If you're interested, head over to my Lauren Wayne writing blog for some samples of this month's Poem-a-Day Challenge so far. I've been trying to write as much parenting poetry as possible this year, and I've put up some first drafts there.

Here are a couple bonus poems for you here, with the prompts from Poetic Asides that inspired them, and then you can click over to LaurenWayne.com to read more if you're in a parenting-poetry mood!

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Day 19: For today's prompt, write a poem about somebody and be sure to include the person's name in the title of your poem (no reason to hide the person's identity here). Write a poem about Abraham Lincoln, Emily Dickinson, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, your next door neighbor, your child, or the person standing behind you. I guess you could even technically write a poem about yourself (just make sure you include your name in the title).

Mikko

You kick me hard enough to drop my computer,
and you asleep, or nearly so,
ousting laptop from lap.

I'm reminded of how the midwife pointed to
a foot-shaped impression on the placenta
where you'd pounded out your mark.

I felt you for months inside me,
beating to get loose.

We joked about soccer players
and karate masters
and felt sexist to surmise
you were a boy.

Kicking me under my heart
for all those months.
Just under my heart.

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Day 21: For today's prompt, take the phrase "According to (blank)," replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem. Example titles might be: "According to Bob," "According to these instructions," "According to the government," "According to the sun," etc.

According to the laws of physics

something that heavy must come down.

Why, then, did you spin and rise,
defying the pull to the outside?

Forty-two hours I labored while you danced,
an object in perpetual motion.

The force of contractions upon you
you laughed off and spun away.

Until the hole opened and a cavity like a vacuum
drew you with its power,
sucked into,
seduced into,
the wide bright spaces.

Light sped into your eyes,
and electricity arced in connection between us,
as I defied gravity
and orbited you.

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More poems up now at LaurenWayne.com!

P.S. Thank you in advance for being kind. I post poetry only with great trepidation.

If you've shared any of your poems on your blog, let me know so I can go enjoy!