Hello, friends! My poem today is #91 in this year's Stafford Challenge (and #456, including my poems in last year's Stafford Challenge).
Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “For today’s challenge, write a poem in which you respond to a favorite poem by another poet.”
Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day suggestion: “For today's prompt, write an ambiguity poem.”
The favorite poem I'm using is "Soldier's Dream" by Wilfred Owen. I'm employing the same form as he did, two envelope quatrains in pentameter, like the opening octave of a Petrarchan sonnet. As usual, I'm combining the prompts, though my ambiguity aspect is reversed. The title is a famous phrase from Owen, from his poem "Strange Meeting."
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The Pity of War
Wilfred Owen wrote about a dream
Where “kind Jesus fouled” the machines of war,
But God sent Archangel Michael to repair
The weapons. And so, war still on — obscene.
About today’s war in Iran: is it Jesus
Or Archangel Michael who is now in charge?
It’s eminently clear who’s on the march.
Friends, it’s not at all ambiguous.
—Draft by Vince Gotera [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
Today, Alan is also working with both prompts — the favorite poem he's responding to is "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman..
Song of Trumpself
I celebrate myself and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to you as good belongs to me.
I golf, years without a soul,
I’m lean and lithe in my eyes, chipping balls from the
rough of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, the best of blood,
my blood,
Much better than the Deutsche of my father, the servant
Scot class of my mother, the diluted of my children
(especially the one by the Bulldog dropout),
I, now nearing eighty years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping not to leave office or to die.
Creeds and schools in abeyance.
Retiring back a while suffered from what they were,
I have now forgotten,
I charge harbor fees, grant permits, overlook every
hazard;
Nature is undeveloped real estate, nothing more.
—Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
Nicely done, Alan. Well-rendered voice here.
Thanks for swinging by today. See you again tomorrow!
Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks!
Ingat, everyone. ヅ |
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