Two Contrasting DRAFT Samples From My Ill-Fated "Write a Poem a Day!" Project:

RIDICULOUS:

I decided on your smile first from my elbows,

I liked it and liked it more as it crept up to my face 

LIKE a welcome caterpillar, spreading LIKE hot, poured lemonade, itchy LIKE a tweedy embrace

odd

silly

the other day someone told me that Tennessee Williams wrote compulsively--now isn't that funny?--and I just had, HAD, to say

for what it's worth...

you are better than sunshine because you don't end in the evenings, you could light up this whole city, you could set the opposition giggling, you could break everyone's heart, you could make a marshmallow explode with glee, you could give snow days and crisp dollar bills and cracked tea cups and dogs all a run for their money...

so why don't you? I'm watching.

MOROSE:

I think, I am pretty sure, that I have forgotten how you smell:

And sometimes, only sometimes,

At night mostly, or in crowded rooms, cinderblock stairwells,

this makes me think I no longer have a heart