Saturday, April 6, 2013

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

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