Day 30 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2024

Well, last day. Let's end with the Day 30 blog intro from that great year 2013: Day 30. One of the hallmarks of my "teenagehood" was the slogan of the youth movement of the '60s: "Don't trust anyone over 30." This turned out to be a severe irony of youth because all those people eventually turned 30 (who'll you trust then, Mac) and surely most of them are now double 30. Mick Jagger, for example, will be turning 70 soon. Who'd a-thunk it? He's still doing live performances with the Rolling Stones but now keeps a tank of oxygen just offstage so he can keep up his energetic on-stage persona. Good ol' Mick, now 80, still performing with the Stones. Probably still got that tank of oxygen handy! And now the last April poetry prompts for this year. Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo suggestion: “Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem in which the speaker is identified with, or compared to, a character from myth or legend, as in Claire Scott’s poem ‘Scheherazade at the Doctor’s Office.’” Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day suggestion: “For today's Two-for-Tuesday prompt: 1) Write a The End poem, and/or . . . 2) Write a Beginning poem. After all, endings are just opportunities for new beginnings, and beginnings tend to be the first step on the path to future endings (and so the cycle repeats).” Today, I'm writing a terza rima haiku sonnet to finish off a poem I've been working on for some weeks. My next book of poetry will be titled Dragons and Rayguns, and I have been trying to write a definitive raygun poem for that collection. Today's poem is the third section of "Time Lord Thief," which imagines a Gallifreyan cat burglar of rayguns, wily as Doctor Who, but not the Doctor himself. This poem merges the three prompts: the speaker likens himself to Loki, the Norse god of thieves, the poem tells of the beginning of the character's interest in rayguns, and then the speakers brags of his current thieving skills, his end of sorts. The form terza rima haiku sonnet is composed of four haiku-shaped 5-7-5-syllable stanzas rounded out by a 7-7 couplet, rhymed in interlocked terza rima: aba bcb cdc ded ee. I invented this form in the late 1970s and have written quite a few here during these April games. Time Lord Thief       1. I’ve had an interest in rayguns since I was five, when I saw my first. Father shot a live bird dead, right between the eyes. A needle hole gave the lone hint of why the bird had died. I was hooked. Some years later, I began to collect rayguns, from the famous and infamous. Intrigued by how anyone could end a life so quick, on command.       2. I tried to visit many warriors and spacemen’s chronotopes — planets and ships — for a chance to steal their weapons. Phasers hijacked from Captains Kirk, Picard. Blasters from Han Solo, Chewbacca. And Marvin of Mars — his trusty Acme pistol. Paralyzer gun made by Doc Zarkov for Flash Gordon (once Tarzan). My TARDIS filled with rayguns.       3. Friends, my life has stood — a loaded raygun, fully charged and ready, good for battle, truly primed. On Earth I’m like Loki the Trickster, wooly, wild, ghostlike, smoky. I drift like the breeze; you won’t see me, way low key. That’s how I’ve purloined these celebrity rayguns, magicked and siphoned in mystical elegance. I’m gone. And so’s your raygun. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Space Pilot X Ray Gun made by Taiyo (1970s) I had toy rayguns similar to this when I was a kid. Well, friends, there we go. Thirty days, thirty poems. Thanks for reading this month. See you next April! Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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Day 29 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2024

Fun stuff for Day 29 in the blog intro for 29 April 2015: Day Twenty-Nine. Looking online for something to say about the number 29, I found these interesting facts: According to USA Today, 29% of married couples share a toothbrush. It would take 29 million years for a car traveling 100 miles per hour to reach the nearest star. And April 29 — today — is International Dance Day! I like that second factoid. That's a lot of gas stations or charging stations! Oh, also, my poem that day was pretty funny . . . click here. Okay, on to today's prompts. Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day suggestion: “For today's prompt, take the phrase ‘Until (blank),’ replace the blank with a new word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles might include: ‘Until the End of Time,’ ‘Until the Cows Come Home,’ ‘Until I Finish This Poem,’ and/or ‘Until You Get Your Chores Done.’” Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “If you’ve been paying attention to pop-music news over the past couple of weeks, you may know that Taylor Swift has released a new double album titled “The Tortured Poets Department.” In recognition of this occasion, Merriam-Webster put together a list of ten words from Taylor Swift songs. We hope you don’t find this too torturous yourself, but we’d like to challenge you to select one these words, and write a poem that uses the word as its title.” Okay, I cheated. I used all 10 words with “until ____,” but not as a title. Sorry if I'm sending you to the dictionary or google. Also, I suppose if there's a poetic form here, well, maybe a poetic device, it's anaphora (see Day 14). Until Taylor until albatross until antithetical until altruism until cardigan until clandestine until elegy until incandescent until Macchiavellian until mercurial until self-effacing all become just banal bromides mainstream chestnuts humdrum commonplaces we'll just listen harken lend an ear to tortured poets —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] To end, here's a fun(ny) article: "Man Named Taylor Swift ..." Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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Day 28 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2024

Let's get right to the poetry prompts today. Day 28 means 3 days to go, counting this one. Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo suggestion: “[O]ur optional prompt for the day asks you to try your hand at writing a sijo. This is a traditional Korean verse form. A sijo has three lines of 14-16 syllables. The first line introduces the poem’s theme, the second discusses it, and the third line, which is divided into two sentences or clauses, ends the poem – usually with some kind of twist or surprise.” Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: “[W]rite a dead poem. Back on day 13, we wrote living poems. Now, we're going to inspect the other side of that coin. A dead poem could take place at a funeral, or involve a wilting flower that's already been picked. Or it could involve the undead (like zombies and vampires). Or maybe a dead language, a dead culture, or as some people like to say, they're just ‘dead inside.’” Today I'm merging the prompts by writing a sijo on the TV show The Walking Dead. Note: there may be spoilers for you in the poem if you haven't watched the spinoff The Ones Who Live. The Future of The Walking Dead CW: spoilers from The Ones Who Live Well, Rick and Michonne finally got together again. Then, Daryl and Carol, their reunion is in the wings. So, will Walking Dead ever end? No, looks like forever. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Rick and Michonne in The Walking Dead (Gene Page/AMC) TV Insider Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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Day 27 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2024

As faithful readers may know, this month I've been quoting blog intros from 2013. Well, here's one from 2015: Day Twenty-Seven. As a child, I found 27 enchanting, as I said about 24 recently. The number 27 is equal to 9 x 3, and the digits 2 and 7 in 27 add up to the 9 that's a factor of 27. I'm sure there's something about the number 9 and base 10 that makes 9 so interesting: 9 x 2 = 18 and the digits 1 and 8 add up to 9; 9 x 4 = 36 and the digits 3 and 6 add up to 9; 9 x 859,472 = 7,735,248 and the digits 7, 7, 3, 5, 2, 4, and 8 add up to 36, and then the digits 3 and 6 add up to 9. So 27 is not alone in that adding-up-to-9 thing. I'm sure a mathematician could explain those cool 9-effects clearly. To me it's all glorious mathematical magic. Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “Today we’d like to challenge you to write an 'American sonnet.' What’s that? Well, it’s like a regular sonnet but . . . fewer rules? Like a traditional Spencerian or Shakespearean sonnet, an American sonnet is shortish (generally 14 lines, but not necessarily!), discursive, and tends to end with a bang, but there’s no need to have a rhyme scheme or even a specific meter.” Maureen provides three examples and also an instructional link. Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: “[W]rite a remix poem. Just remix one of your poems. It could be from earlier in this month or even from before this challenge. But take one of your already existing poems and remix it. If it's a sonnet, make it free verse. If it's free verse, try turning it into a triolet or villanelle.” I decided to remix my poem from Day 10, which was on seeing the recent total solar eclipse. That poem was a curtal sonnet and I remixed it into an American sonnet, though I gotta say, I'm not a big believer in the American sonnet, since it's unrhymed . . . to me, rhyming is the heart of the sonnet. However, my curtal sonnet on Day 10 had not been enough space to fit in everything I wanted to say. So, anyway, here we go. Seeing the Total Solar Eclipse For weeks, Renee and I had been talking about driving eight hours to the zone of totality that came closest to us in southeast Missouri. She kept saying we would be able to see a partial eclipse here in Cedar Falls (about 90%). I insisted though, so off we went the day before, sleeping over in St. Louis. We left early the next day, four hours before the total eclipse. The timing was fortunate, because it took over three hours to get through the last 100 miles. Bumper to bumper on the freeway. I thought we wouldn’t make it to the zone in time. We ended up viewing the eclipse in a cemetery in Cape Girardeau. There were cars everywhere. The eclipse was incredibly beautiful. Just a fantabulous ring of light around the dark moon. Truly magical, glorious. Now we’re talking about trekking to Iceland for the 2026 eclipse! —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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Day 26 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2024

One more time . . . a blog intro from 2013: Day 26. Two baker's dozens. 26 is also half a deck of cards, meaning there are 26 red cards and 26 black cards. Finally, as I'm sure we all know, 26 is the "number of spacetime dimensions in bosonic string theory" (Wikipedia). Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “And now for our (optional) prompt. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem that involves alliteration, consonance, and assonance. Alliteration is the repetition of a particular consonant sound at the beginning of multiple words. Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds elsewhere in multiple words, and assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds. Traci Brimhall’s poem 'A Group of Moths' provides a great example of these poetic devices at work, with each line playing with different sounds that seem to move the poem along on a sonorous wave.” Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day suggestion: “For today's prompt, write a persona poem. A persona poem is just a poem narrated in the voice of a persona who is not yourself.” Robert's demo poem today is titled "An Abandoned Payphone Beside an Abandoned Gas Station" and I imagined my cellphone talking to that abandoned payphone. (Read his demo poem here, lower on the page.) Once again, today's poem is a curtal sonnet (rhymed abcabc dbcdc) in ten-syllable lines, ending with the required half-line. My Cellphone Speaks with the Abandoned Payphone Beside an Abandoned Gas Station I see you, brother phone, in your old booth on this rubbled street, so undignified. You’ve seen better days, full of silver coins in your slot, on this posh strip of your youth, where stylish skaters and bikers would ride all night. Scruffy panhandlers used to join the glittery parade, “Spare change? Spare change?” Now, your nights are just dark, no glitz, no glide, no folks pushing your numbers. I enjoin you, old timer, free yourself. Go long range!                                   Fly off to cloud nine! —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] I use the sound devices Maureen suggests. Alliteration: glitz / glide. Assonance: brother / rubbled (short u and schwa). Consonance: brother / booth (b and th). There's more. See what you can find and tell me in a comment below? Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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