what if all the fairytales
aren’t true
but I am
good and beautiful
clever and pure
what then?
poetry
The Spinning Ones
once again I rally them
my shining ones, my friends
she tells me that in twenty years
we’ll still be laughing til there’s tears
and magicking the world aright
like we did those moonlit nights
she says that I can let it go
permission to go slow
something I can’t grant for me
but when she speaks, I obey
she sometimes tells me I’m still Jerry
always missed, do not worry
invoke me with my name
on lips, in heart, the page…
and so we go around, around
casting spells and hauling found
fortunes, jokes and sparkling things
while endlessly the earth does spin
Today’s prompt was to write a poem about something that happens again and again (kind of like NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo). When I get down, my wonderful friends pull me up again tirelessly.
This is the last day of April and the final day of GloPoWriMo. I made it! I’m going to take a short break and get back to you shortly with a poetry-month wrap-up! 🙂
Photo: http://bookdome.com/fiction/Grimms-Household-Tales/The-Three-Spinning-Fairies.html#.WQXN7PmGPIU
Absolution
A woman on the street was circling, circling
her shoulder bag dropped down around her waist
she had spittle on her mouth
a frail and old person
scraggly white hair, a stained windcheater
broken,
and yet I was too afraid to help
bad possibilities zinging through my mind
of being hit, attacked, screeched at, misunderstood
at the heaviness of a human body collapsing on me in relief
the time it might suck from me
I walked by
with tears in my eyes.
doesn’t absolve anything
lazy coward me
she stopped circling, the spell broken
by me?
no way to know how the light gets in to a fissured mind
I told a friend later and got upset again
silly, scared me
still hoping for absolution
which she gave
‘you’re a kind person for even noticing. You wouldn’t be crying now if you didn’t mean well’
but I didn’t care enough
I could have given her a tissue to wipe her face
‘did you even have a tissue? I bet you didn’t even have one on you’
I just shook my head and sighed
the secret shame of soft, 3-ply folds in my bag,
putting me to the lie
knowing they were there all along
just like
the least I could have done
was
offer her one
Off-prompt for the penultimate day of NaPoWriMo!
Skeltonics in the closet
everything is shrinking
or is it just my thinking
something about drinking
haven’t got an inkling
maybe Skeltonic verse
is par for the course
guess we could do worse
don’t call the hearse
yet
that Hemingway cartoon
crashed like a lead balloon
did no one see
or do they all hate he?
but I got 320 followers
so could not be jollier
and
with two more days to go
in this NaPoWriMo
think I’ve done O (K)
and to finish will be yay!
Day 28’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write a poem using Skeltonic verse. Don’t worry, there are no skeletons involved. Rather, Skeltonic verse gets its name from John Skelton, a fifteenth-century English poet who pioneered the use of short stanzas with irregular meter, but two strong stresses per line (otherwise know as “dipodic” or “two-footed” verse). The lines rhyme, but there’s not a rhyme scheme per se. The poet simply rhymes against one word until he or she gets bored and moves on to another. Here is a good explainer of the form, from which I have borrowed this excellent example:
Dipodic What?
Dipodic Verse
will be Terse.
Stress used just twice
to keep it nice,
short or long
a lilting song
or sounding gong
that won’t go wrong
if you adhere
to the rule here,
Now is that clear
My dear?
This year’s poetry month has felt like more of a challenge to get through than last year, with my other writing commitments bubbling away in the background, so I thought I’d just go for rather silly doggerel today.
Not actually sure if it’s skeltonic or not.
Think I usually write like that.
What-ever.
The image is a detail from one of Sir John Tenniel’s Alice in Wonderland illustrations I grabbed off the internet … I think those pics are royalty-free these days anyway. ?
Flavours
if it’s one thing
it should taste the same
but it doesn’t
depending on
the day
Catchup GloPoWriMo day 27 prompt: to write a poem that explores your sense of taste.
To write and to rewrite
Ernest Hemingway. Photo: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-life-and-times-of-ernest-hemingway
Why sit and admire
Hemingway
it’s not just the lines and lines and lines of
shining, razor prose
the way potato mashed through the tines
of a fork in Africa
while a man who hunts a lion
shows himself a coward
-I know I’m not that
because
I gave birth two times
something he could never define
and
rearing them
takes nerves of steel sometimes.
Last year I thought of Rollins
and in some ways they’re the same
these hyper-masculine, clear life-purpose,
tough, take no shit,
big-game giants
can I
feel myself aligned?
go, rewrite
Off-prompt for NaPoWriMotoday.
Richtiger Inhalt
the small room of my mind
is closed for maintenance
today
Today’s prompt: write a poem that explores a small, defined space – it could be your childhood bedroom, or the box where you keep old photos.
I have wanted to use this pic for ages! The sticker says – correct inside, wrong package. ha ha ha … might be more like the other way around!
Medieval manuscripts
I saw the little figures
looking cute and medieval
elaborate costumes, so delightful
an ancient ritual
marginalia in excelsis
hello summer!
I wasn’t too sure about today’s GloPoWriMo prompt: “to write a poem of ekphrasis — that is, a poem inspired by a work of art. But I’d also like to challenge you to base your poem on a very particular kind of art – the marginalia of medieval manuscripts.” But then I went into town to see the preparations for Sechseläuten and realised I was looking at this stuff IRL pretty much.
Home again
My post-London tea stash
Steam
In shower
Mixes with tears
Wash them all away
Goodbye
London
Once again
Messed my mind
It’s always a bittersweet
Encounter
You can never go home again yet I am here
Today’s GloPoWriMo prompt was to write a double elevenie. What’s that? Well, an elevenie is an eleven-word poem of five lines, with each line performing a specific task in the poem. The first line is one word, a noun. The second line is two words that explain what the noun in the first line does, the third line explains where the noun is in three words, the fourth line provides further explanation in four words, and the fifth line concludes with one word that sums up the feeling or result of the first line’s noun being what it is and where it is. There are some good examples in the link above. A double elevenie would have two stanzas of five lines each, and twenty-two words in all.
I’m not sure I did this right – is a proper noun OK? Oh well.. Plus, it seemed weird to not add an extra line, since it’s “day 23” of GloPoWriMo, so I did. :0
The Cynical Supermarket of Ethical Superbrands
Welcome to Ethical SuperMegamart
buy a jar of organic Conscience-Ease
bring your own cotton bag
much easier for dump pickers to use
request a knobbly carrot
love its ugly
but purchase some eco-friendly skin care
so you yourself don’t get craggy
at the counter
offset your food miles with
money!
today there’s a special offer on
moral superiority!
no added chemicals
except those that make up every single—
no nasties, we mean, of course
don’t be so cynical!
no antibiotics in the meat or veg, because…
superbugs and… vaccines?
oh, don’t even go there
it’s scientifically proven
to do what it says
that’s good, you’ve assuaged
my confirmation bias
ahhh
all these ethical choices
sold by the pound
worry alleviation
in one convenient location
Today’s GloPoWriMo prompt was to write a georgic in honour of Earth Day. Your Georgic could be a simple set of instructions on how to grow or care for something, but it could also incorporate larger themes as to how land should be used (or not used), or for what purposes.
clairevetica 