Tag Archives: Carol A. Stephen

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

Day 8 Only the Dead are Unfraid

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Today, I chose to write about something that struck me, rather than the prompt from NaPoWriMo. Something said on a newscast:

Only the Dead are Unafraid

a man says on the screen. He’s speaking

amidst the ruins of his home, his city

somewhere in Ukraine.

I didn’t catch his name. Still, I see

the destruction around him. There must be

dead in a place so destroyed.

In another story, a new cemetery. No grave

without a recent marker. February, March, April.

All of them 2022. Numbers of the dead grow

and still, we know they are underestimating

how many graves they will need when the war ends.

This is a scenery I don’t understand.

A mentality that lacks humanity. How

does one human obliterate so many fellow humans,

and all in the name of returning Ukraine to Russia.

Only the dead are unfraid. Only the dead

and Vladimir Putin. The Gatherer of Russian Lands.

Even as he destroys his Ukrainian brothers and sisters.

Soon, there will be nothing of Ukraine to gather.

Only wasteland, and all those who are still

unafraid.

Carol A. Stephen

April 15, 2022

Day 7 A Stitch in Time Saves Nothing

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NaPoWriMo.net

…”Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that argues against, or somehow questions, a proverb or saying. They say that “all cats are black at midnight,” but really? Surely some of them remain striped. And maybe there is an ill wind that blows some good. Perhaps that wind just has some mild dyspepsia.  Whatever phrase you pick, I hope you have fun complicating its simplicity. “

A Stitch in Time Saves Nothing

Well, no. I’ve stitched.
As soon as I saw the hole
that opened up along a seam. Crooked,
that stitch, so I ripped it out and stitched
again. And again. And again.

Still crooked. And now what time have I saved?
Not really visible, that small gap along the hem.
Lost in the patterned fabric, no-one saw but me.
In the time I spent putting four stitches in
and taking them out again, what else might I have done?

Read a book chapter. Made a grilled cheese sandwich.
Drank one required glass of water. Eaten an apple.
Watched an episode of My Cat from Hell. Played
with my own cat from Hell. No, wait—
she’s just from Purgatory.

Carol A. Stephen

April 7, 2022

Day Six Ezra’s Garden

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“Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a variation of an acrostic poem. But rather than spelling out a word with the first letters of each line, I’d like you to write a poem that reproduces a phrase with the first words of each line. Perhaps you could write a poem in which the first words of each line, read together, reproduce a treasured line of poetry? You could even try using a newspaper headline or something from a magazine article. Whatever you choose, I hope you enjoy this prompt.”

For today’s prompt, I chose the last line from Ezra Pound’s In a Station of the Metro

https://poets.org/poem/station-metro

Ezra’s Garden

Petals, the colour of rubies from the explorer rose, fall

on the grass along the back fence,

a carpet of red in a world of green. Last night’s rain

wet everything in the garden, turning the branches

black and glistening. Over the gate, a single

bough, heavy with blooms bows at the end of its performance.

Carol A. Stephen,

April 6, 2022