My daughter participated in a month-long, Internet-based, poem-per-day exercise last month - NaPoWriMo - National Poetry Writing Month. One of the challenges NaPoWriMo posed for 10 April was to write a "mirror" poem: Quoting from my daughter's blog for that day (almost):

"Today’s prompt is a mirror poem. Find or think of a poem you admire, and write a poem that is a “mirror-image” of it. You can make this mirroring quite general, or very specific. For an example of the general approach, if the poem you like is about spring flowers, you might write one about autumn leaves. If you want to be more specific, you can go line by line. If the poem you like begins, “I was a blue bear,” your poem might start with “I will be a red ant.”

That prompt resonated within me for more than a month. Over the last few days, I finally did something about it. I don't know if what I wrote below mirrors one of my favorite poems or is a sequel to it. At the least, it's the first somewhat serious writing that I've done in many months. It feels good ... and it was a lot of work, I now remember.

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Nor Valley of the Shadow

Tattered and torn,
Shop-worn with scorn,
The old man dragged his shadow.
Through desert heat,
His faint heart beat
A note increasing shallow.

And when he felt
His skin must melt,
And each breath a waiting pain,
Upon his cheek,
Like soft green leaf,
Came a single drop of rain.

Through wrinkled eye,
He looked to sky.
A drop caressed his face.
A dry smile rose
From his lost soul.
He kept his steady pace.

Moon mountain, no,
Nor Valley low.
He knew now where he must go:
The journey long,
Singing his song.
It was his Eldorado.