1. Brew strong rich dark coffee. Inhale deeply to awaken muse.
2. Take journal, pen, and mug outside on deck.
3. Contemplate gulls, shapeshifting clouds, dark wet seaweed blown to shore.
4. Sip coffee, tasting words that come to mind.
5. Let ideas ebb and flow like rhythmic tides.
6. Look to horizon then back to shore, reeling in wayward words.
7. Let them tumble like sea glass sculpted by waves, smoothing thoughts into poetic lines.
8. Put pen to journal page. Curved script like ripples etched in sand.
9. Edit between sips as nouns and verbs wrestle like squawking gulls over luscious scraps of food.
10. When mug is drained and poem complete, stand by water’s edge and read aloud, your gift to the sea.

Written for NAPOWRIMO Day 4. Our prompt today: “write a poem . . . in the form of a poetry prompt. If that sounds silly, well, maybe it is! But it’s not without precedent. The poet Mathias Svalina has been writing surrealist prompt-poems for quite a while, posting them to Instagram. You can find examples here, and here, and here.“

Photo from one of our annual two week sojourns at the Watermark Inn in Provincetown, MA.