Day 14 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2024

Once again, an intro from before — Day 14, 2014 — double 14 today, like our double 13 yesterday! Day 14. A fortnight in. I've always found it interesting that "fortnight" and "fourteen" share the same opening sounds. Is there a connection there, do you think? A shared root sometime in the past, perhaps. And now, today's prompts. Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “[W]rite a poem of at least ten lines in which each line begins with the same word (e.g., 'Because,' 'Forget,' 'Not,' 'If'). This technique of beginning multiple lines with the same word or phrase is called anaphora, and has long been used to give poems a driving rhythm and/or a sense of puzzlebox mystery. ” Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: “[W]rite an ekphrastic poem. An ekphrastic poem is a poem inspired by a piece of art, whether that's a painting, a sculpture, mixed media, or something beyond all that.” Most ekphrastic poems you'll see are connected to visual art, but they can also involve other arts; poet Maggie Queeney says ekphrastic poems can also "describe durational art that engages multiple senses, such as plays, videos, music, or installation art" ("Across Genres"). The other day, I wrote an ekphrastic tall tale using an art piece by my daughter Amelia Blue Gotera. Since one of today's prompts calls for an ekphrastic poem, I'm going to do it again with her sculpture "If You Build It" (2022). This was on exhibit in Cedar Falls's Main Street for a year. I'll start off today with a photo of the sculpture that will be my model. From this angle, I almost see a dog sitting, though of course the sculpture is not representational. Once again, a curtal sonnet (abcabc dbcdc, with 10 syllable lines). Amelia Blue Gotera, "If You Build It" (2022) After Amelia’s Sculpture Yellow sculpture, welded aluminum. Yellows — glitzy goldenrod, daffodil. Yellow, the gleaming glory of our sun. Yellow dog, sitting quietly, so calm. YOLO — you only live once — seek a thrill. Jello, island pineapple and lemon. Yelo — Philippine ice — for desserts like Halo-halo, tropical fruits and gels. Cielo, the sun’s blue sky kingdom, heaven. Yellow — vibrant dynamo, electric.                                   Voila, Mia’s bright fun. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Well, that was a blast. To satisfy the anaphora prompt, I started each line with "yellow" or a sound-alike word, even the ending "voila" which, admittedly, is quite distant but nevertheless an echo. Here are a couple more photos of the sculpture, first, with Amelia, and then second, at night. Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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