Sunday Squares and Stanzas

Poetry and Puzzles! — National Poetry Month #6

---

Image by DALL-E and Author

Sunday again — 
coffee in hand,
crossword grid waiting,
clues carefully planned.

Clues tease and twist:
“Five-letter word for doubt?”
(Um… could it be qualm?) — 
I scribble it out.

The minutes dissolve
like last night’s bad dream
while I wrestle with wordplay
and decipher the theme.

But wait! Another poem
must bloom today.
My Muse taps his foot,
won’t let me delay.

So I juggle my rhymes
and my black-and-white squares,
write lines in the margins,
like quick, silent prayers.

It’s a puzzle within a poem,
a poem within a game — 
each square, each line
a clue I must tame.

So here’s Sunday’s entry,
my work is complete.
Both poem and puzzle — 
and I didn’t have to cheat!

— Adelia E. Ritchie

---

Author’s note: I am not making this up. Every Sunday I print out the New York Times crossword puzzle, grab a cuppa, get back in bed, and lose myself in words and the clever brain of Will Shortz. However, the need to burp out a new poem EVERY day, puzzles or not, is extremely distracting. Which to do first? So, with half my brain wondering why I’m not relaxing into the crossword puzzle, the other half threw up its hands and gave me a poem I could have written when I was five. Ç’est la vie. 30 Poems/30 Days, with no requirements for quality, thank goodness.

National Poetry Month — Day #5
Weeds, Weeds, and Only a Poet to Pull Themmedium.com

Spring Reigns!
and haikus blossom in my brain.medium.com

When the Muse Calls in Sick
and other excuses…. Poem #3adeliaritchie.medium.com