Tag Archives: National Poetry Month

April Thirteenth

Posted on by
Reply

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

Posted on by
Reply

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

April 10 Books, Books, Books

Posted on by
Reply

Prompt from Poetry SuperHighway

April 10, 2022: Poetry Writing Prompt – Elizbeth Marchitti

Write about your knick-knacks, your chatchkes, your Dollar Store finds.  Explain why you can’t quit buying them, and what you think your heirs will do with them when you die.

If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Super Highway Facebook Group. #napowrimo #poetry

Books, Books, Books

In the kitchen. Living room. Bedroom.

By my bed, in the night tables, on two bookshelves.

In boxes along the floor. In my study, outside

my study. And all the e-ones on my Kindle.

Always buying the next best book, but before

it arrives, another one’s in the cart somewhere.

They’ll build a book table, or a chair, arms

resting on poetry books, cookbooks, art books

and history books. Health books, fiction books,

how-to-do something or other books.

Most ironic?

The how-to books on clutter. Most of mine? Books.

Carol A. Stephen

April 10, 2022

Day 11 The Big Apple

Posted on by
Reply

“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