Friday, April 7, 2017

Day Seven ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2017


Day Seven. The proverbial day of rest . . . sure, take the day off. Tell 'em I said it was okay.

Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: "Write a discovery poem."

Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: "Write a poem about luck and fortuitousness."

As you may know about my writing, it sometimes takes me a while to get going in a poem. There's a kind of bubbling that can only build slowly in one of mine, it seems. Which is why I often write sonnets, I think. They're just big enough to encompass that initial simmer but small enough that I have to get to the point pretty soon. So I wondered today how small I could write. For the purpose I decided to go with a single lune. Specifically the lune invented by Jack Collom: 3 words, 5 words, 3 words.

A Yes

Found a quarter
On the sidewalk:
 
 
shining reminder 
Godsends do happen.

—Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]

Not bad. Incidentally, checking syllables just for fun, pretty close to the traditional haiku 5-7-5: my little poem here is 4-9-5, one syllable more overall. Notice, by the way, I shied away from that other lune, the Robert Kelly one: 5-3-5 syllables. Quite a challenge, claustrophobically small.

Okay, on to the good Doctor Holmes's poem. Again Alan gives us an intro:

"I have blended Robert Lee Brewer's discovery notion with Maureen Thorson's consideration of luck. I also thought, given that Thorson has offered the luck prompt in honor of its being the seventh of April, that I would work with the Welsh form of Englyn Milwer, a stanza of three lines with seven syllables for each line; the three lines of each stanza must rhyme. I managed some internal rhymes as well. It's not the most profound piece, but it was a fun exercise and a good excuse for a new draft."

Windfall

In East Tennessee I spot
the superstition-bred lot
by coins nobody forgot

but left on purpose instead
because they have landed head
down. I find them striated,

scraped, and burred. When I empty
my pockets for bed, I see
my milkjug store rise a wee

bit more. Their bad luck spends well
as money, not a means to tell
hoped-for Heaven, feared-of Hell.

—Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]

Fascinating that Alan and I both came up with coins when envisioning the confluence of discovery and luck. People often think of the coin flip — heads or tails — as the decider of fortune, don't they? Fifty-fifty . . . could go either way. And that that coin, that instrument, has monetary value only adds to the mystique.


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.   


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