NaPoWriMo

PAD Challenge – Day 27

/ mannixk / Leave a comment

Going for a prompt combo again with the Poetic Asides suggestion to write a “take off” poem, and the NaPoWriMo site’s advice to experiment with long-lined poems. I am currently part of a mentorship program with the Writer’s Guild of Alberta, and my skilled and wise mentor Sue Sinclair has been encouraging me to play with longer lines too — both in new poems, and during the revision process with older poems — just to see how things might change or improve. It’s so interesting to see how a poem’s meaning and impact can change depending on the line lengths and breaks.

 

Taking Off

 

She ran faster than I knew she could, her giggles growing louder

with every footfall, unconcerned or maybe spurned on

by my shouts to Stop! Please sweetie, stop!   A game.

Discovering her legs and going, the way only kids can go,

loose-limbed and barreling ahead, wearing joy like a helmet,

outpacing my longer, stronger strides, and my terror as she

veered off the sidewalk and into the road, oblivious to harm.

Blessed with sun, and no traffic, that summer afternoon — she ran

clear to the other side, then stopped. Beaming, as she called back

I won, Mommy! I won!

 

The “take off” prompt reminded me of a famous Canadian poem, “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, which is now used as the official poem of the Royal Canadian Air Force.  Whether or not we’re pilots, I think all of us have dreamed of slipping “the surly bonds of Earth”.

 

PAD Challenge – Day 26

/ mannixk / Leave a comment

It’s often said that every poem is a love poem. I think there’s a lot of truth to this, probably because the word “love” encompasses so much. Today’s Poetic Asides prompt asked for a love or anti-love poem. The first thing that came to my mind was this (overly) sentimental memory of my first daughter’s birth.

A Photo I Wish I Had

 

My husband’s profile, the strong jaw

as he held my hand,

held me to the moment,

of our daughter’s reluctant arrival

into our brighter world.

 

 

To me, the best love poems are nuanced with the bittersweet. I think the poem “Adolescence” by P.K. Page captures new love and innocence so well, and the shift to a more mature love, which is usually less than perfect.

 

PAD Challenge – Day 25

/ mannixk / Leave a comment

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt suggested taking a line from someone else’s poem to use as a starting point for your own. What an interesting exercise! So naturally I decided to combine it with the Poetic Asides prompt to write an “exercise” poem. ** The opening line comes from “A Hand”  by Jane Hirshfield.

Hand Exercises 

 

A hand is not the thick thatch of its lines

with their infinite dramas,**

or the hardness, length or polish of its nails.

 

A hand is not defined by everything it’s touched,

or everything it’s wished to.

 

A hand is a tool, for work fine or heavy,

and that it feels makes the work

possible, wonderful or unbearable.

 

And it shouldn’t take practice,

yet it does

to reach it out, offer it up,

to lift, pull, hold,

let the purpose in the fingers

overrule the jaded brain

when it chides:

you alone can’t make a difference.

PAD Challenge – Day 23

/ mannixk / Leave a comment

Today’s Poetic Asides prompt called for a poem about footwear. I cheated a little, and morphed something I had previously started into this haibun of sorts.

Ouroboros

I’ve accepted that the oceans will grow to gobble cities — mostly the too-big, grimy ones. Polar bears will be drawn like unicorns on children’s stickers with rainbows and hearts. Mangoes will grow in Canada. I guess what I’m saying is, it’s not all bad. Sure, the ancient Greeks  never dreamed of globalisation. Twitter. 24-hour Wal-Marts. But wouldn’t they be dazzled? Wouldn’t they gape at our toys, the parasitic progress? Say: this isn’t what we meant when we talked about Beauty and certainly not Justice but we know you’re trying to mime Good. We applaud your effort. Maybe they’d tell us that when we’re long gone, circles will still be imperfect. The sky will still be blue. Nothing changes that much.

Sneaker sale —

whose soul’s been sold

for this sole?

 

Sonnets are the theme of the day at NaPoWriMo. I’ve attempted sonnets before with little success, which is perhaps why I am so enamored with the ones that work — both classic and modern style. One I am especially fond of is “Blank Sonnet” by George Elliott Clarke, our current Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate (with darn good reason!)

PAD Challenge – Day 22

/ mannixk / Leave a comment

Happy Earth Day! The NaPoWriMo prompt today asked for poems to Mother Earth, and the Poetic Asides prompt suggested starting or titling poems with Star____.  I decided to do some micro mashing with these:

stark beauty
desert lily
full bloom

*****

starving
for attention
lost dog

*****

star maps
catching dust
in his new condo

*****

star anise
celebrity
of the spice cupboard

*****

starfruit
a taste of heaven
in my smoothie

*****

starlings
trembling
in the aspen

*****

I liked the prompt suggested by This Is Not A Literary Journal to take 8-10 words from your favourite recipe, and mix it into a poem. Short on time today, so I will have to bookmark that for another day. However, I did decide to see what came up when I searched other “recipe” poems, which led me to this celebratory poem called “A Recipe For Whisky” by Scottish poet Ron Butlin.

PAD Challenge – Day 21

/ mannixk / Leave a comment

Playing the mash-up game again with the NaPoWriMo prompt to write a poem in the voice of a minor character from a fairy tale or myth, and the Poetic Asides prompt to write a response to another poem. Tailor-made for fun! I chose to step into the skin of one of the “ugly stepsisters,” portrayed as villains in almost every version of Cinderella. I’m a fan of the “Revolting Rhymes” by Roald Dahl, but never much liked that his “Cinderella” was still the heroine, so I decided to spin that a bit with this:

The Real Gory Truth

Sister Number Two, indeed.

I have a name, it’s Dorothee

A family name, my grandma’s yet,

a clever and sweet, blue-eyed coquette.

While I didn’t inherit her pretty looks,

I’ve got the brains, read many great books.

Which is why I’m here to set things straight,

about heinous young Cindy, and our cruel fate.

My sister and I were not blessed of face,

but villainous? No, it’s just not the case.

It’s Cindy who excelled at malice,

conniving, convincing and always so callous.

My sister’s face was blistered and scarred,

when Cindy caught her quite off guard,

and threw hot ash upon her skin

said I’d be next if I told of the sin.

She trained her rats for nasty work,

into our rooms at night they’d lurk,

and bite us both from nose to toe,

then Cindy claimed we were the foes.

Wolfsbane she cooked into our stew.

We thought we had the deathly flu.

But it did not kill us as she planned

so Cindy devised a scheme so grand.

Involving the Prince, if you can believe,

he’s a handsome one, but quite naive.

Cindy arrived like light to the summer ball,

her choice in footwear had the Prince enthralled.

It was always the rumour, his fetish I guess,

and silly me spent so much time on my dress.

At midnight dashed Cindy, leaving her slipper behind,

whomever the owner, the Prince needed to find.

It was she he would marry, and worship those feet,

but those nasty trained rats helped our Cindy to cheat.

They switched up the shoe for my sister’s old sandal,

when the Prince made the fit it was too much to handle:

so repulsed was he by my sister’s maimed face,

that he dropped to the ground, writhing in place.

Cindy didn’t miss a beat, grabbed for his sword,

then whacked my poor sister right in the gourd,

Her head, it rolled, my heart nearly did stop,

but then Cindy took mine with one skillful chop.

When the Prince came to, Cindy shrieked and said,

“This royal brut struck my poor sisters dead!”

They locked up the Prince, for the good of the land,

and some stupid jam maker took Cindy’s cold hand.

They’re married, with a daughter, growing wicked as her,

she’ll be just like her mother, demon child for sure.

This whole tale I write from the other side,

that you believed her so long leaves me quite mystified.

Leave it to Cindy to beguile with her wiles,

but remember the beast behind her bright smile.

 

 

April 21 is also Poem In Your Pocket Day! Please share the love of verse in any way you can. The League of Canadian Poets has some great ideas here.

PAD Challenge – Day 20

/ mannixk / Leave a comment

Today the Poetic Asides prompt spoke to me with the suggestion to write a things said or unsaid poem. I always think of secluded spots in nature as the best places to hear our own thoughts, which is probably what inspired this:

 

On the Lake

 

It makes him feel insignificant

and that’s his favourite thing about it.

How he might patter off into the underbrush,

rove the shadowed spaces between the spruce.

 

When he’s on the lake, those first minutes

after dawn, the surface so still and solid,

he believes it can support

every weighty worry.

 

All the things he never says,

known by the glimmering water.

 

 

Today the  NaPoWriMo site puts out the call to get clever with a “kenning” poem, which is  a riddle made up of several lines of kennings (usually two-word descriptors in a unique or old language) to describe something or someone.

At This Is Not A Literary Journal the assignment is to take an imagined trip to a place that scares you, then write about it. As poets I think we naturally write about our fears, and as readers we’re drawn to the exploration of those fears. It helps us cope and heal. And sometimes it makes for such beautiful poems, like Seamus Heaney’s “Anything Can Happen.”

 

PAD Challenge – Day 19

/ mannixk / 2 Comments

I’m pulling inspiration from two prompts again today: NaPoWriMo’s suggestion to write a “How To” poem, and the Poetic Asides call for something cool or uncool.

How To Keep Cool

(In Your Crappy Apartment During A Heat Wave)

 

Don’t think about the air-conditioned office that used to be routine.

 

Do remember that everything about that place, even the vent above your cubicle, and the iced coffees your boss brought you on Fridays, were clever ploys in the bigger plot to suck your soul.

 

Don’t think you need to move off your couch, unless it’s to get a cold beer from the six-pack you bought for that dude who bailed after date three.

 

Do take cold showers, or long icy baths. In the dark. Power’s not included in the rent, but water is.

 

Don’t wonder if excessive water consumption plus global warming equals danger for Mother Earth. It’s too hot for environmental ethics.

 

Do keep the curtains closed to make sure the sun stays out so you can stay naked after aforementioned baths or showers.

 

Don’t answer the phone when your Mom calls for the fifth time. You’ve reached your threshold for blood-boiling questions and comments.

 

Don’t have any fond recollections of your parent’s frigid basement, their backyard pool, or the fresh lemonade your Mom made whenever your friends came over to chill.

 

Do remind yourself that all things are temporary — even weather and unemployment.

 

Do sit on your balcony after dark. Watch skyscraper lights twinkle. Wait for the midnight crescendo of the city. Whisper until you believe:  I am where I’m meant to be.

 

 

Where I live, the month of April has been anything but cool, so shrugging off jackets and slipping on sandals has been very cool. But the prompt today happily reminded me of Robyn Sarah’s “Villanelle For A Cool April.” I think I should stitch “Life’s sweetest savoured in the present tense” onto a plush pillow.

PAD Challenge – Day 18

/ mannixk / Leave a comment

Today’s Poetic Asides prompt suggested embracing that “Monday — back to work” feeling to write a poem about the office or office life. For me, this coincided a little with the NaPoWriMo prompt to incorporate the “language of home” into a poem. I’ve done a little of this here, but think I’d like to incorporate more in the revision stages with this poem:

 

Home Office

 

His real office was his car,

the commute and the workday one

as he crisscrossed Saskatchewan,

breaking every stock image of the

smooth talking traveling salesman.

 

At home, the office I knew, a scarred

metal desk, tucked in the back corner

of our basement, surrounded by file boxes,

piled memos — neatly classified chaos,

and always a cup of coffee.

 

A place to do paperwork, a strangely

alluring word to me. Important, and something

adult that must be done, would be done

by me, someday. I could help with the stapling,

when packets of papers were needed, reading

names for inventory, and carrying heavy sample

boxes, stacked like giant Lego bricks,

at the bottom of the stairs.

 

My Dad, always going places, going to get

ahead and mostly to get back

to us — our baseball games, dance recitals, plays.

And my  Mom, the Chief Everything Officer who

never left the office, never saw a paycheque

and never let any of us down.

 

This Is Not A Literary Journal invites reflection on a “thing” or a treasured thing we no longer have, and asks us to write an ode to it. It reminded me of Don McKay’s nuanced tribute to the cutlery we all use everyday in “Setting the Table”. You can watch the revered poet himself reading it here.

PAD Challenge – Day 17

/ mannixk / Leave a comment

Hooray, it’s haiku day! The Poetic Asides prompt calls for a haiku, or a poem about haiku (which could be fun to write). This Is Not A Literary Journal suggests a weather poem in the first person. I’ll took a little of that inspiration, to incorporate weather/seasons in these:

 

 

white hare

muddied brown

spring rain

*****

tenting

the wasps pelt

like hail

*****

early snowfall

chillin’

on patio chairs

*****

December thaw

temporary lakes

in the boot prints

*****

On of my favourite places to read haiku is on the DailyHaiku site, edited by Nicole Pakan and Patrick M. Pilarski. Though they’re from Edmonton, the site features the best work of renowned haiku poets from around the world.

The NaPoWriMo prompt today calls for picking words from a specialized dictionary to incorporate into a poem. A cool idea for some unique inspiration another day.

One final note: Today is the start of The Edmonton Poetry Festival. If you live in the area, take a minute to check out some of the great events, workshops and readings…many of which are completely free! And if you have some time this afternoon, come by Thresholds, an event I’m proud to be a part of.