As I grew sunflowers… I learned lessons, I grew in patience and gratitude. These are my 2020 Sunflower Journal entries.
The broken sunflower.
Snapped, or something. In an instant—gone. Nowhere to be seen. And it won’t grow back, so I’m forced to say goodbye.
The sunflower sisters.
Growing together, in the same soil. Under the same sun, they look over each other always and forever. This love story is true— sisters won’t stray from their roots.
The Older One
She grew taller, faster. She always loomed over you, and then she bloomed first.
The criteria for the poetry category was: write a poem about grief, loss, or/and sadness. I definitely have a few of those in my writing collection, so it was a blast to pull them out and bring them to life again for the contest! I submitted multiple pieces, and one of them WON!
Endless Hole
Down the hole is where I lost my soul.
I was looking for my life, when I lost my soul.
Enchanted by my hate, he watched me lose my soul.
Friendsunk
Those girls are two peas in a pod, smiling and hugging like they will be sisters forever. Unaware their friendship is the Titanic minutes before it hits an iceberg.
Their conversation turns gruesome becoming snarls of a wild lion protecting its dinner. Like the countdown to a new year, their friendship is over and viewed by onlookers who stare like kids watching fireworks.
Their friendship becomes a sunken ship, only creating ripples of water when they pass in the halls. Their companionship forgotten, just like the one-hit wonder who sang Achy Breaky Heart.
Drum roll, please…I’m excited about THIS ONE winning, because it’s a poem I’m using in my novel! [One of my MC‘s is a teenage girl who loves to write, and to help me find her voice I pulled out some of my own teenage poetry from 2001-2003.] Sometimes the words you wrote long ago will still be the words you use today.
Thrown into the hole with no bottom, I grasp for leverage between my sobs of failure. There is no way for me to survive, but only fall with the tears forever. The hole continues to pull me faster, I see my future never changing, never being successful. I only continue to cry because there is nothing I can do.
Until, I met you. Until, you changed the hole into a sea of comfort. I no longer fall down this dark, damp hole because your strong hands pulled me up. I can see bright rays of sunshine, your eyes staring at me with assurance that my future is no longer non-existent. You saved me.
Jenni Laplow 