Behold, the Tortured Poems

Dropping our first single

Dear Tortured Poets,

After waiting almost a month, the day is finally here. Taylor Swift has dropped her new album. We are here to drop one of our poems, from our poetry challenge for National Poetry Month. And as Tortured Poets, anything can inspire poetry, even the track list from an unreleased album. We enjoyed working on these poetry prompts, and we hope you did too. We’d love to see your poems so drop them in the comments or tag us on Instagram.

We have decided to share one of our poems from this eighteen-day challenge. Call it a single, if you will. A little taste of the full album before it’s released. But more on that later. For now, enjoy the poem inspired by day one’s prompt: write a collab poem. Thanks, Post Malone for collaborating with Taylor. We love a good collab here at Of Trees & Poetry. For this one, we just opened a Google document. Emily started, and we just went back and forth until it felt done.

Spring

Daffodils are crawling out again
As supposed signs of hope after a sudden frost 
Destroyed the early buds of Spring.
The weather doesn't care 
nor does the newsfeed
feel the stickiness of some stranger's hot tears.

Daffodils are pressing bony fingers through the soil
Persevering, though the cold has numbed my bones
And made me question whether spring will come.
My neighbors are indifferent,
Their lawns will green with rain 
And thrive in sticky summertime. 

Daffodils are slowly opening their mouths
Hallowing the ground before me while
Birds speak in a language I cannot comprehend.
What is it like to be their friend? 
They are like cherubs, trying hard to be sweet 
For a season, standing guard before the door of Eden.

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Did you write a collaborative poem yet? If not, reach out to a friend, or grab someone in the comment section and just riff! Anyone can collaborate with you. Maybe ask your barista for a few words to jumpstart a poem. The goal is to invite others into your process and see how it changes your work. And maybe to make us feel a little bit like T-Swift when we title our poems and include “feat. (Insert collaborator here).”

Have a blessed week!

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