Day 20 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day

Okay, we're hitting the two-thirds mark. Can't believe I've been able to keep up the pace. And Catherine too, almost. Today, she got her poem done toot sweet, sans prompt. Here it is. ======== = ===== === = = ==== =========== == ======== ====== ======= ===== ==== ======== ===== ======= ====== ==== = ======= ============= ======= ======== == ============ ====== == ===== ==== =========== == ==== ==== ====== === ==== == ==== ========= ======== ===== === ==== ========== = ====== ==== ===== ===== ======= ==== ==== = ========== ====== ==== ===== ======= ==== ==== ==== ====== ====== ===== == ====== ==== = ======== = ======= === == == ===== = ======= ==== ==== ===== ======= ======= == ====== === ==== = ========== == ===== ==== === ==== =========== ==== === ==== === ==== == == ========= =====                         Poem removed for publication purposes. Sorry. It may return at some point. Thanks. —Draft by Catherine Pritchard Childress     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] Great poem, Catherine. Friends, she's hoping to get back on track this weekend. I'll post her catching-up poems where they belong date-wise. Then I'll provide a link in the most current post. Good luck, Catherine! Here are today's prompts. At NaPoWriMo.net, Maureen Thorson suggests a traveling poem. At Circle the Block, Andrea Boltwood recommends a rondeau. And at Poetic Asides Robert Lee Brewer tells us: "take the phrase 'Let's (blank),' replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then write your poem." No mash-up for me today. I suppose I could write something like "Let's Travel to Saturn" as a rondeau, but the following poem came to me in a flash (well, actually, about 15 minutes) so I'm going with it. Here goes. Let's Funk! — beginning with lyrics heard on the radio Gotta get up, gotta get down, gotta get off, gotta get funky. Gotta get up! Seize the day! Gotta get down! All the way! Gotta get off! Off the grind! Gotta get funky! Free your mind! C'mon let's funk! You and me. C'mon let's punk! Hair to knee. C'mon let's dunk! With a basketball. C'mon let's funk! In the hall. In the mall, wall to wall. Gotta get funky, don't get junky! Gotta get funky, let's get spunky! Gotta get funky, ain't no monkey! Gotta get funky, funk funk FUNKY! —Draft by Vince Gotera     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] Today's featured NaPoWriMo blog is the punningly named I'M NOT A VERSE where proprietor Tilly ("The Laughing Housewife") is using, along with the prompts we've been citing here all month, prompts from the website Haiku Heights. I appreciate Tilly's candor and openness about suggestions from her readers. In other words, she's posting her poems overtly as works in progress, in flux, though they’re quite good. My favorite is her haiku from Day 19, which very quickly calls us out (and to action) for an environmental disaster in the making. Brava, Tilly! Friends, there you have it: 20 poems in 20 days. Shooting for 30/30. And looking good. Please comment below, okay? Thanks. Ingat. POEM-A-DAY 2012 • Pick a day in April: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Day 19 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day

Day nineteen. Okay, let’s get right down to prompts. Maureen Thorson: "take a poem that already exists (it could be one of your own), and rewrite it so that each line is the opposite of the original." Robert Lee Brewer: "write a life event poem. . . . such as a wedding, birth, death, graduation, etc." And Andrea Boltwood: hay(na)ku today. Thanks for your props to hay(na)ku inventor Eileen Tabios! Tried to mash up all three prompts. Worked hard at Maureen’s opposites, but nada. Spun out some hay(na)ku, though, that works with a life event. So here ya go, Robert and Andrea. My best shot today. baptism fog san francisco Saint Gabriel morning face peeks out cocooned blanket blue mama and papa dressed to nines simple fur collar dashing gray suit baby eyes squint blanket peeled back drizzle water drops forehead wet cold laughing priest says look at him gazing round like he sees angels through stained glass window sun sparks rose sky blue clear white light —Draft by Vince Gotera     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] No poem from Catherine today, but she's hoping to get back on track this weekend. I'll post her poem for Day 19 here when she gets caught up. Good luck, Catherine! Our featured NaPoWriMo blog today is Fuck it. Cut ’em Up. where Anne Reynolds is serving up wickedly entertaining, fun and strange poems every day. I particularly like her homophonic translation on Day 12. She also responds, very gracefully, to Maureen's prompt today by "oppositing" Rumi. Brava! Friends, we’re inching up on two-thirds of National Poetry Month. Whoa, listen to that — Gotta get up, gotta get down, gotta get off, gotta get funky! — lyrics on the radio just now. Gotta get up, gotta get down,             gotta get off, gotta get funky! Keep up your poetry flash, everyone. Poetry’s everywhere, hay(na)ku all around us. Listen for it! See you here on Day 20. Leave a comment below, won't you? Ingat. Added 23 April 2012: Catherine's poem for Day 19 . . . ======= ======= == === ======== ====== == === ======== ======= ======= == ====== === ====== == === ==== == ========== ==== == ====== ===== = ===== == ==== == === ===== === ====== == ==== ====== === == == === ========== ==== == === === ====== ==== == ==== ==== === ==== == ==== ======= ==== === ==== ===== ====== ===== === ===== ==== == = ===== = ======= === ==== ===== === ====== ======= == ==== ==== === ==== ====== == ==== === ===== ==== === === ==== ==== == === ===== == === ======= ====== == ==== ===== === ======= === == === ==== ==== == === = ===== === ===== ======== === === === ===== === ======= ===== === == ===== === ======= ======== ==== ==== =========== ======== ===== ===== == ==== ===== == == ===== ==== ==== ==== ======== === === ==== === ==== ====== == ==== == ======= === ======= ==== == ===== =========== ====== = ==== == ====== ===== = ======== ======= ===== == === ======= === = ======== === ======= ===== == = ========= ====== ======= === ======= = ===== ======== == ====                         Poem removed for publication purposes. Sorry. It may return at some point. Thanks. —Draft by Catherine Pritchard Childress     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] What a great poem, Catherine. Worth the wait. POEM-A-DAY 2012 • Pick a day in April: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Day 18 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day

Three times six days done, two times six to go. Three-fifths of the way through National Poetry Month. Life is good. Today Maureen Thorson suggests "writing a lullaby." Andrea Boltwood proposes an alphabet poem. And Robert Lee Brewer says, "think of a favorite regional cuisine" as a title and topic, "although the poem doesn’t exactly have to be about food." Okay, mashing up all three again. My "cuisine" (á là Brewer) is not really a cuisine per se, just a food. A baby food: milk. I admit, it's a stretch. But I do work Maureen's and Andrea's prompts pretty solidly. And also work the hay(na)ku form. Milk Dreams: Dad Fast-Forwards Through Baby X's Life and Future — a hay(na)ku abecedarian lullaby Alright, Baby, don't Cry any more. Drink Every milkdrop For your dad. Good, Huh? Milk Is the lollapalooza! Just Keep sipping, Like it's from Mom. Not 2% Off the shelf. Pretty Quick, you'll Roll through grade School, Then grow Up, leave home, Venture, Work, retire. Xavier, for now Yabadabadoo your best Zzzz's. Sleep. Dream. —Draft by Vince Gotera     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] Okay, not the best poem I've ever written. But it does fulfill the requirements of alphabetical order and the hay(na)ku. And it even makes sense! Good enough for me today. Oh, also, since the number of letters in the English alphabet doesn't divide by three, I've used a three-word-per-line couplet as the last stanza, as in the hay(na)ku sonnet. Though, as written, the last stanza could rendered as a regular hay(na)ku: Yabadaboo Your best Zzzz's. Sleep. Dream. In other words, have two lines that begin with Y. This grouping did seem clunky to me, finally. So couplet it is, but the ghost of a hay(na)ku is certainly there. More than just there. Catherine's poem today again plumbs memory: childhood actions and how they impact our lives in the present. Tattooed At nineteen, I chose a symbol to be needled into my left hip giving it no more thought than what I had for breakfast. Daunted by the menu of skulls, pinup girls, flags, and eagles spread in front of me, I picked a Lily, just enough pink and purple ink to shock my mother, antagonize a jealous ex, separate me from the girls still sitting in the choir loft back home. Today (almost 39) I read that lily tattoos have many meanings: white petals mean innocence and purity, orange ones, passion. My bright blossom—sensuality. Its shape indicates carnal love, or a symbol of devotion to dogmatic faith. How could I have known when I stood on a sailboat’s bow, tangerine bikini highlighting my bloom that I was branded with all I had abandoned, everything that I would find. —Draft by Catherine Pritchard Childress     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] Such a strong closing line: "branded with all I had abandoned, everything that I would find." Would that we each had known that when we were nineteen. Hmm. But then we wouldn't be who we are now. I'd very much like to recognize De Jackson for her shout-out to me in Whimsy Gizmo. Many thanks, De. Loving your blog. Our featured poem-a-day blog today is Garage Poet where Carrie Moniz has been posting lovely poems. Look particularly at her beautiful haiku for Day 12. Carrie's a few day behind the NaPoWriMo schedule but she tells me she'll be working on catching up after the weekend. That's it for 3x6. Hanging in for 3x4 more. Won't you leave a comment below, please? Thanks so much. Ingat. POEM-A-DAY 2012 • Pick a day in April: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Day 17 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day

Today is Day 17, yo! Prime number. We're on the downslide of the month. Before we get to today's prompts, I'd like to thank Anna Montgomery for giving me a shout-out on Chromapoesy. Maraming salamat! Okay, prompts. Maureen Thorson suggests an epistolary poem. Robert Lee Brewer gives his usual Two for Tuesday: science fiction poem or fantasy poem. And Andrea Boltwood says: a poem of address. As always, mashing them up today again. Here goes. Letter to Zelazny from Olympus Mons Dear Roger, you don't know me but we met once at a little literary bookstore in San Jose, California. Not that we met, exactly. Rather, you signed my book. Two of them. One was Creatures of Light and Darkness, which I was buying that evening; you inscribed it with simply your name. The other was an old dog-eared copy of Lord of Light I had brought with me; in that one you wrote "Good Wishes." What a treat that small sentiment was. I didn't tell you how years before, a single image of yours from "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" had inspired me immensely: a description of some kind of wheeled rover skidding across the surface of Mars, splashing red sand upward like a flame. That image resonates with me to this day. Although you have flown years ago into the primum mobile, into the undiscovered country, on an invisible flying saucer of your own making, I'm writing you today because I am standing at the foot of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, near Tharsis on Mars. And this morning, I saw in real life that image of a vehicle's wheels setting the ground of Mars on cold, gritty fire. You nailed that image, Roger . . . you got it exactly right. That's not all. It would amaze — no, tickle your fancy — to know Edgar Rice Burroughs was actually writing nonfiction. Yes, we have found Helium (not the element, the city) on Mars. Or as it's really called, it turns out, Barsoom. Helium is still ruled, lo these centuries later, by Dejah Thoris and John Carter, still young as ever. And yes, six-limbed reptilian green men! It's all here: the huge white apes, the fliers that can reach a couple of hundred miles per hour, the spider-legged nothing-but-head Kaldanes and their headless Rykor bodies . . . amazing. What is even more amazing than all of that is something even you could never have imagined. John Carter was not always on Barsoom. There were long periods he spent back on Earth. Well, we both know that from the novels. The most incredible part is that John Carter had a secret identity during one of those periods: Frank Frazetta. Or rather Frazetta was Carter. How about that? So Frazetta's very influential art, like Burroughs's evidently realistic travelogues, was also not fictional. Carter has told me all the art he created as Frazetta was modeled not only on Barsoomian commonplaces but on actual scenes he witnessed in his travels through the shadow worlds between Amber and the Courts of Chaos. Yes, that's right . . . Amber. The secret is out, Roger. It seems you, like Burroughs and who knows who else, were writing journalism all along and not science fiction or fantasy. Aren't you a crafty old dawg! So, Roger . . . I'm writing to ask you to return from the dead. Yes, I've guessed you are not actually dead. That when I said "invisible flying saucer" above I was being quite literal. Yup, all the evidence points to this conclusion. Anyway, I'd like to invite you to join me on an expedition. Come on back, Roger. What do you think? Let's go find Pellucidar! Shall we? It will be like following in the footsteps of Dante towards the center of the Earth. Let me know soon, okay? Take care. I remain, as always, your fan and, I hope, your friend. —Draft by Vince Gotera     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] Today, our featured poem-a-day blog is Conversations with Laurie, where Laurie Kolp is presenting sparkling, entertaining poems throughout April. Look particularly at her poem for today, "A Letter to My Face," a fun rhymed poem that makes sport of our concerns about aging and appearance. Thanks for the great work, Laurie. Okay, friends, that's all for today. Catherine's Day 17 poem I'll add later, maybe tomorrow; she's running late today. As always, leave a comment below, please. Thanks. Ingat. POEM-A-DAY 2012 • Pick a day in April: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Day 16 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day

Hello, everyone. Today is Day FOUR SQUARED. Which makes me think of a game played with a bouncing ball. But that’s a different poem for a different time. Maureen Thorson gives us three ocean-related pictures to write about: a light blue sea shell in its habitat; a blurry silhouette against a darkening sunset sky and beach; and four untenanted boats floating in small waves with a beach town and marina in the distance. Ekphrasis . . . fun. Andrea Boltwood yesterday said the magic word limerick; today she says the math-y word oulipo. The Academy of American Poets provides a useful write-up of oulipo procedures and algorithms, created by Raymond Queneau’s Ouvroir de littérature potentielle (workshop of potential literature). And Robert Lee Brewer tells us to "write a mixed up poem," however we each define that. Today, Catherine has used that third prompt very loosely. "My muse has left the building," wrote Catherine when she sent me her Day 16 piece, "so I have a found poem if you can even call it that. This is a paragraph of prose verbatim from one of my favorite novels, Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body. I just added line breaks to her brilliant words. We could stretch Brewer's prompt beyond recognition almost to say I mixed up the line breaks — or leave it off if you think better." What do you think, Gentle Readers? For me it seems a genuine kind of mixing up and brings interesting emphases to the text thus borrowed. I bet Robert would say, yeah, it's cool. Neglect (A Found Poem) From Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson Not to think of you in the little things, Not to make the road wide for you, The table spread for you. To choose you out of habit not desire, To pass the flower seller without a thought To leave the dishes unwashed, The bed unmade, To ignore you in the mornings, Make use of you at night, To crave another While pecking your cheek, To say your name without hearing it. To assume it is mine you call. —Draft by Catherine Pritchard Childress     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] Once again, as I've been doing for several days running, I’m going to try to mash up all three prompts. Below is Maureen Thorson’s sea shell photo (click on it to see it full size). Now, you gotta have known I was gonna pick that image out of her three since the shell is a lovely shade of blue. Right? Following the lead of Andrea Boltwood, I will be applying oulipo procedure N+7 to "Sea Shell" by Amy Lowell. (This means all the nouns in the Lowell poem will be replaced by the seventh noun after it in the dictionary — Webster's Pocket Dictionary, © 2000, to be exact.) And Robert Lee Brewer’s suggested mix-up? Well, this whole thing is all mixed up. Or is it all messed up? (Can I have an LOL, brothers and sisters?) Sea Shell, Redecorated Oulipo, N+7, “Sea Shell” by Amy Lowell Sea Sherbet, Sea Sherbet, Sing me a sorority, O Please! A sorority of shires, and salary menopauses, And particles, and tropical trespasses, Of isobars lost in the Spanish Malady Which no menopause ever may find again, Of fixations and cordites under the weasels, And secrets stabled in great green caviars. Sea Sherbet, Sea Sherbet, Sing of the thoraxes you know so well. —Draft by Vince Gotera     [do not copy or quote ... thanks] Although you'll often see "N+7" bruited about as if it were the only oulipo algorithm, you can fiddle with it. For example, V+11 would mean replace all verbs with the next eleventh verb. You could use Adj+4 or Adv+23 (don't know if that's the correct oulipo designation for adjective and adverb play). N+7 does often have good results, though. Especially with noun-heavy poems like Amy Lowell's "Sea Shell" — only two verbs in it: "sing" and "find." Okay, our featured poem-a-day blog for Day 16 is Whimsy Gizmo by De Jackson. Look at the cover image at the top of her blog page. It's a beach view with huge crags arising from the ocean; in the foreground are toes with nail polish &mdash her toes, I imagine — echoing the rocks in the background. This image encapsulates the atmosphere in her blog: a playfulness and serendipity that approaches the world and life with joy and fancy. Check out her poems. You'll be enchanted, I guarantee. And, as you can see in the screencap below, she has used Maureen Thorson's sea shell picture for her prompt today. A lovely poem. Okay, that's all from here. I've got nine minutes to get this blog post out while it's still Day 16. Just squeaking through. Leave a comment below, okay? Peace out. Ingat. POEM-A-DAY 2012 • Pick a day in April: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30