National Poetry Month

PAD 2022 – Day 20

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The NaPoWriMo.net prompt today asked for a poem that anthropomorphizes a food. This may be cheating, but I had already done this a few weeks ago, when I looked over at my fruit bowl, and posted a tweet. Here is a short sorta-poem to go with a photo of what I saw.

Fruit Bowl Family

Loneliness? Sleep deprivation?

Just pure imagination?

Something both comical and comforting in

recognizing an entire family

in the banana-haired honeydew,

her partner, the pineapple

and their smooth-skinned baby pears,

posing for a portrait

on my kitchen counter.

Fruit Bowl Family by Kim Mannix
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PAD 2022 – Day 18

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Today I went with the NaPoWriMo.net prompt, based on Faisal Mohyuddin’s poem “Five Answers to the Same Question.” The challenge is to write a poem that provides five answers to the same question – without ever specifically identifying the question that is being answered. I wrote this very quickly, but I think it’s a useful and interesting prompt that warrants a re-visit when I have time, with other questions to answer, and more creative ways to answer them.

5 Answers

  1. Because human brains like to problem solve.
  2. We will tip, tumble, awaken. A collective realization.
  3. The joy in my niece’s eyes when she dips her feet in the cool waters of a slow-moving river.
  4. The conversation is more frequent, louder and as vibrant as it’s ever been.
  5. My Mom squeezed my hand and said There are more good people in the world than bad.

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PAD 2022 – Day 17

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It’s been a busy few days, and all I’ve been able to squeeze out for the daily poems are micros. My hope is to come back to a line or word or even the entire prompt at some point, and take another stab. For now, on this Easter Sunday, I’ve gone with the 30/30 prompt “lost in space.”

The right thing

got lost

in the space

between what

I shouldn’t have said

and the look on your face

PAD 2022 – Day 15

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Today’s NaPoWriMo.net prompt asked poets to challenge themselves by writing a poem about something they have absolutely no interest in. Though I generally think of myself as curious, and interested to know more about most things, coming up with a topic was surprisingly easy.

NFT

My 12-year-old daughter

can better explain “Non-Fungible Token”

than I ever could. The obstinate me,

does not even try.

The future of art, writing, music, creation,

some say, but I don’t understand

a “digital asset,” coveted

like a Rembrandt masterpiece,

rudimentary clipart, auctioned like

an antique vase at Sotheby’s,

or how a Tweet can be valued

as though it were a Rumi original.

Just today, I have heard birdsong

through an open window,

held a rock in my hand, story-striped

in geographic history, and watched

as cirrus clouds feathered a blue-grey sky.

Tangible beauty, not non-fungible.

I may be destined

to live like an ignorant relic,

who will not get with these modern artistic times,

but as long as there is real wonder,

just out my window, for this I’ve got

No F*$?ing Time.

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PAD 2022 – Day 13

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To combat the superstitious unluckiness of the number 13, or to embrace its good fortune, today’s NaPoWriMo.net prompt asks for a poem that, like the example poem here, joyfully states that “Everything is Going to Be Amazing.” On Twitter, to combat my own anxiousness and anger at the world, I often post something good that I’ve noticed, using the hashtag SmallJoysInTheShitshow. This poem is sort of like that.

13 Things That Don’t Suck

Dark coffee, consumed quietly in early light

A clean kitchen.

Catching the avocado, its neighbour the banana, in perfect ripeness.

Green apple scent of my daughter’s freshly washed hair.

Sexy shoes, on sale.

A purring cat on a lap.

Fresh cookie smell, greeting you as you walk through the door.

Opening a novel to the exact right page, even after the bookmarks slips out.

A heart emoji that would be a hug if it could.

Turning on the radio at the start of a killer song.

Pen strike across the worst thing on a to-do list.

Finding the sunglasses lost since last summer.

The chance to consider these 13 things, knowing there are many more to count.

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PAD 2022 – Day 12

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Yesterday’s NaPoWriMo.net prompt was about something big, so naturally today’s is about something small. I went with found tiny poems about tiny, sciency things.

Four Tiny Poems

1.

huge discovery

something smaller than a quark

inside everything

2.

infinitesimal

an incredibly long word

for something so wee

3.

computer of note

the Michigan Micro Mote

always runs on sun

4.

how many phonons

make up the colossal sound

of ‘yes, I love you’?

PAD 2022 – Day 11

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Today’s NaPoWriMo.net prompt called for a poem about “a very large thing.” Yesterday, on Twitter, I saw an amazing video of a colossal sturgeon swimming in a Canadian lake. I took my title from the comments, and used the Canadian Encyclopedia entry on sturgeon to create this blackout poem.

Serpent Legend

Large

            Primitive

                           Bony

class

in fresh rivers, lakes

some venture

into brackish water.

An ancient group,

            fossils with long snout

            toothless mouth

            tail, long and slender.

They grow slowly

            attain great size.

Female sturgeon

            spawn

            where the current is

            rapid.

Feed

            on the bottom

            their protruding, sucking

            lips.

Flesh —

            delicious.

            Fetch a high price.

Vulnerable. Declining.

See also Endangered Animals

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