Prompt: Today, we’d like to challenge you to write – without consulting the book – a poem that recounts the plot, or some portion of the plot, of a novel that you remember having liked but that you haven’t read in a long time.
***
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Though named for stars
She was sunshine, lightness,
Bright as a clear, quiet morning.
Intrusive as sunlight
Finding its way through every crack,
Bringing warmth, slowly,
As to a rock
Left out in the
Arizona sun.
She had the rodent
But he was mousey,
No voice
Squeak
No opinions
Squeak squeak
Not even about her.
Disbelieving, squint-eyed,
Their lives collide.
And his are opened wide.
Wonder. Mystery
As never before,
A life he didn't know
You could dare to live.
But hers, gradually,
Gaze drawn down
To the baked dust ground,
Ground-down
Susan
The starlight flickers,
Fades, her sparkle
Gone
Until she breaks herself free
From him, from them,
Be herself again.
Flying like a porcupine neckerchief
On the wind.
***
Look at that, day 1 of #NaPoWriMo2024 and I've written a poem to the prompt. A glimmer at the end of the tunnel of my writing hiatus.
I loved Stargirl when it came out. I loved it so much that I never read the sequel, because it had already ended perfectly and I didn't need to know what came next. When I read the poetry prompt, the bright pink cover of the edition I still have jumped into my mind. And here we are. Happy NaPoWriMo and ganbatte to the poets.