Day 10: Simultaneity

The prompt today is to write a poem of simultaneity, that is - a poem in which different things are occurring at the same time.

A bit of meta-fiction in this one ;)

Trying to Write a Daily Poem 

Dishes clatter. TV thrums background chatter. 
Quiet centre, words begin to gather. 

Day replays in soundbite manic matters.
Rhythm and rhyme shuffle forward.

Family members to and fro banter.
White page cool breeze blows harder. 

Night bird trills its relentless twitter.
Tune of a poem curls round my finger. 

Meaningless minutiae merge to a stutter.
Lines focus like a beam of light.

Cat jumps, sleeps, purrs, hovers.
Poem blooms, gift of wonder.

Day 9: Big & Small

 

Today's poem had to incorporate something big and small...

 
Measure

Blue whale
in a goldfish bowl;

big dreams, 
small means. 

 

Day 8: Mysterious & Magical

Today's prompt was to write a poem with an element of the mysterious or magical in it. Struggled all day to find an idea for this, until now - until after a beautiful blue-lit evening seaside walk. 


Myth

I dreamed you real
and it was so: mer-man,
washed ashore to land,
soul-wrecked, salt-sore.
Heart as deep
as the ocean's floor. 

The silvered-sparkles
of your voice;
eyes that anchored me
to the spot;
horizon no longer
confined to land.
Blue, blue, tidal pull
of love.

But you missed
your underwater home.
Almost drowned on land.
Felt the song of the sea
swell in your core.

So this is myth, this is muse. 

I let you go
and the sea
swallowed you whole. 

I search the shoreline still
for a secret sign
of your truth -
the wink of silver and blue
lit by sun, sky-strewn,
sunken moon.
That is all.

Day 7: Strengths & Weaknesses

Today we're to have one of our strengths talk to one of our weaknesses, or thereabouts.  


Wonderland

Said Imagination to the little girl:
"Come, I'll take you
Everywhere, lay the world
at your feet.
I'm a carnival ride,
a rhyme to glide
on the rhythm of life.
Rely on me, be forever free."

"But I'm afraid you see
that life is too big for me,"
said the girl, her heartbeat
all a-flutter. 

"Be big for life! Colour! Wonder!
Be the magic-maker, thought-painter,
wayfarer, dream-seeker.
Trample fear with faith.
All that is dull, be gone!
Life in Technicolor -
my raison d'etre."

"Ok then" said the girl
taking a rainbow-hued hand
and feeling her wingspan
expand.

Day 6: Line Breaks

Line Breaks are the focus of the prompt today. Don't know if this adheres strictly to the the instructions, but it's the poem that wanted to be written.


Nuclear

When we were young
our love was like
the sun
nuclear reactor
in our cores,
light
like nothing else.
Fission, fusion
when we met, spoke, kissed.
Sunburst,
incandescent,
future fuel.
Endless energy
to remake a world.

Now that we are old
and our love
is no more,
nuclear explosion
in our cores
burns
like nothing else.
Fallout of memory
contaminates every smile.
Sun-starved,
our future selves -
atomized.
This endless goodbye
destroying the world.

Day 5: Photograph +Translation

Today's prompt is a bit of a double whammy! Pick a photograph (I used one of the picks from the website) and then pick a foreign language poem and 'guess' translate it to describe your picture. Easier said than done I tell you!

This was my second attempt. It's all about picking the right pair!

 

Night Flight

Hands free from burdens

lift up off scorched ground

sorrow is happiness,

a highwire suspension.

Heart seeking feathered flight

from here to aeons ever after -
If I stay, I will break.

Understand this: a caged soul will find 
wingspan

in everywhere, everything.

Lilting stunning aria of air -

my lost love;

and until you follow after 

up and away 

into pieces.

***

NORÐUR - Gerður Kristný (Iceland)

Hægt eins og búrhveli
líðum við gegnum sortann
sem er hvítur
hér á heiðinni

Hann er fastheldinn á sitt
og gefur aðeins eftir
eina stiku í einu

Örskamma stund leiftra þær
í vegarkantinum
eins og eldspýtur
litlu stúlkunnar í ævintýrinu
og lýsa okkur
þar til við komum aftur
upp í vök
að blása

Day 4: Abstractions & Concrete Nouns

 

Today's prompt is to use concrete language to describe an abstract state. 



Happiness

Arced V of a swallow's tail,
russet face lit by sun
trampolining
the deep blue of sky.

Day 3: List

Today's prompt was to write a List Poem. 

I've ALWAYS  wanted to name cocktails, so, here goes...


Cocktail Hour

Lemon-aid. Vanilla coronation.
Pink flamingo serenade.
Moon Swoon. Blue Moon. To-the-moon.
Full moon fizz. Sugar-mama.
Two-shots-and-you're-down.
Lickety-split. Peach buffoon.
Schnapps got your tongue. Loony tune.
Stiletto kick. Safari sun. Tiger's tooth.
Elderflower moon. Pomegranate kiss.
Matcha-maker. Madhatter's tea.
The Double 00 (shaken-not-stirred.)
Rose-rouge. Sour Cherry. Toot-toot.
Hemingway highball. Bourbon Swing.
Double-trouble. Hubba Bubba.
Swashbuckled. Gin Sin.
Ginger Finger. Gunslinger.
The OMG. Mamma Mia. Bees Knees.
Twist 'n' tequila. Cointreau Clown.
Luck of the Irish. Talk-of-the-Town.
Bittersweet. Moonstruck. Take A Bow.
Dirty Harry Martini. Casablanca Queen.
Razmatazz. All That Jazz.
Lavender Lass. Strawberry Dream.
Brandy Bouquet. Bonjour Amour!
High Five. Happy Daze.

Day 2: Voice

 

Today's prompt was all about voice. To vary the voice in a poem or to use dialogue.  

So I got to thinking about what happens between the lines of dialogue, how it can be so superficial, so insubstantial.




Asides

"How are you?"
Heartbeat held to ransom.
"Good."
Lie; a lovelorn sigh.
Proceed with reflex gusto.
"And you?"
Try to feign indifference.
"Can't complain."
No. Happy are the coupled, complete, canoodled
free from pain.
Awkward pause. Stretch until taut, 
wound-wrought.
"That's good."
Great. Greatest. Merit marks. Golden stars cascade.
"Haven't seen you in while."
Stage directions: smile. Diffuse accusation.
Shrug, cough, continue avoiding 
your eye.
"See you later then."
No need to drag it out.
Infinity stretched 
to this thin line of masquerade.
"Yes see you later."
Enforced jollity. Hitch voice to sky.
Before - a promise, a wish, a want -
now, a nuisance empty chant.
Don't wait for goodbye. Walk on. Fake smile. 
Somewhere, a supernova dies.
Universe in decline.
All those things we never said -
all those other times
pulsing for the next mile. 

NaPoWriMo 2018: Day 1

The first day of NaPo, hurray! 
Today's prompt is to write about a secret shame or  secret pleasure. Since its Easter Sunday, that can only be chocolate indulgence right?!


Eggstravaganza


One shell is never enough.
Always, it must be two.
Oval overture duplicity,
tried and tested true. 

Unwrap the tinsel tease
hammer and crack to shatter,
those shrapnel sections a feast,
for forty days 'no thanks' labour.

Praline, cream, cocoa-coated,
mini, super-sized, speckled;
crazed bunny-hopping moment
of which to pick; any will do. 

Now the gluttony of truth:
one egg is just too few.
Until caught brown-handed,
with the melted proof.