The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: HAT

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.


I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead? In January I wrote about: apron, bar, basketball, bed, bicycle, birthday, boat, broom, button, cake, car.

In February: chair, chlorine, church, concert, cookbook, couch, dancing, desk, dessert, dining room table, diploma.March: divorce, door, dream, emergency room, envelope, eyebrows, first apartment, first job, food, game, garden.

April: I took a break to focus on ARTSPEAK: Happy!
Here are the prompts for May: gloves, great-grandparent, guidebook, gun, gym class, hair, hands, hat, high heels, honeymoon, hood.

HAT

I've never liked the way I look in hats, so I haven't really worn that many of them! Nevertheless, I was able to create a list poem:


My Life in Hats
Lacy white christening capwith long satin strings,
yellow ruffled Easter bonnetto make a daffodil of my face.
Belted pilgrim hat for the schoolThanksgiving feast,
black felt witch's hat for Halloween.
Mickey – not Minnie – Mouse earsbought at Cinderella's castle,soon left to collect dust on my dresser.
Crisp candystriper hat bobby-pinnedto my long blonde hair,
Krystal's brown baseball cap to showcustomers I was old enough to work there.
Wide-brimmed, floppy straw garden hat,
waterproof fishing hat with neck flapsto prevent sunburn.

Most days, no hat at all.
- Irene Latham