napowrimo

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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

https://unsplash.com/@mariamolinero

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.

photo: https://unsplash.com/@mariamolinero

Overheard

I’m going darn the West End, they’ve got the last pair on hold for me

silver-haired lady in leopard print leggings on the bus

I don’t think Helen really trusts me

plump girl in a navy pantsuit walking down the street

The Doctor said I need to rest and eat more vegetables. I’ve been on crutches for 8 weeks. No dear, I’m on a bus in Camden

plummy-voiced older gent with red nose who got off and lit a cigarette. He wasn’t on crutches

Hei hei hei. Hei hei hei

Chinese lady on her phone on the bus

Shh shh shh

guy with Tourettes’ on the bus

Was hast du da?

familiar language overheard in a London playground

Can I just put you down here for a minute?

skinny-legged dad on the street in footy gear with his kid, the kid also in footy gear

 

NaPoWriMo prompt for day 21:  to write a poem that incorporates overheard speech. I am running late again so the speech is the poem. I had more but my brain’s too full. It’s weird being back in a place where I can understand most of the incidental conversations around me! 

Game. Bus. Match

The rules of the game

don’t engage

when everyone’s insane

or

all too sane and

out for what they can get

innit

every journey takes an hour

no standing in the upper deck

(gosh I feel tall up there tho)

the things you learn

like

never get off transport that’s still moving towards home

no matter what they say

but if it’s stopped

bail straight off

wait, walk or find another way

and always complain

to someone – even just in your own brain

A bomb threat’s not a bomb threat. Is not a bomb threat, is Not a bomb threat

until it is. And terrorism

And then there’s The Met

-bless-

On the Tube

stand

stare at your hands, stare at your hands, rake your eyes over the stands

do not make contact

move down please

move aside

got a seat

eye the crotches, no. Look around, read the ads, don’t wanna be sold to. Eye the crotches, no. read the free newspaper. Eye the crotches, no

do not make contact with eyes or crotches

whatever you do

no

Mind the gap, wait a lot, shove your shoulder, look away, never delay for the next one, although sometimes it’s a sure thing, hey?

The rules are. There are no rulez. No one learns these things in schools, mate

What a teacher.

Preach.

London.

A law of…  masses. Critical. Random.

Can’t. Believe. People. Do. It. Every. Day.

It seems normal. Actually… it seems very fucking normal

The whole world, jerked around, on a big red bus

what a sound

insane decibels juddering and yet all’s well, we’re moving

kid’s screaming, shuttup, we’re all getting home, no one cares, where I get off

let me off

Back door please!

 

Today’s GloPoWriMo prompt was to write a poem that incorporates the vocabulary and imagery of a specific sport or game. London transport is a sport all of its own.

Urgent

Photo: https://unsplash.com/@laura_geror

It’s urgent for me

Is it urgent for you?

Yes, good

Let’s go

Hold my hand

I won’t let you fall

step lightly on gossamer threads of dreams / our heaviness bags down the quicksilver / distractions greying out clarity / into fat bottoms of despair and swooping rebounds / hope, brilliance, the creative urge / urgency / only to snap!

That is all

 

I’m running a day late with my GloPoWriMo now… argh! Day 19’s prompt was to write a poem that recounts a creation myth. This is a slanted take on it based on a dream I had this morning (lame!) where a woman in a creative meeting asked me if my writing work was urgent, to which I replied, yes. She nodded in agreement: for me too. Go! Go! Go! 

Unneighbours

Photo: https://unsplash.com/@jamie452

Here we are unneighbours
ignorrelated peoples of
a vast and ambivicity
falsenatural scents crushed under
bootstep and paveground down
an insalubri-sewer lurking at
ankleheight and laughing
with its darklode of
chattertat, the importathoughts  nolongerseemed
unlistened to, unscreamed, suffocatbreathed
we ceasedream and retreat

 

Todays prompt: to write a poem that incorporates neologisms. What’s that? Well, it’s a made-up word! Your neologisms could be portmanteaus (basically, a word made from combining two existing words, like “motel” coming from “motor” and “hotel”) or they could be words invented entirely for their sound. Probably the most famous example of a poem incorporating neologisms is Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, but neologisms don’t have to be funny or used in the service of humor. You can use them to try to get at something that you don’t have an exact word for, or to create a sense of sound and rhythm, or simply to make the poem feel strange and unworldly.

I did this nonsense-word poem and the compound-word poem above. 

What the Jabberwock?

Jithering to sleep

guts on the rouil

thoughts derting and stibben

reach to encrescalate

please don’t dretch

not ready to soussime

faisht now. All faisht.

Todays prompt: to write a poem that incorporates neologisms. What’s that? Well, it’s a made-up word! Your neologisms could be portmanteaus (basically, a word made from combining two existing words, like “motel” coming from “motor” and “hotel”) or they could be words invented entirely for their sound. Probably the most famous example of a poem incorporating neologisms is Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, but neologisms don’t have to be funny or used in the service of humor. You can use them to try to get at something that you don’t have an exact word for, or to create a sense of sound and rhythm, or simply to make the poem feel strange and unworldly. 

I wanted to German the shit out of this with clever compound words but I ran out of time and motivation. Oh well.  OK so I did another one! 

Metal hearts

as the night draws in
I think about
one of the few people
I can cry with
or rage
while
the dark music of
your northern home
I never went to
plays
and
in dark-blue eyes
you watched
once
as I wasted away
staring
at my
own
reflection
but you told me
today
to invert the picture
and see my own strength
something to think about
as the night draws in

 

 

Today’s GloPoWriMo prompt was to write a nocturne. In music, a nocturne is a composition meant to be played at night, usually for piano, and with a tender and melancholy sort of sound. Your nocturne should aim to translate this sensibility into poetic form!

Vader

Darth Vader is scary of course

But can he fight a lion with The Force?

Maybe he’d do the lion a favour

And help make dinner with his light sabre

 

I was honoured to be the featured participant on NaPoWriMo today for my London Ghazal. 🙂 

Today’s prompt: Because it’s Friday, let’s keep it light and silly today, with a clerihew. This is a four line poem biographical poem that satirizes a famous person. 

My 5yo son helped me write this one, he’s really getting into rhymes lately!  

Photo: http://www.slashfilm.com