poem – Page 116 – Words and Feathers

Poem 20150420

April 20, 2015April 20, 2015 crow

Day 20 of the #NaPoWriMo challenge and we have come to this:

And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I challenge to write a poem that states the things you know. For example, “The sky is blue” or “Pizza is my favorite food” or “The world’s smallest squid is Parateuthis tunicata. Each line can be a separate statement, or you can run them together. The things you “know” of course, might be facts, or they might be a little bit more like beliefs. Hopefully, this prompt will let your poem be grounded in specific facts, while also providing room for more abstract themes and ideas.

Facts? Who needs ’em!

—–
the moon is made of cheese
which is sad for the rabbit
who lives there
he probably wishes it were made of carrots
but maybe not so sad for the princess
who lives there though
she might get tired of cheese all the time
the rabbit will make her rice cakes
gummy and sticky
–they’re bad for old people to eat
on new year’s day
because they’re easy to choke on–
the mochi will be a nice change
from all that cheese
while she’s sitting up there
in her silk robes
looking down and affecting the tides
making people go crazy when she shines
bright and full
–it’s called lunacy–
does she breathe in sharp daggers of moon dust?
does she breathe at all?
she’s kind of a goddess
so if she does breathe
it probably doesn’t tear her lungs into shreds
like it would
mine
i like to look up at her
and her friend the rabbit
and i think
good
you’re not all alone up there
any more than i am down here
in your light

Poem 20150419b

April 19, 2015 crow

NOT the Friday Haiku–but it will have to do.
—–

bird still sunshine warm
i carry you to your grave
and pity your silenced song

Poem 20150419

April 19, 2015 crow

Today’s prompt from NaPoWriMo

And for today’s prompt (optional, as always!), I’d like to challenge you to write a landay. Landays are 22-syllable couplets, generally rhyming. The form comes from Afghanistan, where women often use it in verses that range from the sly and humorous to the deeply sardonic and melancholy. Check out this long investigative article on landays for a fascinating look into a form of poetry often composed in secret, and rarely written down. You could try to write a single landay – a hard-hitting couplet that shares some secret (or unspoken) truth, or you could try to write a poem that strings multiple landays together like stanzas (maybe something akin to a syllabic ghazal?)

As always, a big thank you to NaPoWriMo for giving me something to try that I’ve never done before. It’s like ordering food in a foreign country without a menu, sometimes.

Speaking of syllables, I completely forgot the Friday Haiku.

And I deeply apologize for the poem below.

No, I don’t

—–

you think you know what’s in my pocket
better take a step back, sweets; it might be a rocket.

Poem 20150418

April 18, 2015April 18, 2015 crow2 Comments

Today’s prompt from #NaPoWriMo:

And now for our (as always, optional) prompt, which takes us from 2015 back to the 1700s. After all, it’s the eighteenth of April, which means that today is the 240th anniversary of the midnight ride of Paul Revere! Today, in keeping with the theme of rush and warning, I challenge you to write a poem that involves an urgent journey and an important message. It could historical, mythical, entirely fictional, or memoir-ical.

—–

there’s that joke
about christ
on the cross
and peter
before he became a saint

and you have to remember
that he just denied that he even knew
jesus
three times

it’s important to remember that for
the sake of the joke

so jesus says
–and he’s hanging on the cross, remember–
jesus says, barely audible
and maybe peter is the only one who hears it
“peter,” he says

and that’s all

so peter grabs a ladder
throws it up against the timber
keeping jesus vertical
and climbs
only to have the roman guards
pull him down
and beat the shit out of him

this happens again
and the beating is worse
the second time

but jesus seems insistent
calls to him a third time
and peter
he longs for forgiveness
so he throws the ladder up
and scales it as fast as
his bruised legs
aching ribs
and trembling hands will allow

as the soldiers pull him down
jesus smiles and says
“i can totally see your house from here.”

Poem 20150416

April 16, 2015 crow

Man. Really?

#NaPoWriMo is trying to kill me.

And now for our (as always, optional) prompt! Today, I challenge you to write in the form known as the terzanelle. A hybrid of the villanelle and terza rima, terzanelles consist of five three-line stanzas and a concluding quatrain. Lines and rhymes are chained throughout the poem, so that the middle line of each triplet is repeated as the last line of the following triplet (or, for the last triplet, in the concluding quatrain). The pattern goes like this:
ABA
bCB
cDC
dED
eFE
fAFA or fFAA.

You can use any meter or line length, though you may want to try to have all of your lines in the same meter.

—–

there are sounds that the heart makes
not when it pounds and beats in the chest
not when someone reaches in and takes

the last feeling you have as a test
or some kind medieval fealty oath
not when you hide your secrets in a chest

of drawers; there are sounds, both
warm and calm, that only another heart
can hear; a sound that whispers as an oath

is whispered, a sound that is only the start
of other more concrete things; a simple touch,
a hand trickling down like water over a heart

beating soft and slow, secure with such
a gentle fire that there is no need
for any other kind of passion; one touch

one touch is all you need
and you will hear the sounds a heart makes
when it is finally freed
from doubt and a thousand aches

Poem 20150415b

April 15, 2015 crow

I missed day two of #NaPoWriMo, and also I wasn’t that happy with my dialogue poem of yesterday (here if you want to read it–it’s kind of a downer). But here’s a poem that fulfills the dialogue prompt and also the prompt from day two, which is as follows:

And now, our (as always, optional) prompt, provided to us by NaPoWriMo participant Carla Jones. Today, I challenge you to take your gaze upward, and write a poem about the stars. You may find inspiration in this website that lists constellations, while also providing information on the myths associated with each one, as well as other salient information. Your poem could be informed by those myths or historical details, by the shapes or names of the constellations, or by childhood memories of seeing them. Any form or style will do.

—–

i say, roll over onto your stomach
pretend you’re going to get a massage
and like those women in the brochures
put your hands under your face
turn your face to the side
and smile

you say, those brochures are bullshit
it feels great after the massage
but during
it hurts like hell
fingers driving into your muscles
trying to split the fibers apart
imagine doing that to a roast
with your bare hands

i say, just do it, and let your hair
cascade down. i want to draw
on the small of your back

you ask, what do you want to draw?
nothing embarrassing
nothing in ink

i say, no, no, i’m just going
to use my finger
i’m going to draw the night sky on your back
in the hollow curve
just above your tailbone
i’ll only include the stars
with better names
sirius, procyon, rigel, and betelgeuse
castor, pollux, and deneb
altair, antares, and arcturus
none of the stars with only letters and numbers
for names
i don’t want designations.
i want them all to have names

you feel my finger tracing a spiral
stopping and dropping a star with each
name

you say, this is going to take awhile, isn’t it?
why not draw the universe while you’re at it?

i feel you sinking into the bed
the weight of all those stars
pushing you down
you’ve put your hands under your face
your hair spills down and
you turn your face to the side and smile
like the women in those brochures

i’m not that ambitious, i say
adding a thousand more stars
making up names as i go

Poem 20150415

April 15, 2015April 15, 2015 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

April 14, 2015 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

April 13, 2015 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