Day 17 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2016

Day 17. Today we have a week's worth of prime numbers: 17 is the seventh prime number since the top of the month. Robert Lee Brewer's PAD prompt: "Today is International Haiku Poetry Day! . . . For today’s prompt, write a haiku. Simple as that. Or well, if you’d prefer, write a poem about haiku; I’ve done this before. So that’s an option too; or write about poetic forms in general." Maureen Thorson's NaPoWriMo prompt: "Today, I challenge you to find, either on your shelves or online, a specialized dictionary. This could be, for example, a dictionary of nautical terms, or woodworking terms, or geology terms. Anything, really, so long as it’s not a standard dictionary! Now write a poem that incorporates at least ten words from your specialized source. Happy writing!" À la Thorson, I'm using ten technical terms in poetic craft, such as haiku and lineation. À la Brewer, I've made my poem out of six linked haiku stanzas: not discrete haiku but rather haiku-shaped bottles, the old-fashioned 5-7-5 syllabic pattern. Technically Speaking A haiku’s a room filled with meter, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, those high-falutin tricks like consonance, assonance, endstopped or enjambed lineation. Right? No. Not just. Also laughing and crying, screaming. Blue and lead-gray skies. Dead loved ones, foes, friends, strangers. Zebras, hummingbirds, feathered pterosaurs. Vermillion, periwinkle, and snot-filled puke green. Not always pretty but real. Damn right real. Open eyes and hands. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] "Forgive me, friends," Alan says, "today I have been recovering from many trips within these past few weeks, taking care of being home and spending time with family, avoiding the crunch of work responsibility to come tomorrow. I have been weighing friendships in transition, feeling empathy for mourning friends and unmoored friends who shift from drifting to propelling themselves, and looking forward to spending time with loved ones I have not seen for a long time. So, when a prompt called for a specialty dictionary, today I had no real interest in going to my workplace to look at one and decided to write some related haiku instead, inspired by my first mowing of the year. It started bad today with malfunctioning mowers and malfunctioning me, but it wound up putting me by myself, letting me work to a satisfactory, sore fatigue, and permitting my mind to range a while. I will be more diligent tomorrow, but I am having a hard time getting Jason Isbell's song 'Children of Children' out of my mind, figuring out how a small band might play it, and waiting for this rough semester to end." Late April 2016 My first mow of spring I leave the anemones for the honeybees. Standing tall, sweetbriar offers waxy yellow blooms soft to cautious touch. Two weeks past Easter, defiant testimony of late dogwood blooms while no pink petals remain on the Judas trees green in my back lot, I watch black locust dense as old cast pig iron blocks bud white. They smell sweet. —Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Bravo, Alan! Real haiku, unlike my haiku-shaped stanzas! April is the haiku-est month. Jed says, about his poem today, "Every line has at least one term from the glossary of Derivatives Markets, 3rd ed., by Robert L. McDonald. I repeated Greeks and Vanilla a few times, for narrative purposes, but otherwise used terms only once." Narrative haiku! Specialized Words There’s a warrant out. Vanilla used a strangle, Charged a dirty price. The Greeks admired The forward curve of her spine. Law of one price, though… Call protection please. You may be in-the-money, My dear Vanilla. You’ll get a haircut If the Greeks ever catch you; Over the barrel If they collar you. The Greeks volatility… You’ve got real options. No lookback option. But a Bermuda option. Take a random walk. Make a purchased call. Absolute priority. I’ll go spread the word; Tell the Greeks you took The European option. Pay me a Troy ounce. I’ll be repricing If I don’t get settlement. Don’t make me wait long. —Draft by Jedediah Kurth    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Ven says, "I put all my specialized terms in the title because I'm sneaky and lazy." Be that as it may, it's a very smart strategy. It keeps these many-syllabled words from taking up room in his haiku. Animalia Chordata Aves Neornithes Neognathae Neoaves Passeriformes Passeri Corvoidea Corvus Brachyrhynchos Black wings fluttering over a roadkill buffet — a murder of crows. —Draft by Ven Batista    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] And here's an array of related haiku from Sarah. Haiku on the Modern Social Justice Warrior You see my skin — white. History seen in color is your obsession. You rant without end; intellectual godhood so misdirected. Research is nice but nationally acknowledged words are not action. I see you — human. I weep for your mistaken take on oppression. —Draft by Sarah Smith    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Wonderful haiku today, everyone. Happy International Haiku Poetry Day! Friends, won't you comment, please? Love to know what you're thinking. To comment, look for a red line below that starts Posted by, then click once on the word comments in that line. If you don't find the word "comments" in that line, then look for a blue link below that says Post a comment and click it once. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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