NaPoWriMo April 4, 2018

NaPoWriMo April 4, 2018

Today’s prompt from NaPoWriMo reads as follows:

“And now for our (optional) daily prompt. Our craft resource today focuses on the use of concrete nouns and specific details, using the idea of “putting a dog in it.” Today, we challenge you to write a poem that is about something abstract – perhaps an ideal like “beauty” or “justice,” but which discusses or describes that abstraction in the form of relentlessly concrete nouns. Adjectives are fine too! For example, you could have a poem about sadness that describes that emotion as “a rowboat tethered with fishing line to a willow that leans over a pond. Rainwater collects in the bottom, and mosquito eggs.” Concrete details like those can draw the reader in and let them imagine the real world where your abstract ideal or feeling happens. Happy writing!”

 

There is no Dog in this Poem

You ask me:
to describe pleasure, baffled
by its abstraction, a simple dictionary
definition equally abstract.

So I ask you:
To imagine the ripest pineapple, its tender
flesh, the intense sweetness as your teeth
crush the fruit, drawing out each
drop of luscious juice.

Imagine heat
the sun on bared flesh, as you
discard the clothes of winter, raise
your face to feel the warmth
of early May on your left cheek.

Imagine cool
a hot day in August, as you
slide into a turquoise sparkle
of a southern sea, the damp sand
and entwined footprints along the whitest beach.

Imagine a Siamese cat
nose tucked under tail tip, curled
in an afternoon sunbeam, humming
its deepest purr song.
You will have my answer.

Carol A. Stephen, April 4, 2018

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

 

 

NaPoWriMo April 3 2018 Two Sylvias Press Challenge

Today’s Two Sylvias Prompt calls for various things to appear in the poem including a well known college, an old typewriter, a vintage album. And a few more items. Here’s my attempt.

 

April 3. In a few days, I’ll be seventy-one.

 

Still a poet in a small Ontario town.
I remember my first poem written
on a green Olivetti, circa 1960,
(the same kind Leonard Cohen used)
long before typing lessons on an IBM Selectric
with its blank keys and cranky hum.

The Olivetti travelled with me when
I went to U of T, sat centred on my desk
near the radio, blaring tunes from
Rubber Soul, or R&B from Otis Redding.

As I studied I fingered a half-heart on
a chain around my neck, the other half
kept by my steady guy.
As each memory flickers past,

I glance outside, eyes light on the second
spring robin, perched on a speed limit sign across
the street, 40 km limit. No-one pays attention
to the bird or the sign.

A man down the street wields a claw
hammer, forces a For Sale sign
into the still-frozen ground.
A sure sign it must be spring.

Carol A Stephen April 3, 2018

NaPoWriMo April 3, 2018

Day 3 NaPoWriMo

“Today’s prompt (optional as always), is inspired by our interview with Peter Davis. As he indicates there, his latest book is rooted in endlessly writing ideas for band names. Today, we challenge you to try this out yourself by writing a list poem in which all the items are made-up names. If band names don’t inspire, how about a list of titles for romantic novels? Or new television cop dramas? They can be as over-the-top as you like, because that’s (at least) half the fun. Happy writing!”

 

Playbill for a Rock Concert   wikipedia.org public domain

Starring: Five Pound Hammer 
and the Rusty Nails

and their very special guests:

 

Taletellers Out of School
Ahab & the White Wailers
Cinch Bug & the Mealyworms
Three-Toed Cats
Mexican Border Wall
The Five-Fingered Screamin’ Memes
Jabberwock & the Slithy Toves
Quick Start & the Neverendings
Weepy Guitars
Jeremiah & the Bullfrog Trio
Casey & the Seven Bats
The Raving Mad Presidents
Sleepy Eugene & the Narcoleptics
Ringaround & the Five Rosies

and introducing

Tiptoe & his Bloomin’ Tulips

 

Carol A. Stephen April 3 2018

NaPoWriMo 2018 April 2, 2018

Poem 2 for today taken from the napowrimo.net prompt:

Day 2 NaPoWriMo

“Taking a cue from our craft resource, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem that plays with voice. For example, you might try writing a stanza that recounts something in the first-person, followed by a stanza recounting the same incident in the second-person, followed by a stanza that treats the incident from a third-person point of view. Or you might try a poem in the form of a dialogue, which necessarily has two “I” speakers, addressing two “you”s. Another way to go is to take an existing poem of yours or someone else’s, and try rewriting it in a different voice. The point is just to play with who is speaking to who and how. Happy writing!”

Role Reversal, a poem in two voices

(The Girl and the Bear)

All night I could not sleep
the bed creaking under you
as you shifted to a comfortable spot

In the early morning sun, watery
through window, I think about leaving
but you hold me back, your heavy paw upon
my shoulder, both comfort and shackle.

 

 

Do not go, Calliope, your kindness,
your gentle smile hold back despair.
In this bare bleak room, no place for bears,
this bed a comfort after years of concrete
in that barred cage until you set me free.

Come, now, come back to bed,
I will wrap you in my black fur,
we can sleep away the hours.

Carol A. Stephen