#NaPoWriMo Borrowed Poetry

Kitchen sink plug – not in use

 

Closed Mind / Open Door

Ferme la bouche
Patriarch keeps female mouths shut
Ferme la bouche
Women speak up with a loud whoosh
They voice ideas in clear-cut
Precise words to stop any but
Ferme la bouche

Putting a door on the female mouth has been an important project of patriarchal culture from antiquity to the present day.
@carsonbot

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Our prompt for the day (optional as always) asks you to peruse the work of one or more of these twitter bots, and use a line or two, or a phrase or even a word that stands out to you, as the seed for your own poem. Need an example? Well, there’s actually quite a respectable lineage of poems that start with a line by another poet, such as this poem by Robert Duncan, or this one by Lisa Robertson.

Good morning readers and welcome to day eight of napowrimo. I’m not exactly sure where this one came from, but the tweet from @carsonbot was the first one I saw this morning and I’ve had doors on my mind as Silver Birch Press is running a series on the front door. And ever since taking high school French, the phrase ferme la bouche has been something I remembered and use on occasion. Not sure this really works in the rondelet form, but I went with it.

Yesterday my children heard my voice loud and clear. Before Shawn went to work, he hand washed some dishes; which I thought was very sweet. I had a growing pile of items that were not dishwasher safe and I was procrastinating at washing them. But in the early afternoon, I figured it was time to drain the sink and put away the dishes, only to find my husband used the garbage disposal plug upside and I could not pull it out. So yeah my children heard me cursing out and plotting their father’s demise. According to Gretchen I sounded like Lady MacBeth. I finally asked Robin into the kitchen to help, thinking it would be easier for him to pull up the plug. He just siphoned the water out of the sink, and then I borrowed a pair of pliers from Shawn to pull the plug out. Right now I have the plug hidden away in case he gets another bright idea to wash dishes by hand he’ll have to use the correct plug and I don’t think there is anyway for him to use it upside down.

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#NaPoWriMo Rhymes in a Book

Care Package from Changing Hands Bookstore

Feeling Blue

Why am I blue
Always searching for your letter
Why am I blue
Do you see how well your words woo
Our tete a tete helps unfetter
I no longer feel embitter
Why am I blue

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Today’s prompt (optional, as always) asks you to make use of our resource for the day. First, make a list of ten words. You can generate this list however you’d like – pull a book  off the shelf and find ten words you like, name ten things you can see from where you’re sitting, etc. Now, for each word, use Rhymezone to identify two to four similar-sounding or rhyming words. For example, if my word is “salt,” my similar words might be “belt,” “silt,” “sailed,” and “sell-out.”

Once you’ve assembled your complete list, work on writing a poem using your new “word bank.” You don’t have to use every word, of course, but try to play as much with sound as possible, repeating  sounds and echoing back to others using your rhyming and similar words.

Good morning readers and welcome to day three of NaPoWriMo. Do you recognize the rondelet? This is a little rhyming dribble inspired by the book I am currently reading. One of our local bookstores, Changing Hands, has found a unique way to keep their employees working while we are all on a stay at home order – book care packages. And yes, I ordered one for myself. It arrived on April 1st and I can assure you they did a great job picking out a book I would enjoy – definitely not feeling blue.

In fact I was so thrilled with the book selection they sent me, I helped thing two order one for herself yesterday. And thing one put in an order for themself this morning. The evil twin even told me she ordered from the bookstore as well.  Which, don’t get me wrong, I was pleased to learn, but I did have to question why she was not supporting her own local bookstore in Pennsylvania.  She said she was unaware of any and if they did have any independent bookstores, she didn’t hear about them putting together fun reading packages.

Ahhh… the life of an introvert. Yes, I have my nose planted in the pages of a book. Okay sticking it out for a minute to write today’s poem and to ask – Are my extrovert friends, assuming any come here to read this, doing well? May I suggest ordering from Changing Hands. If you don’t trust them to pick a title for you they do have the pick your own book option. Happy Reading!

SunWinks Oxymoron Prompt

Slumber Awakes

The world slumbers
There is no exclamation mark
The world slumbers
A tragic event encumbers
It only takes a single spark
The world awakes

The world awakes
One person rises up to fight
The world awakes
Indifference is all it takes
Too often we ignore a slight
Without action there is no light
The world slumbers

SunWinks oxymoron prompt. I was also thinking, dull brightness or delight slight.

Playing Catch Up

I’ve been visiting family back in Buffalo, NY the past two weeks. It was just me and the girls. My husband stayed home alone for two whole weeks. I knew I would have catch up chores to do, but I thought he would do some cleaning. His excuse, I made sure the animals didn’t die.

We got in at 9am yesterday and the first thing I decided to do was tackle the vacuuming. While I was doing this, the little one came up to me and asked what the date was – July 24th why? I knew it; the milk says July 21. She drank most of a glass until she noticed chunks in the bottom. Ewww… After I vacuumed, I cleaned the cat litter and noticed the toilet was not cleaned in two weeks either. We have hard water build up. I scrubbed but it was not completely coming off. I usually clean my toilet twice a week to help keep the hard water stain in check. I put some white vinegar in the bowl to sit over night. It looks better, but it’s still going to need more scrubbing. I was worn out from travel and cleaning so we only did soup for dinner. Then I went to watch the 6pm news. By 6:30 I was snoring and didn’t wake up until 7 this morning.

Today I’m working on more cleaning and catching up with the lessons at How Writers Write Poetry. Yesterday Rachael brought her suitcase into my room. I thanked her for bringing my suitcase over before I noticed it was the wrong one. Then I noticed she was unpacked already! She brought it to me to put away. This morning I unpacked my suitcase and Dad was able to put two of them away before heading to work. Then I worked on bills. I paid everything that came in before we left and told hubby he shouldn’t have to pay anything unless something comes in I’m not aware of. Well doctor bills came in and were due July 22. Hubby said, I told you they came in. I said, And you didn’t notice the due date? Oh well if he was on vacation with us, the bills would be late anyhow. A few days won’t hurt anyone.

Exercise 4 – Mindful Poetry

I actually did this poem before leaving on vacation, but did not have an opportunity to post it.

Escape

Escape within
living with cerebral palsy
Escape within
writing poetry I begin
to lose constraints my mind is free
words give me possibility
Escape within

I’ve watched the video lessons for Meter and Containing Multitudes this morning. I enjoy working with meter. I write a tweetku for the #haikuchallenge on twitter as often as I can. Because I’ve been out of the writing swing for a couple weeks. I went over to see what the haiku challenge word was today, left. I wrote a senryu but so far that is the extent of my poetry writing today.

Poetry seeps out
CP affects my right side
Left handed, I write

And my dryer just called me so I’m off to switch the laundry over.

Building a Poem – Assignment Three

Time and Tide

Feet in the sand
Keep me anchored to who I am
Feet in the sand
My world flipped upside down unplanned
Reality rolled out to slam
Me against what was: my heart swam
Feet in the sand

Feet in the sand
Timid to cross liminal space
Feet in the sand
Dig deep, steadfast I understand
Change an inevitable chase
Tide waits for no one to embrace
Feet in the sand

The third video presentation in How Writers Write Poetry – Building a Poem. Daniel Khalastchi talked about image, metaphor, rhyme and lines to build your poem. He also, briefly, mentioned form. I began with a rondelet so my structure was pretty set. Though Khalastchi did talk about breaking form as Srikanth Reddy did in “Sonnet”. And I may do this in another workshop depending on the feedback I get from this assignment.

NaPoWriMo Day Fourteen – Why

Why Little Fly

Is there a way
to write a poem asking why
Is there a way
How can I be quiet and stay
still watching as a little fly
walks on her boot no hue and cry
There is a way            😉

 

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Today’s prompt (optional, as always) is a little something I’m calling “Twenty Questions.” The idea is to write a poem in which every sentence, except for the last one, is in the form of a question. That’s it! It can be as long or short as you like. The questions can be deep and philosophical (‘what is the meaning of life?’) or routine and practical (‘are you going to eat that?’). Or both!

Happy writing!

 

Waiting at the bus stop with my youngest this morning, I was watching a fly walk on her boot.  She looked down and did give a hue and cry and then asked me how I could watch the fly without telling her?!  My reply, It was just a little fly.  According to her it was NOT. It was the biggest fly she has ever seen AND it was crawling on her boot! Well did you ask why the fly was on your boot? As she was getting on the bus she said I should write a poem about how the fly was on her boot and I didn’t warn her.  Yeah, the girl really does not like bugs.

NaPoWriMo Day Twelve – Replacement

D.E.A.R

A thrilling read
Thrills are a set of written words
A thrilling read
Transported from page to screen freed
Thrills stuck in libraries where nerds
Only knew how thrills soar like birds
A thrilling read

 

NaPoWriMo Prompt – Today’s (optional) prompt is a “replacement” poem. Pick a common noun for a physical thing, for example, “desk” or “hat” or “bear,” and then pick one for something intangible, like “love” or “memories” or “aspiration.” Then Google your tangible noun, and find some sentences using it. Now, replace that tangible noun in those sentences with your intangible noun, and use those sentences to create (or inspire) a poem.

April 12 is Beverly Cleary’s birthday and to honor the children’s author it has become DEAR day – Drop Everything And Read.  I try to write a DEAR poem on April 12th.  Once I post this my DEAR festivities can begin.  My tangible word is books; intangible word is thrills. I hope everyone finds a thrill to sink their teeth into today.  Happy Reading!

 

Rondelet

Scrubbing toilets
Gives me time to contemplate rhyme
Scrubbing toilets
Between chores I write down couplets
Rubbing away the dirt and grime
They are polished to shine sublime
Scrubbing toilets

Video Game Poems

Mario Kart
Two brothers race toward finish line
Mario Kart
Who will gain first place from the start
Rubber banding helps to align
Creating fair play by design
Mario Kart

Six minute
Youtube video
Follow player
Racing

Mario Karts
Item boxes
Banana peel hazard

 

 

I’m a mean awful Mom. My oldest daughter wanted me to write a poem for a friend’s youtube video. To set up this post, I deleted my daughter’s bloons city game. Well her friend thinks if I share the youtube link for the video, she’ll get more views. I don’t think my daughter knew what sacrifice she would have to make for her Mom’s poetry.

Warning – a Rondelet

Warning

Cat riled up
Okay, sweetheart I’m off to work
Cat riled up
Warning, do not snuggle close up
An animal going berserk
My husband just leaves with a smirk
Cat riled up