national poetry month

To write and to rewrite

 

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

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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

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! 

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!