Day Four ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2014

Day Four ... tootin' my own horn: I am today's Poem-a-Day guest judge at Robert Lee Brewer's Poetic Asides. Take a peek at today's blog post ... my picture's there! Actually, here it is . . . see me there in selfie mode?   ヅ   Note: you can click on the image to view it larger. Sorry I'm so excited about this. Doesn't happen every day. Okay, let's get down to the Day Four business. The NaPoWriMo suggestion today is the lune, "a sort of English-language variation on the haiku, meant to better render the tone of the Japanese haiku than the standard 5-7-5 format we all learned (and maybe loved) in elementary school." Maureen continues, "[L]et’s try the version developed by Jack Collum. His version of the lune involves a three-line stanza. The first line has three words. The second line has five, and the third line has three." The Poetic Asides prompt today is a "Since (blank)" poem. "[T]ake the phrase 'Since (blank),' replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem." Thanks, Robert. So ... mashup: a "since (blank)" lune. Here we go! Since a New Spring for Kathy Soft silvery rainshowers. The earth, reawakened, young again, blooms magenta, laughing. Pearly lovebirds sing into periwinkle or indigo skies, delicate blue cantatas. Purring albino tigers gently lie down and nestle with gossamer dragons. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] And now to my poeming buddy. Alan sets up for his Day Four poem: "I'm still wrestling with that prompt suggesting that we take a mythic figure outside the Greco-Roman tradition and place him/her in a contemporary setting. Given the heavy influence of Warner Brothers cartoons on my youth, it was easy later to see that Coyote myths suit me pretty well. Let's note, as they say, that this is a work of poetic license. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental." Coyote Hacks into the Email Account of the President of Minderbinder University Coyote, adjunct, teaching comp, distressed, his hours cut because the upper ad, afraid the ACA would make the university provide what health care law requires, sat in a funk. “Who are these men?” he asked, his elbows propped upon shared desk, his chin in palms. He thought to look them up; he logged into the Internet; he found the president. “Computer, little brother, friend,” he coaxed, “what is his word?” The screen began to blink, and soon it showed symbolic string. “So let us read his mail,” he said; He pressed the proper keys and found out Instagram and Tumblr, posted cats and meals, decided then Facebook could use some spicing up, and settled back to email notes regarding budgets. “Well,” he spoke, “I’ve come too far to quit.” He wrote the provost, made pronouncements, hiring policies, priorities in cuts throughout administration, filed a resignation, sent it with some wistfulness. “Oh my,” he said, and logging off, he worked in wait the world would wake. —Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes     [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Holy Acme, Batman! "Coyote, adjunct, teaching comp, / distressed" . . . been there, done that. Aristotelian catharsis here: I literally LOL'd when Coyote started to make policy in his electronic guise as the president, and then resigned. (Had the president resign, that is.) Also, not just Wile E. Coyote but the Native American trickster Coyote as well. Ow-ow-owoooo! Excellent poem, Alan. Okay, lots to respond to today, folks. Won't you comment below, please? Look for a blue link below that says "Post a comment"; if you don't see that, look in the red line that starts "Posted by" and click on the word "comments." See you tomorrow? Ingat, everyone.   ヅ

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