Day 30: Fun Fact

 

Today our final prompt was to write a poem inspired by one of the weird facts provided on the website's links. I chose this one:

'In the US there are more plastic flamingoes than real ones.'  

I've always loved the flamingo garden ornament ever since The X-Files episode 'Arcadia' where Mulder displayed it as a symbol of unconventionality and defiance in the perfect suburban street.



Pink Flamingo

In the garden it goes. Hoe
of the bird world, neon,
tacky, flashy, plastic, -
a stick-it-to-the-neighbours
kind of garden gnome. 

Not elegant or subtle -
pink as a fist in the face -
the flamingo is all flamboyance
grace a lost case, just look
at the neck on it, literally.

Occupies pride of place
at my front door
in fuchsia all-weather 
rebel flair. Says life's a party,
hurry, let's hula.

Day 29: Plath Poetry Project

We had to respond to a Plath poem today from this website - what a cool (but difficult) prompt! I love Plath's poetry for its unparalled powers of unusual figurative language that is simultaneously beguiling and brilliant.

I chose Love Letter - one of my favourites by her and am doing a poem inspired by an element of it.


Stone

I was a stone before you came.
Life long and low in stasis, incongruous 
in my ordinariness, impervious to care.
Grey grit, flint, fragment flung far -
bruise of air - footnote unnoticed.
Solid sorrow, a fossilized tear. Sediment 
of some other where.

But when you appeared I became
a hop and a skip; a wish skimming 
silvered water; crystalline veins new.
A firm promise, world in your hand, 
warm, porous to promises, permanent
fixture deep at home 
in the well of your heart.

Then all of a sudden: sunk. Thunk of
an unwanted thought. Balderdash.
Transformation incomplete. The dredge 
of a dream, kernel of uncare. Scuppered. 
Dropped there in the dark, ripple of regret,  
forgotten, forlorn. Hardened now
to the point I rhyme with rock.

Day 28: Wish You Were Here

 

Wish You Were Here, Paris 

Paris: the grand boulevard of thought.
It's them I love the most, their wide open
spaces, the parade of just walking, ballrooms
of everyday spectacle. The concertina shutters on windows,
interplay of ivory and black, sigh of sentry lampposts. Everywhere
buildings made of music, feeling chiselled into art.
And how the Iron Lady casts her watchful eye, appearing
and disappearing, her latticed heart
a complicated mix of height, daring,
and steel girders all placed at the right angles.
Did you know that the only
treeless street in the city
leads to the Opera? So beautiful,
it needs no adornment. 

I loved you once, it's true. I don't know
if I can love you again...
My heart is open like a hymn book -
it will never be shuttered again.

Day 27: Tarot

Today we had to pick a Tarot card and write a poem inspired from it - the first one I saw I went with - the sun!



Happy Ever After

So this is what it looks like:
happiness riding in to a life
on a chariot of glee,
a song of sun
tucked under its arm,
a gold decree
of fortuitous change.

"You will fall in love
with a man like the sun."

My heart falls. 

What about the dark
when he leaves?
The tower 
and chaos to come?
All that joy -
undone.

"Ah", she said 
with a knowing smile.  

Day 26: 5 Senses

Today: poem that uses images to engage all the five senses.


Spring Notations 

Sun returns,
tongue of flame
lick of light.

Blue sherbet sky,
fizzing 
in your mouth.

Crackle of branches
confetti leaves;
spring breeze.


Cherry blossoms
pink as a blush,
soft as a kiss.

Bee-buzz of lawnmowers
sweet-sharp green 
keen smell of grass.

Yellow yolks
of daffodils, over-easy
sunny side up.

Day 25: Warning Label

Today we had to write a warning label poem about ourselves. Hmmm....


Warning

Approach with careful consideration.
(Prone to irritation).
Do NOT, I repeat, placate 
with compliments. Short fuse will lead to
temper tantrums ( you've been told...).
Flammable if exposed 
to know-it-alls, pettiness of any kind,
an aversion to breaking the rules.
Beware, may bite if attacked
(but bark is far worse...)
Keep away from soulless ventures.
(Explosive content within.)
Subject to many whims. Ungraspable. Colours may vary. 
Delirious with dreams. Do not dismiss
under any circumstances.
(Content toxic to naysayers, undreamers).
May contain eccentricities, given over 
to rhyme. Tread with dare.
Riddled with uncertainty, will only respond
to genuine originality.
Take with a pinch of sugar, not salt.
No tolerance for moderation. Preponderance 
for midnight feasting, 
passion, poetics, wild galloping notions.
Don't be alarmed. 
Not suitable, for the faint of heart.

Day 24: Elegy

I have been trying to write this poem for a long time. Today, because it's the prompt, I'll try again. It will be edited many more times I know, but for today, this is what I have.

Elegy:


Cosmogyral*

for Paul

When you left, the swallows returned.
Svelte wings flitting through a dusk sky,
flight their natural habitat, hallowed right,
home at last. The swifts then too, high-fliers,

aerial acrobatics delighting in height, tilted

our heads upward. Like somehow the world, spun anew,

was trying to bring us news.

So many times, the May sky, its vastness unlatched 
would reveal you: blue as the heart of a star,
Icarus of our hearts, flown far.

Kaleidoscopic cosmic neon motion:

the spark of soul, melody of a memory,

the knowing that here, there, everywhere

you go on. 

*whirling around the universe

Day 23: Sound/Song/Saying

 

Today we have to write a poem to incorporate some sound, a saying, or a song lyric. 

I chose a song, one that's been in my head lately:

 '...And you shone so damn brightly,
and all that you awoke inside me
is dancing in the dark without a song...'.
                                                 ~Stoney 'We Belonged'


Legacy

Love lingers, lasts, 
long after it's left. 
It's song cannot be unsung,
melody unheard
or heart 
that has learned to sing
suddenly be silent.

Memory flares feeling
into fanfare. Sparks
surge outward. 
Love leaves
its legacy
of light.

Day 22: Impossible to Possible

 

Today's prompt was to be inspired by a choice of unusual phrases. I chose - or rather it chose me -  'The stars cannot rearrange themselves in the sky.'




Celestial

When you died
the stars -
knowing one of their own-
reshuffled their positions
and stepped aside.

Day 21: Narcissus

We had to reinterpret the Narcissus myth today. I actually did three! :)

Narcissus (Love's Vanity)

I look into the pool
of your eyes 
and almost drown;
hypnotized
by what I see  -
my reflection, lit large, 
more than what I am -
even
after all this time.
Mirrored in mine, you, 
the same;
as still waters ripple, 
depths unexplored. 




*** 

Selfie I

Mirror mirror on
the phone who is the fairest 
of them all? I am.

Selfie II

Roadside daffodils
as the girl takes a selfie
of her smiling self.