Day Six ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2013

Day Six. Seis, anim, 'e-ono, sitta, sechs, seacht, gatandatu, kotoashec, jav, and enquë. That's six in Spanish, Filipino, Hawaiian, Arabic, German, Irish, Kinyarawanda, Mesquakie, Klingon, and Quenya, the language spoken by Tolkien's Elves. That list of sixes is almost a poem already, isn't it? Now on to today's prompts. Robert Lee Brewer, in the Poetic Asides blog, says: "For today's prompt, write a post poem. Post could be short for post office – or traditional mail. Post could be a wood or metal post. Or post could mean relate to words like postpone, post-punk, or whatever." "I challenge you to write a valediction [or] poem of farewell," writes Maureen Thorson, on the NaPoWriMo site. "Perhaps the most famous one is John Donne's A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, which turns the act of saying good-bye into a very tender love poem. But your poem could say 'good-bye' (and maybe good riddance!) to anything or anyone. A good-bye to winter might be in order, for example. Or good-bye to the week-old easter eggs in your refrigerator. Light or serious, long or short, it's up to you!" Once again, I am trying to do both prompts, if only in my title. It's a list poem, also, a form I recently assigned to my poetry-writing students at the University of Northern Iowa. Goodbye, Youth Hello, Post Bran Flakes My 14-year-old son Gabe's order: three eggs (scrambled) bacon AND sausage hash browns (extra crispy) raspberry waffles (with     whipped cream and     maple syrup) orange juice (extra pulp) milk (two glasses) hot chocolate My order: bran cereal milk (skim, 1/4 cup) coffee (no sugar or cream) heart (mine . . . to eat out) —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Okay, kind of a cheesy way to get "post" in there, but the "goodbye" theme isn't bad. Comment below, okay? I'd love to hear from you. See you tomorrow? Ingat, everyone.   ;-) P.S.  For old times' sake, here's one from my ol' poem-a-day writing buddy Catherine Childress Pritchard. Remember her NaPoWriMo daily poems on this blog last year? Catherine's doing the poem-a-day challenge this month also. Here's the poem she wrote today for Day Six. Laundry My clothes line is not awash with angels like Wilbur imagined in blouses and smocks but blanketed with the bold blocks of a quilt cleansed from the impurities of dog hair, child’s vomit, spilled juice, chicken pox scabs— motherhood’s filth, tied and self-bound. —Draft by Catherine Childress Pritchard    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Wow, Catherine, that's a heck of a closer . . . "tied and self-bound" of course refers to the quilt, but it also, more importantly, reverberates with these particular details into an arresting comment on the self — everyone's selves — and parenthood. Thanks for letting me post that. We at the North American Review were very proud this week to host Catherine's "Next Big Thing" interview on the NAR Blog. Check it out, friends. And, as always, comment below, please. Thanks! Ingat. POEM-A-DAY 2013 • Pick a day in April: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30