Monday, April 22, 2024

Day 22 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2024


Seems like 2013 was a good year for April blog intros. Here's the one for 22 April 2013:
Day 22. What comes to mind immediately is the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller; in our everyday language we use the slang "catch-22" to describe a problem that can't be solved because the problem itself prohibits a resolution. A no-win. Kobayashi Maru. And there's also the .22 caliber rifle so often mentioned in literature because it's a well-known weapon. Lots more 22-related trivia, but let's get to the poetry.

Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “[W]rite a poem in which two things have a fight. Two very unlikely things, if you can manage it. Like, maybe a comb and a spatula. Or a daffodil and a bag of potato chips. Or perhaps your two things could be linked somehow – like a rock and a hard place – and be utterly sick of being so joined. The possibilities are endless!”

Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: “[W]rite an earth poem. The poem can be about nature or the planet. But it can also be about anything or anyone on the planet. Or dirt (aka, earth); feel encouraged to write a poem about dirt. Or earthlings!”


Today, I give you a tanka — a poetic form from Japan that, traditionally, has 5 lines of 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7 syllables. Working with both prompts, as usual. I just wondered how dirt, if it could talk, would feel about the earthworm. Happy Earth Day, everyone!

Dirt Speaks of the Earthworm

So tired of always
passing through this fleshy tube:
in at the mouth, then
out . . . well, you know. Given time,
this worm would eat the whole earth!

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


On another note, non-earthy, I just wanted to tell you about the second annual Poetry Palooza festival in Des Moines this weekend (Friday and Saturday). It was such a wonderful event, with a poetry slam; workshops; a panel of expert poets discussing eco-poetry; a release reading for "The Cities in the Plains" (an anthology of Iowa poems and art); and poetry readings by Traci Brimwall, Paul Brooke, Camille T. Dungy, Jennifer L. Knox, Debra Marquart, and Caleb Rainey. I read some of my poems too (pics below). It was my first official event as Poet Laureate of Iowa. Looking forward to next April when I will be a featured poet at this event. See you next year!

 

Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks!

Ingat, everyone.   


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1 comment:

Bruce Niedt said...

Sounds like it was a great festival! Love that tanka. I think you'll like mine today too, with a sci-fi theme. I used a lot of allusions per another prompt that I employed, and had a lot of fun with it.




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