My Poetry "Nomination"

As Writer's Digest gets ever closer to announcing the completionists and Top 50 poems of the 2009 April PAD Challenge, I am thankful for having the opportunity to participate. The April Poem A Day (PAD) Challenge is where a prompt and sample poem is provided each day and poets are challenged to write a poem every day of the month of April based on the various prompts. Not every poet wrote each day, though some wrote multiple poems daily, but every poet (whether well-published or brand spanking new) was encouraged to participate. I wrote 30 poems during the month of April, which is also sexual assault awareness month.

All 30 of my poems were somehow linked to surviving sexual abuse. I wanted to share an interesting nomination I received by a fellow poet...

The coordinator of the challenge, Robert, asked, "In the meantime, do you have any nominations for other award categories, including who you think is most deserving of the award?"

"Most Haunting and Disturbing: LaQuisha Hall’s Outsider poem for day two continues to haunt me to this day. I often pray for her and the situation she describes. I don’t even know if it is her own true story, or simply a disturbing creation of her own mind."

I am happy that not only people read my poem, but were also alerted to the issue of sexual abuse. I emailed the poet who nominated me and alerted her that I am mentally sane (:D) and that I am healed so she would not worry!

Who knows? I may just win the award for the "Most Haunting and Disturbing"... I wanted to share the poem with you:

Outsider

I
sat back and watched
He molested her body
Took away her blamelessness
Left her throbbing
I should have called for help
But I just
Sat back and watched
He pretended she was a woman
After her doll slumped to the floor
Leaving her in tears
But I just
Sat back and watched
His boorish skin causing her abrasion
Battered her within
Leaving her in a puddle of blood
But I just
Sat back and watched
I sat outside of my own body
And watched
Without screaming
Or calling out for help
I
sat back and watched
I…

What do you think? (Apologies if you feel this is vulgar, but to me it was real...) Feel free to leave comments!