The scent of a flower

When I moved to Hawaii six years ago, I remember the first time the air touched my skin. After being in a tin can floating over the ocean for what felt like days, the air felt like a warm blanket. It was so heavy and damp in a way that was totally different from the mountains of West Virginia where I'm originally from. And the smell. It was a confusing mixture of flowers that I couldn't pick out. I had no idea what they were or even where the smells came from. I couldn't see any flowers, but there they were. It was a disorienting experience that I hadn't had when I'd traveled to other places on the mainland.

It's amazing how flowers can impact a moment. Do you have a memory attached to a flower? Maybe a little daisy crushed in your toddler's sweaty hand? Did your grandmother's house always smell like roses? Give yourself a few minutes and let your memory find that flower memory. And let's write about it.

A neighborhood flower. Photo by: Tamara Woods

Word Prompts:
Memories
Petals
Sweet
Springtime
Yesterday
Scents
Nature
Love


Possible poetry form: The Haiku:
The haiku is one that is generally about nature.
It's a three lined poem that has a  5-7-5 form (five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables)
A classic haiku also has a seasonal reference and has focuses on two different, but related image or ideas.

From my story above:

Heavy air weighs down
Sweet flowers confuse senses
A long way from home

Have fun with this and share your memories with us. Happy writing!

Remember, our prompts are only suggestions, you can find your inspiration wherever your muse leads you. Please visit the other participants, share the hashtag, #OctPoWriMo, on social media, and share your link in the comments below. Let us know how this journey into poetry is going for you.  

Tamara Woods was raised (fairly happily) in West Virginia, where she began writing poetry at the age of 12. She published her first poetry collection, The Shaping of an “Angry” Black Woman in 2014 and is working on her first fiction novel due out in winter 2016. She is the Editor of The Reverie Journal, a poetry publication. She also moderates #writestuff a weekly writing Twitter chat. You can find her on Twitter here. She works as a full-time freelance writer and doesn’t post nearly enough her blog PenPaperPad. She creates videos about books and writing on her YouTube channel. She is a hillbilly hermit in Honolulu living with her Mathemagician.