NaPoWriMo Day 14: Dialogue - Conversation Hearts

Last semester, I was feeling very burned out, so I took a spiral and found a quiet spot next to a bald cypress and a pond on campus. There were some ducks on the pond and that day I wrote a poem that was a conversation between myself and the duck, which would be perfect for today's prompt, unfortunately. I'm not entirely sure where that spiral is so I'm going to write a new dialogue poem today (but not between myself and a duck).

Conversation Hearts

Half of my heart
Says it wants to fall in love with someone new.

But the other half

Says it wants to fall in love with you

Why?

The feelings are stale

The butterflies,

The fireworks,

Aren't there.

Don't you want the excitement

Of someone new?

To fall in love again

To learn someone's 

Past

Present

Dreams

Again.

He is changing I see

And I think he is the right one for me

He is comfortable

Strong

He will keep me safe

New is uncertain

And opens me up to be broken

Why would you want to break again?

To have to put everything back together again?

Someone new could break you

It is true

But he could break you too.

You've got to take risks

If you want to find love

Whether someone new or old

You might get broken

The story is untold

But the facts are these:

He broke you before,

He can do it again.

Why give him a chance again?

You say those feelings of love

Are gone

And that is true

But that is because this is old love

Not new

The point of love is not to feel the

Butterflies and the fireworks

Its years in the future

When you are old

And your husband is there by your side

As you look back on your life

You may not feel the excitement

But that doesn't mean the love is faded

You are just jaded.

Jaded? Jaded?

I am not jaded!

It is you who was jaded these past years

Angry and so full of fears.

I am ready to move forward

And take a chance

But you only want to look back

I am looking back

Accepting the good with the bad

Do you not remember,

there was more good than bad?

I am simply unwilling to give up 

On what we had.

But I want to move forward

I am looking to the future

With an eye to the past.

We had a love that might last.

I want to try again

With him

With someone new

A heart divided cannot make up its mind.

Take a chance on love, old or new,

Sharon

NaPoWriMo Day 13: Riddle Poem

Today's prompt is to write a riddle poem; all of the details are located here.


It is a journey almost completed,
A marathon almost finished
The mountain almost summited
Moments before midnight, New Year's Eve
Both question and answer
Pages til the end of one chapter
But not the ending of the novel
The light at the end of the tunnel
The last minutes of an all-nighter

It is so important to me,
What can it be?



It doesn't quite feel finished to me. But I am having trouble thinking of more ways to describe it. I know very well what it is, but I wonder if someone else could solve my riddle? What do you think it is, fellow NaPoWriMo-ers?

Riddle me this,

Sharon

NaPoWriMo Day 12

Today's prompt was an interesting one. Read it here. This poem didn't really turn out how I expected, it started in one place with a certain intention and morphed along the way. Here is my response to today's prompt.

His mother thought his eyes were "caca" brown;
I thought they were creamy like chocolate
I liked his curly, brown hair short,
Just long enough that it curled out under his hat
I liked the cowboy hats better, but nowadays he tends to wear baseball caps.
The way he smiled when he was really happy
The mischievous look in his eyes when he tried to pretend he was innocent
How he acted like a little kid when he got excited.

But when he got mad, his mouth was a straight line
His eyes were dark and cloudy
Punched his steering wheel - cut his hand open
Never aggressive toward people,
Took his anger out on inanimate things
But I knew he was someone you wouldn't want to corner.

But when he was sad, that was the worst
Hearing him cry
Trying to choke back the tears
It sounded so awful
Knowing he was so broken inside
I looked into his eyes
Saw all the way down to his broken soul
I wished I could reach in
Put the pieces back together
But I couldn't, that is something he must do himself.

And just when he was getting better
When things were starting to be okay
I began to realize
I was no longer in love with him
I still cared deeply
But not in the same way
And I will never forget the look in his eyes that day
Betrayed.

Sharon

NaPoWriMo Day 11 - Sapphic

Today's prompt is to write a poem in the form of a Sapphic. This is a poem of quatrains. Three of which have eleven syllables and the last has five. If that weren't difficult enough, it has a very specific meter associated with it....This one is going to take me awhile. Meter is always something I struggle with. I have a lot of trouble understanding stressed and unstressed syllables...The meter is a little bit forced in this poem so I have capitalized the syllables that are supposed to be stressed and inserted hyphens between syllables in one word. After working on it for awhile, here it is:

Sorr-y If this Comes as a Sur-prise To you
But i Just don't Feel how i Used to A-bout
You. i Still do Care a-bout You but I don't
            Feel the way I did

I want You to Un-der-stand I did Not mean
To stop Lov-ing You. i'm not Ev-en Sure when
My feel-Ings changed. I do still Care a-bout you.
             I was con-Fused too

I felt As though I were a-Wake-en-Ing from
A deep Sleep, re-Luc-tant-ly. Just the Way you
Try to Re-mem-Ber dreams, i Lost the Feel-ing
            Of be-ing In love

It was Not what I wanted At all But the
More i Tried to Find that place In my Heart the
Fur-ther It was, Just as i For-get My dreams
            As i a-Wake-en

Dear, do Not break Your own heart, I still Long to
Love you. Come here, Take my hand. I be-Lieve you
Still hold The key If you want To help Me fall
            For you once A-gain.

An odd feeling, but one I am feeling,

Sharon

NaPoWriMo - Day 10: Abecedarian Poem

Today's prompt is to write a poem with a structure derived from the alphabet...here goes nothing.




Always I am hungry
Bored with the usual meals
Craving something
Different, delicious
Every now and then I find the perfect snack
Feeding my stomach and satisfying my tastebuds
Generally, though my cravings are nearly insatiable. Yes I am
Hungry. Wondering what to eat for lunch. Bread smells delicious.
I am trying to wait til one, to eat with a friend but the task is impossible
Just now my stomach is tying itself in
Knots, threatening to devour itself.
Leave me alone ravenous stomach, I will feed you soon enough!
Mere minutes stand between you and food (well, thirty-two)
No, thoughts of food won't satisfy you, you threaten to announce your starvation, letting
Out an ominous growl...I know I must eat something soon
Please just calm down, I will feed you soon enough! I have gotten myself into
Quite the quandary, by trying to wait to feed you
Really, you just ought to be more patient
Still I wonder if I couldn't have a tiny snack to satiate you
Til my friend is here to eat at one
Unless, I could just eat by myself and not care
Very urgent is my stomach as it turns inwardly
Willing me to go get something to eat; if I were a plant, sugars would course through my
Xylem, and I would never feel hungry nor  would I have a stomach to aggravate me
Yes, the life of a plant sounds nice to me
Zoic, though, I am and so I have a hungry stomach, and food it demands.








I really am quite hungry. And 'zoic' is a word; it means "relating to or having animal life." Even though the prompts are sometimes difficult (like this one), I don't want April to end!

Write, write, write away

Sharon

NaPoWriMo Day 9

Sorry this is so late. Today has been a very busy day for me. I've had a lot on my mind. I'm not really feeling the prompt today. I couldn't come up with a concept I liked so I'm just going to write a random poem instead, inspired by my current mood at this very moment. Today has been an emotional roller coaster for me and right now, I am, unfortunately, in a low mood (but about 15 minutes ago, I was great...)



I see the things you think I don't
When you say one thing
But it's only a half truth
I know the things you think I don't
You think you are sly and cunning,
like a fox,
but you're not.
You're like a skunk,
Cute,
but,
I can
    see
and
    smell
and
     feel
everywhere you've been.
Your path so obvious to me
But you still think that I don't see.
I am shaking, mad, and sick
Why do you think you're so slick?
You complain about not having time
But then you go and waste it.
I won't save you anymore
That is what responsibility is for.
I'm not stupid
You aren't either
And maybe if you take responsibility
Instead of pawning it off on me,
maybe,
then, and only, then
there can be something more
but otherwise
I won't lie,
I've already got one foot out the door.

Not in a good mood, but I hope you are,

Sharon

NaPoWriMo - Day 8: Palinode

Today's prompt is to write a palinode which is, apparently, a poem that retracts a statement in a previous poem. If we don't have a statement in a poem we'd like to retract, Maureen (Ms. Thorson) suggests that we write about why we changed our mind about something instead. I think that is what I'm going to do.


There is much debate about why
I decided the summer after high school
To go here, instead of there.
My sister insists that it is because of a boy
(who later broke my heart);
She is still bitter about it
(Notice I said she, not I)
And, I suppose that is part.
But I was also scared
To be so far away from home
And I didn't have a car to make the trek
Whenever I wanted to
I would have been stuck there,
All alone,
Until a holiday
When my parents would've come to get me.
There is also the fact that they told me
That they had nowhere for me to live
But I was required to live on campus -
NO getting around it.
Where would I sleep?
I wondered.
Where would all my things go?
But here,
Is just down the road from home
I could commute
(Just 30 minutes).
There is much debate about why
I decided to go to Texas State
Instead of Texas A&M - Galveston
Even though things have worked out well
I've been on the Dean's List a few times
I joined an honor society
A Christian sorority
A Christian fellowship
I've made friends
I've gotten jobs
I've grown closer to God
I've become slightly more independent
Sometimes I'm really happy here
(When I'm not I'm usually tired, hungry, stressed, burned out).
And now I feel more confident to spread my wings
And wander further from my parents.
So really things have worked out quite well.
But all of these benefits are wiped away
When my sister says
"You should have gone to A&M Galveston"
And she blames it all on that boy, maybe unjustly.
Maybe she should thank him,
But she refuses to see
That maybe
(Just maybe)
Going to Texas State
Was the best thing
For me.



Not really sure if this qualifies as the suggested variation of a palinode, but this is my attempt for today's prompt! What do you think? Please tell, I won't bite!

Sometimes what we think is best for someone else, isn't,

Sharon