A Message

 

  A message to her World

For K, who is her anchor

For P, her kindred spirit

For H, her brother

For T & J, her love children

For P, her lost one

For H, J, & O, her grandchildren

For S, O & F, their precious propagation 

For L, who understands

For some left out

Dear world

She loves you

She accepts you as you are

in all of your disguises 

in all your broken places

(as you in hers)

She will never leave you

voluntarily

or angrily

She needs you 

Your fidelity

Your shelter

Your council

Your energy 

Your gravity

Your wonder

Your joy

You are her multi faceted planet

Her home

Ellecee

Inspiration from:

Good Universe Next Door

30. Reverse engineer
What message would you like 

to send the world. Write it down 

and set it aside. Next, list the people 

you’d like to receive it. Now, write 

a poem that opens with the catalog 

of recipients and brings your message

 back in at the end. 

Kneading

 

She punched a hole in the

already risen bread

Gently taking it from the bowl

She plunked it onto a floured board

and began kneading

She loved this, 

to her,

an old-fashioned ritual 

enriching her life

Kneading, kneading,

until the dough was

Smooth and elastic

Shaping it into loaves

Dropping the dough into pans,

Covering with a cloth

and allowing it to rise

yet again

Something about the process

Was healing,

brought back aged memories,

restored everything

Ellecee

Inspiration from

Good Universe Next Door

29. Ordinary rituals
For today’s draft, think of a 

traditional or habitual activity

 and write a poem about it. /

1999

 

“Why aren’t there more aborigines

working on the reserve?

She asked the Town Manager

over morning coffee.

“The mob won’t stand a full shift.

They put in four hours and 

bugger off”

“Where to?” She asks

“Who knows? Walk-abouts and hunting

some say”

“ Do they work well for the four hours?”

“Good enough, but that’s not a shift is it?

Can’t run the town on four hours a day” 

“What about two shifts?”

“What are you saying?

“Two four hours shifts a day, 

different groups”

“Sounds like a bloody load of work”

“For who?”

Ellecee

Inspiration from

Good Universe Next Door

28. Break the mold. Get

 out of the rut. Think outside

 the box.
Write a poem about a new way

 of doing something. 

Launched

 

In January, 1944

the Siege of Leningrad was lifted,

Allied troops bombed Berlin,

the first Victory ship was launched,

and so was she.

Bursted out screaming, pushed by 

haemorrhaging,

Stuck in the womb

they said,

Unable to float for the last month

they said

Swaddled immediately.

To ease the terror

they said 

Mother overwhelmed,

packed for the bleeding,

floating away,

A blessing,

they said

Mother and child survived,

they said

Ellecee

Inspiration from

Good Universe Next Door

27. What goes up but never

 comes down? 
Your age. 🤣 Terrible jokes aside, 

ages and aging make great poetry 

fodder. Write a poem about a specific 

year in your life. It can be an age that 

has passed and is memorable or one 

that’s to come that you may be dreading 

or hope to embrace. / 

Flood

 

She is up to her ankles in water now

And it keeps on flowing in

There’s a storm blowing outside

The trees are bent over in the wind

their leaves bedraggled from the rain

Her  soaken neighbour is yelling 

“Come NOW! While we can still drive out”

She is turning in circles 

What to take, what to leave,

Grab some pictures of the children,

and the big one of her beloved lab,

Grab her grandmother’s lantern,

Grab the Quilt her mother made,

 What? what?

“NO! NO!,” the neighbour yells, “you need your purse,

your keys, your jacket”

She turns in circles, he grabs her arm, he’s pulling hard,

Finally she lets him lead her away, purse in hand,

What else is there? 

Anyway

Ellecee

Inspiration from

Good Universe Next Door

26. Think fast
What would you save from 

apocalypse? What’s in your 

Noah’s arc or “just” in your 

car fleeing from some emergency? 

You have 10 minutes to gather your

 “valuables.” 

Write a poem about your most 

Important precious belongings. /