Tag: napowrimo

Poem 20150415

crow

Today, we talk to our words. From #NaPoWriMo:

And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I challenge you to write a poem that addresses itself or some aspect of its self (i.e. “Dear Poem,” or “what are my quatrains up to?”; “Couplet, come with me . . .”) This might seem a little meta at first, or even kind of cheesy. But it can be a great way of interrogating (or at least, asking polite questions) of your own writing process and the motivations you have for writing, and the motivations you ascribe to your readers.

—–

metaphors, i am glad
to have met you
you let me remake the world
let me shape it softer or harder
than it is

o, simile
i quite like you
so like a smile
but in secret
you suggest more gently
inviting the reader to agree
but always implying the opposite
giving the reader the option
that maybe
things
aren’t
the
way
you
say
they are

but words
this poem is just words
and what are words worth?
i’ve had it thrown back to me, a ball
in a game of catch
like a potato
in a game of hot potato
it’s only words, was said, using,
ironically
words
to express just how little the words meant
but don’t they mean everything
the whole world
ex nihilo
fiat lux
and it was good

Poem 20150414

crow1 Comment

Day 14 of #NaPoWriMo, and here us the prompt:

And now for our optional prompt! Today, I challenge you to write a poem that takes the form of a dialogue. Your conversant could be real people, or be personifications, as in Andrew Marvell’s A Dialogue Between the Soul and the Body, or Yeats’ A Dialogue of Self and Soul. Like Marvell, and Yeats, you could alternate stanzas between your two speakers, or perhaps you could give them alternating lines. Your speakers could be personifications, like those in Marvell and Yeats’ poems, or they could be two real people. Hopefully, this prompt will give you a chance to represent different points of view in the same poem, or possibly to create a dramatic sense of movement and tension within the poem

—–

mind,
you think you know what you want?
because you are aware
because a net of consciousness drapes across you
and you open the mouth
and declare, “this!” or “that!”
and yet–
and yet, a small thing derails you
from your tasks
but i will have the final say
in all things

body,
like a captain, i steer this ship
command a thing to be done and it is done
desire to sleep, and i find solitude in dreams
desire to revenge, and i lash out
desire to love, and my words play out sweet
and soft
and irresistible

mind,
you are mistaken
allow me to educate you
though you will deny the lesson
desire to love? you have an urge to touch
and to take, a lust in your loins for the flesh
of another and your words are less meaningful
than a songbird’s plea, marking territory
or begging for a mate
desire to revenge? you have hatred and fear
churning in your guts, and your lashing out
is more oft only played out in fantasies while
the objects of your scorn go unpunished, and just as
well as your perceived slights are petty
desire to sleep? you fear sleep most of all
that analog of death
so close that if your breath stops short
you startle awake, place your hands to your
face
and ask in a trembling voice, “am i here still? do
i yet remain?”
yes, you are the captain, the captain of
a ship doomed to sink
and like all good captains
you will go down with it

Poem 20150413

crow

Today’s suggested prompt from #NaPoWriMo is a conundrum:

And now for our prompt (as always, it’s optional!). In keeping with the mysterious quality of the number 13, today I challenge you to write a riddle poem. This poem should describe something without ever naming it. Perhaps each line could be a different metaphor for the same object? Maybe the title of the poem can be the “answer” to the riddle. The result could be a bit like our Day One poems of negation, but the lines don’t need to be expressed in negatives.

—–

weeping, yet shedding not a single tear,
it bears an unknowable grief
its losses can be counted as eggs
like feathers strewn
across the lawn
or the whistling of wings
when the sun rises
so common, you know it all too well
well acquainted with its grey
bearing

Poem 20150412b

crow

these words come unbidden
slip from fingers without pause
without time to measure
–measure twice, cut once they say–
but the saw of words cuts
again
and again
and yet again

there is no time to clap your hands
and pray
after the ablution
just toss the money in
the box
and hope the
kami
is patient
and kind
and forgiving of your cheapness
maybe she sees the soles worn down
on shoes you refuse to
replace
maybe she knows how you
wait
each day for 11:11
to come around
to make a wish
for free

if only your doubt would break upon
the rocks
like waves
huge and frightening
a wall of water
reduced to spray and foam
and a scattering of birds.

Poem 20150412

crow

Now that that sapphics nonsense is over and done with, here’s the prompt for day 12 fron #NaPoWriMo:

And now for our prompt! Yesterday’s was a doozy, so today’s is much more laid-back (and optional, as always). It comes to us from Dr. Cynthia A. Cochran of Illinois College:
Here is a great prompt for anyone who likes to write descriptive prose but shudders at writing poetry–and it really works:

Describe in great detail your favorite room, place, meal, day, or person. You can do this in paragraph form.

Now cut unnecessary words like articles and determiners (a, the, that) and anything that isn’t really necessary for content; leave mainly nouns, verbs, a few adjectives.

Cut the lines where you see fit and, VOILA! A poem!

who to pick
what to say
favorite person
who to include
who to eschew
how many people offended
how many people alienated
describe them how

obvious physical attributes
smooth white skin
brown hair
arms
legs
ankles
feet
breasts and ears and napes of necks
their movements slinky or awkward
their body language happy or nervous or angry or
stricken

or an approach more ephemeral?
their voices loud or quiet
their laughter
their smiles
the pixie look on their faces
when they’re up to something
the pixie look on yours
when you realize it

Poem 20150411

crow

Today, an attempt at highly structured poem, courtesy of #NaPoWriMo:

Our (optional) prompt for today departs from such concerns, however. Today, rather than being casual, I challenge you to get rather classically formal, and compose a poem in Sapphics. These are quatrains whose first three lines have eleven syllables, and the fourth, just five. There is also a very strict meter that alternates trochees (a two-syllable foot, with the first syllable stressed, and the second unstressed) and dactyls (a three-syllable foot, with the first syllable stressed and the remainder unstressed). The first three lines consist of two trochees, a dactyl, and two more trochees. The fourth line is a dactyl, followed by a trochee.

Rhyming is optional! Ha ha ha.

—–

little yellow finches swarm feeders i hang
high on curved arms. i watch them, fight and play and
jostle for a better spot. all the same. they
don’t know that. silly

birds to fight for seeds. as if i won’t fill it
when it empties. floating like ghosts, they haunt the
yard as long as light still shines, darting, zooming,
singing songs. dusk comes.

—–

Yes, that was hard. Man.

Poem 20150410

crow

Today’s poetic prompt from #NaPoWriMo is a fun one. Well, I say it’s fun, but I haven’t written it yet, so we’ll see.

And now for today’s prompt (optional, as always): Today I challenge you to write an abecedarian poem – a poem with a structure derived from the alphabet. There are a couple of ways of doing this. You could write a poem of 26 words, in which each word begins with a successive letter of the alphabet. You could write a poem of 26 lines, where each line begins with a successive letter. Or finally, if you’d prefer to narrow your focus, perhaps you could write a poem which focuses on a few letters, using words that repeat them.

—–

advice, brilliant conclusions
delivered earnestly for grudging hegemony

inhibit justice
kill literacy
master no one, please
question reversals
sever ties unless visible
waver excitably
yield zero

Poem 20150409

crow2 Comments

So today, the #NaPoWriMo poetry prompt is this:

Our prompt for the day (optional, as always) plays of our resources. Today, I challenge you to write a visual poem. If that’s not specific enough, perhaps you can try your hand at a calligram? That’s a poem or other text in which the words are arranged into a specific shape or image. You might find inspiration in the famous calligrams written by Guillaume Apollinaire. And a word to the wise — the best way to cope with today’s exercise may well be to abandon your keyboard, and sit down with paper and pen (and maybe crayons or colored pencils or markers!)

—–

                               meyou
                          me arch bridge you
                      me arch bridge obstacle you
                   me bridge obstacle arch bridge you
      brick stone brick                          stone brick stone
     stone  brick stone                          brick stone  brick
stone brick stone brick                          brick  stone brick stone
earth earth earth earth  water water  water water earth earth earth earth
earth earth earth earth  water water  water water earth earth earth earth
earth earth earth earth water d r a g o n s water earth earth earth earth

Poem 20150408

crow

Today’s #NaPoWriMo challenge is to write a

… a palinode. And what’s that? It’s a poem in which the poet retracts a statement made in an earlier poem. You could take that route or, if you don’t have an actual poetically-expressed statement you want to retract, maybe you could write a poem in which you explain your reasons for changing your mind about something. It could be anything from how you decided that you like anchovies after all to how you decided that annoying girl was actually cool enough that you married her.

—–
you can’t unwish the third wish,
she says
she doesn’t remind you of genie
and you don’t want to put her in a bottle
but you wouldn’t mind seeing her in a harem outfit

you shake your head to concentrate

i don’t want to unwish anything
you say
i want to wish all the wishes
the only thing i want to take back
is what i said about taking it back

you want to take back what you took back
she asks
on the verge of smiling

you hear an ankle bracelet strung with bells
tinkling
and you think of persia

Poem 20150407

crow

From the #NaPoWriMo site:

And now our (optional!) prompt: keeping to the theme of poetry’s value, Wallace Stevens famously wrote that “money is a kind of poetry.” So today, I challenge you to write about money! It could be about not having enough, having too much (a nice kind of problem to have), the smell, or feel, or sensory aspects of money. It could also just be a poem about how we decide what has value or worth.

—–

pieces of silver
coins
jingle in my pocket
i remember
asking for quarters
on a hot summer day
when the asphalt heated up
and you could smell
the water running off driveways
like it had rained
and down gutters
foaming with dishwashing soap
while neighborhood teens
(sometimes shirtless)
washed their cars in cutoff shorts
(the girls sometimes in bikini tops or T-shirts)
later
asking for quarters
when the days grew shorter
but still refused to give up summer
even though the smell of autumn
with its brown leaves and dying lawns
and the first fireplace fires
spewed smoke out of chimneys
filling the air
and we played touch football in the street
until the lights came on
even then the ice cream truck
still rolled down the street with its
(was the driver really selling drugs?)
WATCH FOR CHILDREN warning painted in
(was he really a child molester?)
red letters on the back
turkey in the straw playing
endlessly on the speaker
wondering if i should get the bomb pop
again
and plopping down a piece of silver
and god dammit
why isn’t life as easy as that any more
why isn’t the value of something as cut and dried
as an ice cream
from an ice cream truck
when you’re trying to enjoy summer
or when you’re trying to pretend
summer isn’t over
when you don’t have enough coins left
in your pocket
to get someone nailed to a cross