A short poem in response to the NaPoWriMo.net prompt calling for a poem that starts with a command.
Go Outside
Self-reminder: even if it seems too hard.
No perceived safety
in here
feels as good
as the spring air
enlivening you.
PAD 2022 – Day 19
PAD Challenge
PAD 2022 – Day 18
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
- Because human brains like to problem solve.
- We will tip, tumble, awaken. A collective realization.
- The joy in my niece’s eyes when she dips her feet in the cool waters of a slow-moving river.
- The conversation is more frequent, louder and as vibrant as it’s ever been.
- My Mom squeezed my hand and said There are more good people in the world than bad.
PAD 2022 – Day 17
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 16
A micro, responding to today’s 30/30 prompt “first word.”
Trying
to make the first words
of every morning
sound like Thank You
PAD 2022 – Day 15
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.
PAD 2022 – Day 14
Going super short today with the prompt “stray post-it.”
post-it life advice
revealed through a torn corner
‘Don’t forget to b’
PAD 2022 – Day 13
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.
PAD 2022 – Day 12
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
always runs on sun
4.
how many phonons
make up the colossal sound
of ‘yes, I love you’?
PAD 2022 – Day 11
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
PAD 2022 – Day 10
Today’s NaPoWriMo.net prompt called for a “love poem.” I have never been very good at writing those, and I think today’s micro-poem proves that again. 🙂
Love Affairs
The important ones leave you marked –
a soft scar
you can trace
any time you feel yourself slipping.
makes/me/so/digress 