Challenging Poetry

How I Prepared for the Shawl I Cast-On Today

Consider all the yarn in the house
by fiber, amount, and potential connection to
the theme . . . in this case, air,
which will focus the online make-a-long.
Reduce to three choices.
Look at potential knitting patterns
taking into account size, nature,
and amount of all three yarns.
Choose a pattern for each yarn.

Realize there is still a week before the
make-a-long begins, and none of the yarn/
pattern combos really appeal at this point.
Choose a fourth yarn. This is definitely the one.
Find a pattern that will work with it.
Remember that this yarn is cotton, and hesitate
because cotton doesn't like to become lace
in the aggressive manner wool will.
Return to the first yarn now with the fourth pattern,
because it just fits.
Spend a day on the internet, chasing down
facts and mythology relating to air
in order to justify decision.
Find nothing.

Spend the final week changing mind.
The night before the make-a-long starts, settle on
a fifth yarn and a sixth pattern. Because
at this point, at least it's a decision.

Write a poem justifying process.
Cast on.

April 14—How-to poem—Write a poem that gives us “instructions” on how to do something amazing, unlikely, impossible, or unusual…