPoor little Kermit guy…. Thanks for the prompt!
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Posted by crazy4yarn2 | January 14, 2025, 6:22 PMa dog named Pickles! …
sorry I got distracted
nice poem!
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Posted by JeanMarie | January 14, 2025, 10:11 PMhttps://bartbarkerpoet.com/2025/01/17/fraiku-long-days-longer-nights/
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | January 17, 2025, 10:03 PMLikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by cat | January 19, 2025, 12:06 PMThanks for sharing, Kat!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | January 19, 2025, 2:41 PM