Last, but not least, here’s our daily prompt (optional, as always). Start by reading James Tate’s poem “The List of Famous Hats.”  Now, write a poem that plays with the idea of a list. Tate’s poem is a list that isn’t – he never gets beyond the first entry. You could try to write such a non-list, but a couple of other ideas would be creating a list of ingredients or entries in an index. A self-portrait (or a portrait of someone close to you) in the form of such a list could be very funny. Another way into this prompt might be a list of instructions.

Our resource for the day is the Poem of the Day. Like Verse Daily, this feature presented by the Poetry Foundation brings you a new poem every day. You can even sign up to have it emailed you, so you don’t need to check the website.
My poem for today: Lists and I

I have a secret to share,
a confession to make-
I may be a listoholic 
or a listomaniac.  
I thrive on lists 
I worship them, 
I'm smitten by them, 
I swear by them.

I have daily lists with things to do
that help me function and keep me sane.
And spur-of-the moment lists
that keep my adrenaline from spilling over.
I have lists in my diary and under my pillow
on pages beginning from the back end of notebooks
and on blank white spaces in newspapers' edges, 
on the back of shopping receipts and saved as notes in my phone.

I have lists that never get ticked-
Left in places they were written in like mundane grocery lists
and those that need no writing to be done
Like fun shopping lists; 
Lists where the excitement of making them
exceeds the joy of completing them
Like things to pack while going on a holiday 
and the  places to visit in a new destination.

I have lists  that must be ticked 
For a good night's sleep- like errands to be run, 
books to be read, poems to be written, 
friends and family to be called.
And lists that need no ticking - things that I must carry back
with me for a taste of my roots in my home in a foreign land- 
roasted peppercorns, dried red chillies,shelled tamarind 
and salted, sun-dried slices of bitter-gourd.