4.5.13

Today's prompt: write a cinquain: five lines, specific instructions.  (The "Cinquains for Day Five" post here http://www.napowrimo.net/ will explain more succinctly than I can).  My color prompt today: scarlet.   Imagine a weirdly-red piercing-gazed cement deer with no mouth...in the intersection of "nowhere" and "lots of corn."  Or see below. Mine is two cinquains.

To the Scarlet Cement Mouthless Deer at the Corner of Two Cornfields

Wonder:

why so lurid

in this neglected place,

and in what silence do

you wait, jaw crumbled by the days

and sun?

Black tipped

antlers stand guard

through seasons’ clock of days.

If you could speak, what secret would

you say?

4.4.13

Today's NaPoWriMo prompt: use the title of a spaceship from an Iain M. Banks novel as the title of your poem.  (Check out the "Day Four" post here http://www.napowrimo.net/ if you need more explanation).  My color prompt was brown...and this is fueled by the fact that Miss L had kindergarten round-up today.  So much converging creative energy...lovin'  NaPoWriMo April!

A Fine Disregard for Awkward Facts

Whoever said that hearts need

to be “Valentine colors” can bite me.

My girl crayons hearts the color of coffee,

daisies with two centers, green waterfalls,

and baby sister with butterfly wings.  At five years,

the rules don’t apply yet.  Facts don’t matter,

hard-and-fast by-laws are more like nifty ideas

but are, ultimately, disposable.

She will start school this fall:

she will be told the sky is blue,

the tree has green leaves, and baby can’t fly. I want

to color her with white crayon to resist

reality’s dipping, stubbornly rolling it off in fat 

droplets of “no way.”  I want her to think

in ripples of clear purple water, to

burn with pink-sparkle flames, to breathe

neon dandelion scent and sing bonesongs

in all shades of the color "want"--to

give all of THEM something to think about.

4.3.13

Today's prompt was to write a sea chantey (or shantey or shanty or chanty or whatever your preferred spelling is).  Well, that's outside my comfort zone, since 1) I live in a landlocked state and know nothing about the sea and 2) I usually stay away from repeated lines and sing-songy rhythms in my "normal stuff."  So--of course I tried it!  My color prompt was green today, and that makes me think of spring, so (since, as I said, I know nothing about nautical things except that I like to say ARRRRR like a pirate) I made a "land chantey" instead.  Here it be!

Planting Chantey

Out the ground they're shooting through!
Sprouting, coming up
Black dirt, let the green spikes through!
Sprouting, coming up

Twist them upward toward the sun!
Sprouting, coming up
Darkest season's nearly done!
Sprouting, coming up

Point the spade and split the dirt!
Sprouting, coming up
Place the seeds to root them sure!
Sprouting, coming up

Sea of grasses, wave with green!
Sprouting, coming up
Grow strong in the warming breeze!
Sprouting, coming up

Ho, the pitchfork!  turn the loam!
Sprouting, coming up
Hey, the plow!  In black dirt drive it home!
Sprouting, coming up

Planting’s done, now bring the wine!
Sprouting, coming up
Toast—the sun our work completes in time!
Spouting, coming up

4.2.13

Writing a poem that tells a lie is so freeing.  Mine usually turn into flights of fancy, and this one is no exception.  My secondary "color" prompt for the day was yellow.  I always remember my creative writing prof telling us that poets lie to tell the truth.  I'll provide the lie for today...you bring whatever truth you care to.

Lie

That's the hat I wore.  That night—

the night we made a run for it. 

You wore white--I wore black except

for the hat. Its gold roses were stars

lighting our path.  Our shoes

had wings, our fingers were canary feathers. 

We tore free of the city's claws.  We rode

your motorcycle past ghettos and gravestones,

 past corncribs and coal mines, rode

until the highway rippled away, until the red mouth

of sunrise swallowed us.  We were cowards.

We were heroes. 

It spit us out again, new.

 

4.1.13

It begins!  NaPoWriMo launches today!

The prompt for today was to use the first line of a "famous" (or otherwise) poem as a starting place.  I'm combining this project with a photo project on another site (which will be updated every couple of days...mace508 on www.365project.org if you're interested...I will post the photos to this blog as well).  My secondary prompt from 365 was "red," so I added that to the "famous first line" thing...which led me to come up with a poem about something red, or with the color red mentioned, that has a first line I can work with.  Well, that got me thinking about red wheelbarrows, so I decided to take my own slant on William Carlos Williams, and borrow that oft-borrowed, very famous first line.  Here it is, folks:

So much depends upon

what isn’t said.  A red tulip begs

to be a kiss, a chipped nail

tells of heartache. A footprint

in alley mud could be headed anywhere—

how could you leave

only fingerprints behind, only

my dull red heart, dropping petals on the floor?

 

30 Days of Poetry?

Shout out to the poets...April is National Poetry Month!  I'll be participating in NaPoWriMo this year (National Poetry Writing Month) and listing my blog on their website, so follow along for my poem-a-day!