The final day of NaPoWriMo/Poem-a-Day. I'm going to display NaPoWriMo's blog button (at right). I've been doing NaPoWriMo for years and have never done that.
Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: "And finally, our final prompt — at least until next year! Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about something that happens again and again (kind of like NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo). It could be the setting of the sun, or your Aunt Georgia telling the same story at Thanksgiving every single year. It could be the swallows returning to Capistrano or how, without fail, you will lock your keys in the car whenever you go to the beach."
Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: "For today’s prompt, take the phrase 'The (blank),' replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: 'The Poets,' 'The Good Guys,' 'The Bad Guys,' 'The Last Thing She Said,' and so on."
Okay, here we go . . . merging the prompts one more time.
The Thirty Days
Again, April's 30 days are over.
So fast they swing by, like the poems themselves.
Challenge accepted and done: NaPoWriMo.
Thirty poems richer. Writing stronger.
This time, unlike every other year, I resolve
to keep writing a poem a day. And so
here we go. Poem and poem and poem,
I hope. Let's bring more poems home and home.
—Draft by Vince Gotera [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
For the first time, I was successful this month in merging all the prompts each day, Maureen's and Robert's both. Even the two-for-Tuesday ones (which meant I'd have three prompts to mash up on those days). I even got a couple of installments of my aswang novella-in-poems done. Maybe that narrative should be my continuing poem-a-day project.
Here is Alan's intro to his poem today: "This has been a difficult month for writing poetry, because April always proves to be one of the most difficult months of the academic year, with all the grading, all the events, and all the restlessness. I confess relief to have made it to the end of another NaPoWriMo. I think I have a handful of salvagable pieces (probably 'Bottleassin'' as the likely next candidate for revision). Good luck to everyone who created something this month!"
The Patdown
Watch the men in my family when they stand,
watch how they brush their hands along the sides of their thighs,
watch how they move their hands behind them,
watch how they hook their thumbs in their back pockets,
how they pat themselves down to assure
their pockets hold what they should hold,
their handkerchiefs and billfolds,
their pocketknives and wads of keys,
the older men, their pocket combs,
the younger men, their new cel phones,
their pockets carrying their lives,
their contact with the world,
their financial well-being,
their whittling ingenuity,
where every key is a responsibility,
how each has his own preference,
a wallet in a front pocket,
a carabiner for a keyring,
a rabbit’s foot,
everything to be checked
for assurance
that nothing has gapped
that nothing has dropped
that nothing has slipped
out, fallen between cushions,
been loaned,
been lost,
but rests where we have put it,
even the guitar picks in my watch pocket.
—Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
Wonderful poem, as always, Alan. Congratulations to you on completing NaPoWriMo. Congratulations to both of us!
Thanks, Maureen. Thanks, Robert. See you again next April: the cruelest month and the joyfullest too.
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Ingat, everyone. ヅ |
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