Hello everyone.

I’ve just stumbled across these WordPress Daily Prompt shenanigans (thanks to Michelle W) and it looks like a hell of a lot of fun (and helpful too when you’re looking for inspiration).

So I’m using it for the poem today and as an experiment in creative terror for myself but you don’t need to know this latter part – so forget I said it, just look at this for a minute please:-

[OMG – he flashed me!]

Now then, where were we? Oh yes, of course. Here is the prompt itself that I will be using this time round:-

WordPress Daily Prompt – Burnt

“Daily Prompt (31/01/2013):- Burnt”

“Remember yesterday, when your home was on fire and you got to save five items? That means you left a lot of stuff behind. What are the things you wish you could have taken, but had to leave behind?”

I am using artistic license to not follow the prompt too rigidly, this piece is more about leaving stuff behind.

Now let’s get this poetry party started!

Dreams Are Worth Saving (by David Ellis)

Things are passed up, ignored, when they should be desired
Abandoned, ditched by the road, cars with slashed tyres
They sit frozen, fossilised, numb, awaiting absolution
Scars forged deep, seared, blunt and fuelled with emotion

Sacrificing dreams for safe hands of financial stability
Wishing that chance would just show us all a little mercy
A fickle operator, a dice roll we all have gambled on
The triumph of human spirit, we just start all over again

Leaves from trees of knowledge fall through inquisitive fingers
Droplets of hope, nourishment, encouragement, held prisoner, linger
Aching and yearning for their ultimate release
To dine on sumptuous purpose and to be set free

But if we smother/choke aspirations to an undeserved death
Left to perish in the quagmire of a slavishly tepid life
All the bucket lists in the world will do you no good
If passion is bereft and your ambition has been killed

We tell our loved ones that it was a good effort in trying
Are we the ones though, to whom ultimately we are lying?
Convincing ourselves that we are earning earthly redemption
When courage has faltered and we’re yielding to temptation

Sinking further and deeper into a quicksand maze
With no-one to guide us out from this foolish haze
Consumed by excess, we are forced to acquiesce, to give up
Squeezed by greed but without dreams, it will never be enough

If any dreams are truly worth saving
Its through the lives of our children
They have the energy, power, the passion
Worst case scenario, we will die trying
But through them our legacy still lives on