These Are My JOTtings...

Stretch to Grow, Rest to Be

Here we go after show I do trow what to know
It is time now to rest after stretching to grow
As an actor on stage who has studied each page
I have learned ev'ry part that my words would be sage.

What a rush through each play just to know how to say
All my character's thoughts as he lives in his day!
Now return to my life of the dailies to do,
Mow the lawn, wash the clothes, prepare food 'fore I'm through.

And I write on my blog a new poem per day
NaPoWriMo this month shows the poet's display.
I was missing just two, when I started to write,
But I changed prose's form, I just hope that's alright.

O, Dear Me, how to start on my goals for the year!
I must write in my poetry patterned so clear!
But the prose, Yes, I knows, is a challenge to make,
In short stories to novels, more concepts to bake.

I must start in a flash for the fiction this size
gives more chances to grow and ideas to rise.
When I stretch out the words and write two at a pace
A short story will flow from my thoughts filled with grace.

When a novel I make I will look back to see
Many pieces of paper with thoughts made by me.
For the twists and the turns of the plots at its length
Will be founded on parts that to whole give their strength.

For the Cat in the Hat and a Horton with Who
Tell their stories so great in the Suess words so true.
I could write rhyming thoughts that's what Beowulf is
As my novel in poetry breaks in the biz.

But Suessical rhythms are great for the Doc,
Yet, I have not a soul, not a fox in a sock.
O, Dear Me, what to do? How to break into prose
For my words are still rhymes from my head to my toes!

When my heart takes its flight to the land of great thought,
Will be there a great bully whose mind needs be taught?
Is a weak soulish person in need of new strength?
See a hobbit of shire walk through wardrobe at length?

What could Lewis and Tolkien yet teach us this day?
How doth home in a hole and a lamppost display
Teach new things to the mind in millennial way?
I must think on these things to find new things to say.

by Jay O'Toole
on April 9th, 2017