Deadlines for Writers

I’m not normally someone who enjoys challenges and deadlines but while I was searching for writing inspiration and motivation I stumbled across the site Deadlines for Writers and their free challenges ’12 Short Stories’ and ’12 Poems’. I signed up for both. I’ve missed two deadlines for short stories so far! I’ve done some writing for both but nothing that evolved enough to be considered a short story. I’ll keep trying. I have however amazed myself by writing poems for two of the prompts….

There’s magic in the woods, do you see it?
It hides among the trees,
in the leaves that join overhead
sheltering you from summer storms.
It hides in the softness of the forest floor
springing beneath your feet
rich in the debris
of a thousand autumns
broken down by a thousand winters.
It hides in the hope of a thousand springs
announced by clusters of bluebells
swaying in the wind that whips up from nowhere,
fighting against an unexpected late frost,
surviving everything except the boots
that trample with no regard.
But the magic can’t be crushed, do you see it?
It’s in the scurry of the squirrel burying his treasure,
it’s in the velvet flutter of butterfly wings
it’s in the song of the jays and the blackbirds
and the bob
               bob
               bobbing of the robin
who follows you, but not too closely.
There’s magic in the woods, do you feel it?

There’s Magic in the Woods was written for the 12 Poems July prompt of ‘Flutter’