#NaPoWriMo 2022 Day Twenty-nine

Veronica and Katryn

The Awful, Bad, No Good Birthday Present

Happy birthday to me!
Wow!
It’s super bright out here
and cold!
Phew, that was hard work
but worth it!
I finally rid myself of that
pesky roommate.
Wait…
She followed me out here!
No!
Put her back!
Put her back, NOW!
I think I’m going to cry

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And here’s our prompt (optional, as always). In certain versions of the classic fairytale Sleeping Beauty, various fairies or witches are invited to a princess’s christening, and bring her gifts. One fairy/witch, however, is not invited, and in revenge for the insult, lays a curse on the princess. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem in which you muse on the gifts you received at birth — whether they are actual presents, like a teddy bear, or talents – like a good singing voice – or circumstances – like a kind older brother, as well as a “curse” you’ve lived with (your grandmother’s insistence on giving you a new and completely creepy porcelain doll for every birthday, a bad singing voice, etc.). I hope you find this to be an inspiring avenue for poetic and self-exploration.

Good morning and welcome to day twenty-nine of napowrimo where I write of a birthday present I was trying to escape from – the evil twin. 😉 After all my hard work to be rid of my roommate, she followed me out. I didn’t know that was possible. I mean I had to share food with her for nine months; I thought I was finally free. Yes, it’s fun to pick on my sister. #Fearthefork Kati!

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#NaPoWriMo 2022 Day Nineteen

Look Forward to Spring

Look at the falling snow
Grass has no chance to grow
The only things certain
in life are death and taxes
April turns bitter cold
Winter keeps a tight hold
Spring begins to shorten
How does eighty-one look?

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And now for our daily (optional) prompt! Today’s challenge is to write a poem that starts with a command. It could be as uncomplicated as “Look,” as plaintive as “Come back,” or as silly as “Don’t you even think about putting that hot sauce in your hair.” Whatever command you choose, I hope you have fun ordering your readers around.

Good afternoon and welcome to day nineteen of napowrimo aka my dad’s birthday. And no it’s not snowing in Phoenix. One of the reasons I moved out here, but I hear the east coast is dealing with a snowstorm. Ugh! Snow in April. No thank you. I’d much rather deal with the high of 97 we are supposed to reach today.

Anyway since my dad is eighty-one today, I thought an eight line poem would be fun. I took inspiration from here not sure I followed it exactly but it was an interesting exercise and I did start the poem with a command even if it is one I may never follow again.

Thank you for reading my contribution today. Apparently I need to go and proofread a couple end of term papers, now. Patricia has uploaded the show notes to yesterday’s podcast, so if anyone is interested in reading those while they listen you can click here and scroll down to the show notes link or the PDF version if you prefer.

#NaPoWriMo 2022 Day Sixteen

The Sting of Time

April is the cruelest month
The spring heralds another
birthday – one and twenty years!
She’s old enough to drink yet
the twentieth century
was not seen by her own eyes.

Last month of spring semester
Then it’s graduation time
She puts on her cap and gown
and smiles for family photos
cruel, cruel month!

Gretchen and Mom

Napowrimo prompt – And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a curtal sonnet. This is a variation on the classic 14-line sonnet. The curtal sonnet form was developed by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and he used it for what is probably his most famous poem, “Pied Beauty.” A curtal sonnet has eleven lines, instead of the usual fourteen, and the last line is shorter than the ten that precede it. Here are two other examples of Hopkins’ curtal sonnets: “Ash Boughs,” and “Peace.”

Good afternoon and welcome to day sixteen of napowrimo where I borrow a line to begin my curtal sonnet. And this time around I did not try to figure in rhyme, but speaking about tuning out math. Math and poetry are always haunting me. And last year’s birthday poem, I spoke about how Gretchen felt old at twenty. Well this birthday had me feeling old and it started right on April first as Gretchen and I were watching Love in the Time of Cholera for her magical realism class. They welcomed in 1900 and I got excited and said, yay! the twentieth century. Thinking we’ve finally entered a century we’ve seen. Then I looked over at Gretchen and quickly realized even though she was turning 21 in a few days, she hadn’t lived in the twentieth century. I added, Another century you have not seen; and I really felt old the twentieth century was over 20 years ago!

As for graduation photos, Shawn took the bulk of them and I’m waiting for them to be edited. In the meantime here is a selfie taken by Gretchen with a snapchat filter.

#NaPoWriMo 2022 Day Four

Poetry Prompts for April

1. Enjoy a cup of coffee
2. Allow thoughts to percolate
3. Grab a pen and paper
4. Jot down words or phrases
5. Be mindful of patterns
6. And open to new forms
7. Step back and see what sticks
8. Experiment with…
   alliteration
   onomatopoeia
9. Short and sweet could pack a punch
10. Or words could pop off the page
11. Do not abandon the tried and true

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Finally, here’s our optional prompt! Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem . . . in the form of a poetry prompt. If that sounds silly, well, maybe it is! But it’s not without precedent. The poet Mathias Svalina has been writing surrealist prompt-poems for quite a while, posting them to Instagram. You can find examples here, and here, and here.

Good Morning and welcome to day four of NaPoWriMo aka Gretchen’s birthday. I did not get back to try my hand at a new glosa. We were out all day experiencing the Klimt Immersive and then we got something to eat by the ASU campus because Gretchen wanted graduation photos while we have family in town. Something we neglected for her high school graduation. I was unaware what a production graduation photos are and an actual month before graduation. There was a line of graduates waiting for photo opportunities on the steps of old main. And the number of champagne bottles that were photographed and popped! Not to mentioned sprayed – Gretchen said it was a sticky mess. We didn’t get home until late and then Gretchen wanted to catch up on Picard episodes. How could I say no to that? Plus I know my readers are aware I prefer short poetic forms so I may get back to the glosa before the end of the month, I may not. My first effort did take a lot to complete.

#NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Nineteen

Me and My Dad

Eighty

Birthday
Marks time
Another year older
Additional creaks and groans
Eighty

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And last but not least, our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a humorous rant. In this poem, you may excoriate to your heart’s content all the things that get on your nerves. Perhaps it’s people who tailgate when driving, or don’t put the caps back on pens after they use them. Or the raccoons who get into your garbage cans. For inspiration, perhaps you might look to this list of Shakespearean insults. Or, for all of you who grew up on cartoons from the 1980s, perhaps this compendium of Skeletor’s Best Insults might provide some insight.

Good afternoon and welcome to day nineteen of #NaPoWriMo aka my dad’s birthday. So yes I went off script and I wrote an elevenie since my dad is German it made sense. I guess you could read a small rant into the affects of aging. But other than that it’s just a silly little birthday poem. Our new fridge arrived today and reminded me I needed to call my dad. It is preprogrammed; we have yet to personalize it. And this was the home screen.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

After the delivery person left, I grabbed the phone and told my dad, Our fridge reminded me to call you. Once I talked to my dad and we got all the food into the new fridge, I tuned into the poetry pea podcast. Today is the 100th episode and Patricia read one of my haiku. I started listening to it on spotify on my iPhone and a notice popped up, we see there is a Samsung speaker near by would you like to listen from it. Umm…no thank you not quite sure I’m ready to listen and watch programs on my refrigerator. Gretchen got up and came into the kitchen and said, Mom’s listening to the weird lady reading haiku again. (Sorry Patricia.) And a couple minutes later Patricia said my name, both Shawn and Gretchen were like…OOO. Really I learned from the last public listening party to keep my poetry listening private unless there is a reason to share.

So this is how my week began. How is everyone else doing?

#PiperPoetryMonth

Grandpa and Grandma Tiger

Golden Anniversary

Have you seen walking around town
a man who looks lost and forlorn?
He is in search of a woman he thought he knew
except she may have told him one little fib.
You see the man is my husband and for years
he believed my birthday was April 29, 1911.
But in fact…
I was really born in 1910.
I had no other choice but to lie to him.
He would never marry an older woman
and I knew I was eight months older than he.

This poem is based off the true story of my grandparents courtship. They did meet in grade school and even back in the dark ages 😉 teachers would announce birthdays. Well my grandma knew my grandfather’s birthday was in December so when her birthday came around in April she told him she was born in 1911. A lie that lasted, I’ve been told, for decades. It wasn’t until my grandfather went down to the social security office (to set up retirement payments?) and he learned her true age, because they did not have a record for an Estelle Tiger born in 1911 but they did have one for the same name and birthday but in 1910.

I wrote this poem yesterday a combination of the #NaPoWriMo and @piper_center prompts. It is a funny monologue about my grandparents’ 50th anniversary portrait – not exactly what the photo sees looking outward more like what was occurring inward.

#NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Five

Gretchen’s Birthday Cake

Twenty

More decades ahead then
behind her, she feels time
beginning to weigh on her
incessant march of age

NaPoWriMo Prompt Day Five – This prompt challenges you to find a poem, and then write a new poem that has the shape of the original, and in which every line starts with the first letter of the corresponding line in the original poem. If I used Roethke’s poem as my model, for example, the first line would start with “I,” the second line with “W,” and the third line with “A.” And I would try to make all my lines neither super-short nor overlong, but have about ten syllables. I would also have my poem take the form of four, seven-line stanzas. I have found this prompt particularly inspiring when I use a base poem that mixes long and short lines, or stanzas of different lengths. Any poem will do as a jumping-off point, but if you’re having trouble finding one, perhaps you might consider Mary Szybist’s “We Think We Do Not Have Medieval Eyes” or for something shorter, Natalie Shapero’s “Pennsylvania.”

Good afternoon and welcome to day five of #NaPoWriMo. April 4th aka the day before first contact went well I think. Gretchen says she feels old. Well on the “true” day before first contact she will be 62 – that’s old 😉 never mind the fact her Grandpa will be 80 in two weeks and her Poppo will be 70 later this year. Well the prompt today had me a little stumped. I wasn’t sure what poem I wanted to use; the ones I was reading over at poets.org weren’t inspiring anything creative. I decided to look at the theme of birthdays and W.B. Yeats Youth and Age seemed appropriate. Gretchen is on the cusp of youth and age – no longer a teenager but despite her protests she’s not old either.

End of Year Review

Another year ends
Strange as 2020 was
There were happy times

Good morning and welcome to the last day of 2020 and my year end review. Despite not posting very often this year, my blog visits were up from last year. I did complete #NaPoWriMo in April, thanks in part to not having to score standardized tests. This may have been a factor to the increased traffic. At the end of February, we celebrated Shawn’s 48th birthday. We had no idea at the time it would be the last time we would enjoy an evening out.

Shawn and I at his birthday dinner

Then in April we celebrated the first birthday in quarantine, Gretchen’s 19th birthday on April 4th. Shawn picked up dinner from the very same restaurant we went to for his birthday and we decorated the backyard and had an enjoyable evening. I used the success of our first quarantine birthday as inspiration to submit a haiku to the OCMA sound collage. Also in April, Patricia posted one of my haiku on her Pea TV moment. It took some finessing as I’m not great at capturing hummingbirds on video; but as we were eating dinner one night, we saw a hummingbird enjoying the aloe out the window. And I confess, Gretchen was the one who captured the recording.

In May we were also busy, Gretchen finished her freshmen year at ASU on the Dean’s List while Robin graduated from ASU Summa Cum Laude.

Gretchen’s 1st year of college

Robin in cap & gown

Of course we had another quarantine birthday to celebrate on May 20, Robin turned 22. Near the beginning of the month, our internet went down for A WEEK. The only plus it happened after the last final was taken since everything went virtual in March, it would have been a hassle to figure out how to get finals completed without internet. For June and July we were alone together. Shawn has a great job and has continued working; Robin finished employment at ASU in May since he graduated. He was still going to work at 4 paws but it was not every day. Then on August 1st we packed up the van Shawn dragged me over to the dealership at the end of May to buy and we took a road trip up to Oregon. Robin started his first year at the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine in September.

Gretchen and Robin in Corvallis

In October Shawn and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary in quarantine. There was one good thing to come from having all these celebrations at home. Shawn learned how to cook a proper steak. We had filet mignon medium rare. Then the following weekend Shawn talked me into an overnight camping trip at White Tanks. In November I celebrated my birthday in quarantine. Once again Shawn cooked an excellent steak and we had lobster tails to make it surf and turf. Then in December Robin and Gretchen wrapped up their second semester of virtual learning. Robin earned a 3.7 his first semester of veterinary school and Gretchen has a 3.6! Both are doing very well in this mixed up year of schooling. And as you can see, I’ve stopped adding links to my review since most everything can now be found on my blog’s home page as I really sloughed off updating the blog after May.

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#NaPoWriMo Dream Talk at Dinner

Gretchen Hosking in the Backyard

Middle of the street
Call out Jennifer Lawrence
Mystique walks away

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Our prompt for the day (optional as always) takes its cue from our gently odd resources, and asks you to write a poem based on an image from a dream. We don’t always remember our dreams, but images or ideas from them often stick with us for a very long time. I definitely have some nightmares I haven’t been able to forget, but I’ve also witnessed very lovely things in dreams (like snow falling on a flood-lit field bordered by fir trees, as seen through a plate glass window in a very warm and inviting kitchen). Need an example of a poem rooted in dream-based imagery? Try this one by Michael Collier.

Good morning readers and welcome to day four of NaPoWriMo. First thing’s first – Happy 19th birthday, Gretchen! Today’s prompt seems rather apropos as Gretchen told me about the strange dream she had at dinner last night. Of course I reminded her what time of year it was; anything you tell mom in April is fair game to be used as poetry inspiration. Then I see write a dream-based poem. May be the fastest turn around from discussion to poem I’ve had. Gretchen said she didn’t care as she knew tomorrow’s poem would be about her anyway. She sooooo enjoys having a birthday in April – not.

Dinner discussion
Mom front and center in dream
Serendipity

Apparently Gretchen and I were in the middle of a busy street with one of our cats, Chase, and we were supposed to be some kind of undercover agents. Gretchen said it was a miracle I didn’t blow our cover because I kept calling out Jennifer Lawrence. I said, I’m shocked I even recognized Jennifer Lawrence, because knowing me if I just ran into a celebrity on the street I would have no clue. Then I was told she was actually dressed as Mystique which I found even funnier, because I’m sure I would recognize an X-men easier than an actor; and why was I calling her by her real name if she looked like Mystique? Gretchen had no idea she was just trying to get me not to blow our cover and it sounded like I wasn’t giving her an easy job.

Well we have a birthday to celebrate somehow in these strange times. If any of you have the opportunity please go over to Gretchen’s Tumblr and wish her Happy Birthday!
Thank you

#NaPoWriMo Self Portrait

Self Portrait

Hopeless
Tied up in knots
Little girl in despair
Cannot coax bunny through the hole
Failure

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And now for our (optional) prompt, which also deals with metaphors! Forrest Gump famously said that “life is like a box of chocolates.” And there are any number of poems out there that compare or equate the speaker’s life with a specific object. (For example, this poem of Emily Dickinson’s). Today, however, I’d like to challenge you to write a self-portrait poem in which you make a specific action a metaphor for your life – one that typically isn’t done all that often, or only in specific circumstances. For example, bowling, or shopping for socks, or shoveling snow, or teaching a child to tie its shoes.

Good morning readers and welcome to the first day of NaPoWriMo. I know my self portrait is bleak, but a long time ago a five year old girl thought she was a kindergarten failure before kindergarten even began. I still flashback to the feeling of dread at my inability to tie shoelaces. So when the prompt mentioned tying shoes…

Let’s focus on a happy note. I did coax someone to give me the link to her Tumblr. Mom does not use the platform and I know thing two does not use Twitter nor does she go on Facebook very often. Saturday is the big day – 19 years old! Please go wish her a happy birthday. By the way, for those curious mom was also successful at teaching thing one and thing two to tie shoelaces. One would think I’d be over the dread of life’s early failure maybe someday.