Author: crow

I'm a writer and a dabbler. I live in Southern California.

Poem 20150428

crow

Here’s the prompt from #NaPoWriMo:

And now for today’s prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about bridges. A bridge is a powerful metaphor, and when you start looking for bridges in poems, you find them everywhere. Your poem could be about a real bridge or an imaginary or ideal bridge. It could be one you cross every day, or one that simply seems to stand for something larger – for the idea of connection or distance, for the idea of movement and travel and new horizons.

—–
the three little pigs gave me these
building materials just for a song
watch out for wolves, they joked
at least i think they were joking

the river that kept me from where you are
runs black in winter, never freezing over
but always full of ice. you can see the faces
of the men who have tried to cross in their too-small boats

under the surface, eyes closed, at peace with
the inevitability of it all. the water is fine,
they whisper, come on in. but i’m not interested
in the soft, muddy bottom, swirling with voices

in summer, the sun shrinks the banks
and i find remembrances of the men
trinkets they tried to carry to you from pockets
now rotted and disturbed by the micro currents

i wait until fall because i know it’s your
favorite season, winds, and leaves, and browns
before i get to work on the bridge. i had hoped
that there would be progress on the other side

but heavy fog over the water keeps me guessing
so i build the bridge out. it’s amazing since
i’ve never built anything more complicated than
a birdhouse before. i hope i have enough

straw and twigs to make it all the way across
but the water seems to widen with every plank i add.
and i’ve started seeing wolves with torches in
their mouths out of the corner of my eye

Poem 20150427

crow

Today the prompt calls for a variation on the haiku. From #NaPoWriMo:

And today’s prompt – optional, as always — comes to us from Vince Gotera. It’s the hay(na)ku). Created by the poet Eileen Tabios and named by Vince, the hay(na)ku is a variant on the haiku. A hay(na)ku consists of a three-line stanza, where the first line has one word, the second line has two words, and the third line has three words. You can write just one, or chain several together into a longer poem. For example, you could write a hay(na)ku sonnet, like the one that Vince himself wrote back during NaPoWriMo 2012!

—–
a
pair of
soft white thighs

glistening
with sweat
summer’s soft exertions

or
something else–
who will say?

Poem 20150426

crow

#NaPoWriMo‘s prompt today will me putting words in someone else’s mouth.

And now, for our prompt (optional, as always). Our last two prompts have been squarely in the silly zone – this one should give some scope to both the serious-minded and the silly among you. Today, I challenge you to write a persona poem – a poem in the voice of someone else. Your persona could be a mythological or fictional character, a historical figure, or even an inanimate object. Need some examples? Check out this persona-poem-themed issue of Poemeleon from a few years back.

—–

i never should have helped zeus, you know
but we’re both immortal and i felt sorry for him
and helped plan and carry a out war against
my own relatives
and i didn’t want to hear him complain forever

and i was supposed to be the smart one

i saw the future in people
and invested heavily
even though i knew he wouldn’t care for that

i suppose, in the end, i got what was coming to me
tied to a rock, my liver torn out day after day

hey, no problem.
i’m immortal, right?
i can take it

but those poor bastards running around on the ground
like ants; my brother and i did what we could for them
at the beginning
but, epimetheus is kind of an idiot
and after i got
them the secret of fire,
well, zeus, the piss-ant,
he sent them pandora

i don’t think it was fair
that the first woman he sent
he sent to my brother
or that she would have so much baggage
and man did she do a number
on the mortals
the poor bastards

well, anyway
let me tell you a secret
my name means forethought
and i’ve done more thinking
chained to this rock
than you can imagine,
and i’ve figured out the whole mess,
how it’s all going to go down

it ain’t pretty
and i could leave if i want,
anytime.
i mean, i’m
a titan, and these are just chains
what’s an eagle to me?
a handful of feathers
hiding a bucket of chicken
but i like it here on this mountain
and zeus is in for a rude awakening

he thinks he’s going to be worshipped forever
but he’s not
and when the sacrifices dry up,
so will his power
his authority
his big, sexy lightning bolts

and he and i are going to have a long talk then

because we’re both immortal

and i’m the smart one

oh, look
the eagle

Poem 20150425

crow

Today, the prompt is all about name dropping. Or, as #NaPoWriMo puts it:

And now for our prompt (optional, as always)! It’s the weekend, so I’d thought we might go with something short and just a bit (or a lot) silly – the Clerihew. These are rhymed, humorous quatrains involving a specific person’s name. You can write about celebrities, famous people from history, even your mom (hopefully she’s got a good name for rhyming with).

—–
There’s something about Nathan Fillion
A guy who is one in a million
From cowboy to castle
He sure loves to wrassle.

Poem 20150424

crow

Today’s prompt from #NaPoWriMo

Our prompt today (optional, as always), will hopefully provide you with a bit of Friday fun. Today, I challenge you to write a parody or satire based on a famous poem. It can be long or short, rhymed or not. But take a favorite (or unfavorite) poem of the past, and see if you can’t re-write it on humorous, mocking, or sharp-witted lines. You can use your poem to make fun of the original (in the vein of a parody), or turn the form and manner of the original into a vehicle for making points about something else (more of a satire – though the dividing lines get rather confused and thin at times).

—–

Stopping by the Fridge

(with apologies to Robert Frost)

Whose lunch this is I think I know.

His desk is by the window, though;

He will not see me lurking here

To rummage in his lunch-to-go.


The worker bees must think it queer

How their lunches seem to disappear

Between the hours of eleven and eight*

For fifty weeks out of the year.

I give his Caesar salad a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

All these greens will make me weep;

Why couldn’t he have brought some cake?


Well, for today his lunch he’ll keep,

But I have calories to reap,

And bags to pilfer before I creep,

And bags to pilfer before I creep.

—–
*Yes, I know the rhyme breaks here.

Poem 20150423

crow

Today’s prompt from #NaPoWriMo is completely random:

And now for today’s prompt (optional, as always). Today, I challenge you to take a chance, literally. Find a deck of cards (regular playing cards, tarot cards, uno cards, cards from your “Cards Against Humanity” deck – whatever), shuffle it, and take a card – any card! Now, begin free-writing based on the card you’ve chosen. Keep going without stopping for five minutes. Then take what you’ve written and make a poem from it. (Hat tip to Amy McDaniel for the idea!)

—–

six diamonds
blood red against the
white skin of the card
like a tattoo
like symmetrical knives
ready to pierce you
in six places
the eyes
the mouth
the hands
the heart

the feet are useless to pierce
because you cannot escape

a six-sided blade
one edge to dismember
one edge to assemble
one edge to wound
one edge to heal
one edge to destroy
one edge to create

the diamonds get caught in your throat on the way down
after you have swallowed them
thinking they were marbles
thinking they were memories
thinking they were childhood

Poem 20150422

crow

The prompt today is all natural from @NaPoWriMo:

And now for (as always, optional) prompt! Today is Earth Day, so I would like to challenge you to write a “pastoral” poem. Traditionally, pastoral poems involved various shepherdesses and shepherds talking about love and fields, but yours can really just be a poem that engages with nature. One great way of going about this is simply to take a look outside your window, or take a walk around a local park. What’s happening in the yard and the trees? What’s blooming and what’s taking flight?

—–
the feeders in the yard
awash in browns, yellows,
reds, dusty oranges,
gemstone flashes of emerald ruby

lesser finches, american goldfinches
purple finches, house finches
–so many finches
sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, phoebes
the hummingbirds with their high twittering
and constant jousting
an occasional cooing dove
who usually has the sense not
to perch on the feeder

and today a squirrel
tawny and crafty
trying to figure a path to the food

it’s a pleasant thing to look out
and see them from the couch

the glass keeps them there
approach the door and they scatter
so i try not to move
and i wonder
what they talk about
as they dig their beaks into
the food mysteriously provided for them

Poem 20150421

crow3 Comments

#NaPoWriMo’s prompt for today has me leaving things out:

Our prompt for today (optional, as always) is an old favorite – the erasure! This involves taking a pre-existing text and blacking out or erasing words, while leaving the placement of the remaining words intact.

—–

the earth was darkness
the surface of the deep was moving

over the surface
light separated from the darkness

in the midst of the waters
the expanse separated below from above

the heavens teem with swarms of living creatures

let fly the great sea monsters
and multiply, beasts of the earth

god creeps on the ground

man in our image,
according to our likeness
male and female

subdue and rule the sea
the sky
the earth