Exciting News!!!

I am super excited, today I found out that my poem A Day at the Beach won second place in a poetry contest! (This is kinda funny because I have won two other big-ish poetry/writing contests in my life and have always gotten second, so it is a lucky place for me).

It's strange how my creative process works with poetry- or with anything really. Sometimes I have a prompt that I use, sometimes I resolve to write something and stare into space for an hour before any sort of inspiration comes. I don't always remember how I had the inspiration to write something, but I do with this one. I found this beautiful piece of music called 'Promise' and I just put it on repeat while I wrote, the poem just sort of morphed from that.



A Day At The Beach
Charcoal washes down the beach like ink
The blackened logs carried out from their pits to the tide
Prints of animals write fables in the sand
Gulls screech as they pirouette across the sky
Diving between kites
Silhouetted like a shadow show
Of masterful carving
Iridescent kelp lies floating in
The tide’s current
Mermaid hair attached to a sandy scalp
And just adjacent to the rock
With the myriad of anemones and sea stars
A child screams with delight
For she has just found
The perfect sand dollar
Completely round
Not even chipped at the edges
And in a chubby fist she raises it for all to see
Though her parents are the only spectators around
Until the sun peeks out from its cotton curtains
Smiling down at the giggling toddler
And lays a diamond kiss on the dollar
And weaves gold into the girl’s hair
And binds the fables of the shore creature’s prints
Into a charcoal ink volume
In a cover the color of warmth and summer breezes
Just for a moment
Then it slips back like the tide
Receding from the shoreline
Its beaming light playing the water like a harp
Plucking out dolphin song

What do you guys do for inspiration for your writing???