Category Archives: NaPoWriMo

April Thirteenth

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Day Thirteen On April 13, 2022 NaPoWriMo.net

“And now for our (optional) prompt! Today, in honor of the potential luckiness of the number 13, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that, like the example poem here, joyfully states that “Everything is Going to Be Amazing.” Sometimes, good fortune can seem impossibly distant, but even if you can’t drum up the enthusiasm to write yourself a riotous pep-talk, perhaps you can muse on the possibility of good things coming down the track. As they say, “the sun will come up tomorrow,” and if nothing else, this world offers us the persistent possibility of surprise.”

April Thirteenth

Gonna be my lucky day every single

year. My birthday. How else could a birthday be?

Well, it could be raining. Those April showers, ya know.

Could be snow. Ottawa, after all. Or it could be just plain

beautiful. Was hoping to go for dinner, after all this time

pandemicked and isolated, Zooming everywhere, going

nowhere. Didn’t happen. Still, the thought of those fajitas…

well mouth watered anyway. So I look on the bright side—

I could be dead. Makes slightly under the weather look okay!

Healthy, even!  I could run a marathon!  Oh. Maybe not that,

but I could watch a marathon of tv shows, binge Netflix,

chow down on choco and corn puffs, live it up, girl!

But next week, fajitas for sure!

Carol A. Stephen

April 13, 2022

Day 12 Princess and the Pea

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Day Twelve On April 12, 2022 NaPoWriMo.net

“Today’s prompt (optional, as always) should come as no surprise. Yesterday, I challenged you to write a poem about a very large thing. Today, I’d like you to invert your inspiration, and write a poem about a very small thing. Whether it’s an atom, a button, a hummingbird’s egg, dollhouse furniture, or the mythical world’s smallest violin, I hope you enjoy your poetic adventures into the microscopic.”

“Princess and the Pea”, he says

when I complain about something irritating

under the sheet. It might be grit, it might be

a ripple in the mattress, doesn’t matter, if it pokes

and prods my back I can’t sleep on it.

***

Sometimes, the tiniest speck seems blown

into a large annoyance. You know the kind:

put on a shoe with a pebble or two, take a step.

See?  Nothing to do with a princess or a pea,

but everything to do with discomfort.

***

Consider the last time you had something in your eye.

A speck of dust, an eyelash: doesn’t much matter

if it made your eyes water you wanted it gone.

All very well to make cracks and mock. I hope

someday soon there’s gum stuck on his sock…

Carol A. Stephen

April 12, 2022

Day 11 The Big Apple

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“And now for our (optional) prompt. Following up on yesterday’s love poem, I have for you another deceptively simple challenge. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about a very large thing. It could be a mountain or a blue whale or a skyscraper or a planet or the various contenders for the honor of being the Biggest Ball of Twine. Whatever giant thing you choose, I hope this chance to versify in praise of the huge gets your poetic engines humming.” https://www.napowrimo.net/day-eleven-10/

The Big Apple (no, the other one!)

It claims to be the world’s largest,

that big red apple alongside the highway,

first owned by an Australian immigrant, inspired

by his homeland’s Big Pineapple.

They painted a cartoon face on the apple, but

when the pandemic began, they hung a mask,

solidarity with front-line workers. Everyone knows

this place sells giant apple pies. Did you know

how many pies they sent to hospital workers

in thanks?

You can visit their dine-in restaurant, their pie factory,

souvenir store, the amusement park, the miniature golf course,

or have a picnic outdoors. Stop by, be sure to buy one

of their 2000 weekly pies. Visit the observation deck,

check out the apple trivia. Try out the Mumble Crumble Bread.

All at the site of the Big Apple head.

https://attractionsontario.ca/attraction-listings/the-big-apple/

Carol A. Stephen

April 11, 2022

Day Nine Prompt from NaPoWriMo.net

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NaPoWriMo

https://www.napowrimo.net

“And now for our (optional) daily prompt! Because it’s a Saturday, I thought I’d try a prompt that asks you to write in a specific form – the nonet! A nonet has nine lines. The first line has nine syllables, the second has eight, and so on until you get to the last line, which has just one syllable.”

I admit, I did not prep well for restarting this site. They’ve made changes and I have not yet found how to single space, although occasionally it works but mostly it doesn’t. I haven’t figured out yet how to add illustrations either. Please bear with me. For this prompt, something that has been on my mind since watching the news this week and all the rush to ban abortions. I love how all the male politicians think they should have sway over women’s bodies. Or how the rush to uphold sanctity of life with one law, while supporting a gun lobby that sees mass shootings every single week. This, in response to the prompt, is a double “nonet”.

Hypocrisy is Alive and Well in America

For the first time in thirty years, we

celebrate Easter, Passover

and Ramadan together

Same week that the States passed

laws to uphold life.

Ban abortions.

Still okay

to shoot.

So?

What reverence for life includes guns?

In the news reports, mass shootings.

In the news, a mosque attack.

How do these uphold life?

Hypocritical.

save one life

Even as they

destroy

more.

Carol A. Stephen

April 17, 2022