It's almost that time! On April 1st I begin my annual marathon of thirty or more poems in thirty days, my most productive time of the year, with the help of daily prompts from Robert Brewer's blog "Write Better Poetry" (formerly Poetic Asides) on the Writers Digest website, and Maureen Thorson's NaPoWriMo blog. But this year, Robert is doing his annual "countdown" to the Poem-a-day (PAD) Challenge by offering daily prompts for the ten days leading up to the 1st. Last year I didn't join in early, but this year I did - I haven't written to every daily prompt so far, but I'll share what I have done.
"Countdown T-Minus 10": Write a poem with the title "Let's ___________." Here is a quatern, a poem of four quatrains, with eight syllables in each line, where the first of the first stanza is repeated as the second, third, and fourth line respectively in each subsequent stanza, creating a kind of refrain. I won one of Robert's Poetic Form Challenges a few years ago with a poem in this form.
Enough. Let's get this over with.
I've had my fill of silly masks
and sanitizers, six-foot space
and groceries brought by Instacart.
enough. Let's get this over with
more shots in arms, let's get immune,
let's listen to the science, folks.
and businesses, who've suffered quite
enough. Let's get this over with
some common sense, and caution too.
be done with it, but it's not done
with us. Let's end this plague. Enough's
enough. Let's get this over with.
"Countdown T-minus 8": Write a "fantasy" poem. With the recent horrific mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, Colorado, this was on my mind, and I wrote a triolet (a French form with repeated lines) in response.
Alternate
Reality
more folks could get on with their lives.
There still may be some violent ones
in my world. Without any guns,
though, we'd have more daughters and sons.
Maybe fights, but each side survives
in my world. Without any guns,
more folks would escape with their lives.
"Countdown T-minus 7": Write an altered song title poem; that is, take the title of a song, change a word in it, and write a poem based on it. I took it a step further and wrote a song parody based on a well-known miscontrued lyric, and also "based on a true story."
(from the famous Creedence Clearwater Revival misconstrued lyric)
I see a bathroom arising,
I see relief is on the way.
I need to pee so bad it's fright'ning,
I've had a real bad time today.
I won't go out tonight,
It's killed my social life -
There's a bathroom on the right.
Sometimes the stream just isn't flowiin',
Sometimes I need to go too soon.
Sometimes my desperation's showin',
These potty breaks will be my ruin.
I won't go out tonight,
It's killed my social life -
There's a bathroom on the right.
I wish I'd get it all together,
I'm so embarrassed I could die.
This BPH ain't getting better,
You might just think it's TMI.
I won't go out tonight,
It's killed my social life -
There's a bathroom on the right.
I won't go out tonight,
It's killed my social life -
There's a bathroom on the right.
"Countdown T-minus 6": Write a "McGuffin" poem. A McGuffin is, as Robert defines it, "an object (living or nonliving) that is necessary for the plot but has no greater value to the story." I also followed Robert's lead by writing, as he did, a "golden shovel" poem - a poem that uses a line or more from another's poet's work, using each word in order from that line as the last word in each of the new poem's lines. The form was created by poet Terrance Hayes, inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks' famous poem "We Real Cool" (subtitled "The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel.") My inspiration was a haiku by Katsushiku Hokusai:
erase again, and then
a poppy blooms
The golden shovel does not have to reflect the subject or theme of the original poem, but I decided to go in that direction, expanding, you might say, on Hokusai's idea.
(golden shovel of a haiku by Katushika Hokusai)
stumble over a shovel, and write
about it, then change my mind, erase
the entire thing, then rewrite
that whole stolen image, and start again
with a fresh sheet of paper and
a new pen, then
blossoming, and I think of a bright red poppy
or better yet, zinnias, their Technicolor blooms
(Check back soon for more daily poems!)
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