November PAD Challenge Day 6: For today’s prompt, write an addict poem
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides/poetry-prompts/2011-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-6
And for The Sunday Whirl Wordle #29: reignite, emit, air, piercing, shell, delirium, swish, dappled, pleat, seem, strident
http://sundaywhirl.wordpress.com/
Withdrawal
Each day must struggle
to pierce shell of life-long
habit pleated into every
moment of my existence.
It emits a constant strident
siren’s call to reignite delirium
that must have possessed being
all those many years ago.
Even deepest desire for fresh
clean sunlit dappled air, can’t
seem to diminish the longing,
the wish to feel, hear swish
of cellophane when breaking
open a new pack, that first
satisfying drag that will surely
pitch me back into my
addiction.
Elizabeth Crawford 11/6/11
Notes: Yes, this is biographical. Started smoking when I was fourteen. These prompts are getting far too synchronistic. What’s next? Now that was a really dumb question.
Soul's Music 
Very well written. Your addiction is similar to the one I managed to kick about 25 years ago.
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Well captured symptoms and nicely reflected upon!! You have used the words effectively!!
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Excelent mix of the two prompts. I never smoked, but so many of my family and friends are in the same place you are. They are the lucky ones. The others are still trying to quit.
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Elizabeth, an excellent idea to combine prompts. I may do that with the whirl and one of the three prompts I am behind on, lol. This poem makes me want to have a cigarette. I quit just 1 year ago, and still desire one when round others smoking. Insidious habit.
Pamela
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Wow, Elizabeth, that is a tough one to beat. Way to go! Stay strong. One hour at a time, at this point………
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Even though set against addiction, you create beauty with the assonance and consonance in this piece. The imagery in the last stanza made me hear the pack open. Brava!
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Love the realness here… and I can relate. I once smoked, but am so glad I gave it up.
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I am very proud of you and beautiful write!
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Elizabeth, I love your gut-level honest here. These kinds of poems of anyone are my favorites. I am proud of you for taking steps to break your addiction. Not easy. My mother quit ‘many times’ but died a smoker. As Mike said, you mixed the two prompts very well.
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Adore the Wordles….terrific take and incredible use of images of the wires that seem to have been gifted to you to articulate this powerful “siren’s call to reignite delirium “. WOW….
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Ah that was obviously “words” not wires .. dependent if not yet quite “addicted” to IPAD…even though it likes to rewrite my words…. 🙂
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Very real imagery. I smoked for a couple years a LONG time ago…but it was all the years up til that point of opening a new pack of cigarettes for my dad that popped into my head with that last stanza. A very clear picture.
During a PAD challenge — combining prompts is nearly a must when there are prompts out there too good to pass up: like wordles. 😉
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Great use of the Wordle! I never smoked but have a bronchial condition from the secondhand stuff – too many years at the piano bar! Wouldn’t trade those years for anything, either… Since my mom smoked almost all her life, I recognize the details. The cellophane, in particular, and the “pitch back into addiction” (nice wordplay, that) were viscerally real for me! Thanks, Elizabeth! Amy
http://sharplittlepencil.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/artistic-for-riley/
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