Day 13 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2024

Continuing to quote fun blog intros, here's one from Day 13 of 2013 . . . double 13! As I'm certain you're aware, some people consider 13 an unlucky number. "Friday the 13th" is thought by many a particularly unlucky combination of day and date. In my hometown of San Francisco, there is no 13th Avenue; between 12th and 14th Avenues lies Funston Avenue. Some buildings around the US have no 13th floor, a fact that led to the name of one of the early psychedelic bands, The 13th Floor Elevators, who had a hit song titled "You're Gonna Miss Me" in 1966, one of my favorite rock songs ever. Not many people know the song features the jug as an instrument, the electric jug. Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: “[W]rite a living poem. What makes a living poem may be different for everyone. Some people may like to live it up, while others may focus solely on being alive.” Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: "[O]ur optional prompt for the day asks you to play with rhyme. Start by creating a “word bank” of ten simple words. They should only have one or two syllables apiece. Five should correspond to each of the five senses (i.e., one word that is a thing you can see, one word that is a type of sound, one word that is a thing you can taste, etc). Three more should be concrete nouns of whatever character you choose (i.e., 'bridge,' 'sun,' 'airplane,' 'cat'), and the last two should be verbs. Now, come up with rhymes for each of your ten words. .&nbsp.&nbsp. Use your expanded word-bank, with rhymes, as the seeds for your poem. Your effort doesn’t actually have to rhyme in the sense of having each line end with a rhymed word, but try to use as much soundplay in your poem as possible." Here's my word bank. Each category below shows the initial words I chose in the first line and the corresponding rhyme words in the second line. Sense   Verbs   Nouns moon strewn flame came fly why thunder wonder wings things roar more musk brusque scales fails salt fault bark spark The character I was thinking of was a dragon, and that influenced some of the word choices. Okay, today's poem is again a curtal sonnet (abcabc dbcdc, with 10 syllables per line). I was able to use 11 words from the 20 words in the word bank. This poem merges both prompts, as usual. Dragon Flight Under the salt moon, I fly up, feather- light and musk-scented. Thunder is a brusque intruder in my reverie. My wings pivot me into lightning, the ether blazing across the wingtips, electric flame in my wake, fiery spitballs spinning. The sky strewn with pebbled clouds, rough tree bark wind buffeting my scales, glowing coals like gold-vermilion blossoms. I roar loud, sing arias into brisk air, bright blue sparks.                                       Ain’t this some living? —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] "Dragon Flight 1" by Vince Gotera I used to have a phone that had this great drawing app in it. I've forgotten the name of the app. Anyway, I often made these little drawings, frequently of dragons. Here's another one of a dragon flying. "Dragon Flight 2" by Vince Gotera Yesterday, I featured my daughter Amelia's art, and today we have a couple of mine. Incidentally, I've written two poems about flying on two consecutive days. I seem to do that fairly often. My ex-wife Mary Ann is a lucid dreamer and can fly in her dreams at will. She trained herself to do that with dream journals. I hope to learn that sometime! Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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