NaPoWriMo 2018 - Day 10

April 10th

a poem about things happening simultaneously

Oxymoronic

Being both happy and sad
Feeling both in love and heartbroken
Is oxymoronic
But true

At the wedding I see them
The bride and the groom
Singing to one another as they dance
I feel happy for them
But I long for a song in my ear

It was so sweet
You held me close
And sang softly in my ear
Your whispy voice only for me to hear
You were happy then

But at the present I sit alone
Surrounded by my family
You are not here.

The bride and groom look so in love
They can't take their eyes off each other
I remember when you looked at me that way
That time when your mother would say,
"True love ain't got nothing on them"
It was so sweet to hear.

The DJ calls the single ladies to the floor
I traipse out once more
I line up with the other few
Stepping back avoiding that
Dreaded - and longed for - catch
The bouquet
A sign to say
"I too will marry soon one day."

I think of the day not too long ago
When you told me
You didn't want to get married
And it felt as though my heart broke
Into a thousand shattered pieces
But even all those sharp edges
have never stopped loving you.

I think of the night we walked on the pier
You pulled my hair back
And I waited patiently
As you ran your fingers through
The tangles carefully
Separated it into three
And braided my hair for me.

I don't understand at all
How you can say
You love me most
But you don't want to marry me one day.

Nevertheless,
all my sharp edges
shall go on loving you
anyway.




To be quite honest, I hadn't planned to publish this poem the first go around. I stayed up late watching shows online and during a commercial break, popped over to see the prompt for today. As I watched another episode nascent ideas for this poem began to pop in my head. I was about to go to bed when I decided to jot down my ideas lest they flit away the way they often do. But after writing it all out and only making a few small changes here and there, I am going to go ahead and publish it because I think it turned out quite okay.

What do you think dear Reader?

Hope your poems treat you well,

Sharon

NaPoWriMo 2018 - 9

April 9th

Write a poem "in which something big and something small come together."

Up in the sky there is a tall cloud
There is ice in the top;
it begins to fall down
Ice hits water
And electrons drop off
The cloud becomes negative.
On the ground,
Like a magnet, opposites attract
Positive charged particles accumulate under the cloud
Positive reaches for negative
They yearn to touch
Negative reaches down
Positive up
Til finally in a bright flash of light, they kiss and ignite!


I had to get a little help explaining how lightning works . . . Check out planet science and scijinks for a lot more details. I hope you enjoyed this poem. Science and writing are two of my passions so I really had fun writing this one.

Keep up the poem-ing,

Sharon

NaPoWriMo 2018 Catch-Up Day 7,8

Whoops missed a couple days there. April 7th I went to a wedding; April 8th I guess I just was out of the habit.

April 7th

The prompt was to create a list of your identities then split them into identities you are secure in and ones you are vulnerable in. Then choose one from each list and make a poem where the two identities talk to each other.

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride
When will I find someone to stand by my side?

You are strong and independent

You don't need anyone's help

It isn't about help; I don't want to be alone

When I'm with couples, I just want to go home.

When you're at weddings you don't even try

To catch the bouquet; you practically hide.

Catching the bouquet is just superstition

But you always look for stars to wish on.

Admit that you want a companion for life

But so many marriages are wrought with strife.

Your strength is false bravado

Deep down you really don't want to be alone.

April 8th

The prompt was to write a poem "in which mysterious and magical things occur."

There once was a large beautiful bird

Adorned with feathers of red and gold

Time went by and eventually it grew old.

It built itself a nest

And rested there at night.

I saw an odd glow in the bird's grow

The bird and nest were afire

I watched in sadness, I shed a tear

Because I knew the birds' end was near.

Soon the glow dimmed

The fire consumed from within

All that remained was ash.

Then I watched in awe

As beak

Then eye

Then neck

and wing

Climbed out of the ash.

A bird young and healthy

Stared back at me!

It rose and stretched out its gold and red wings

Preened its feather with its gleaming beak,

I realized this bird could live infinitely.

There once was a beautiful forest grove

The trees mighty and strong

The branches wide, the leaves so green

It was the prettiest place I'd seen.

A lightning strike struck a tree

And soon the forest did ignite in entirety.

The trees became ashy and black

They fell and covered every path.

What once was majestic and green

Looked like the aftermath of a nuclear scene

Vacant and desolate an ashy wasteland,

Not the beautiful woodland.

As the years past

Hope emerged

In the form of the smallest green

Baby pine trees.

Those trees grew up to saplings and then

Eventually that forest was again.

Sad and hard as it seems

Life yields to death

And death makes way for life again.

Death allows the world to thrive

It isn't magic, it isn't mystic

It is the way of nature: cyclic.

Keep writing!

Sharon

NaPoWriMo 2018 - Day 6

April 6th

Today's prompt is to "stretch your comfort zone with line breaks." Apparently this could mean very long lines or very short lines, or a mix of both. I think I tend to dabble in mid-length. It makes me antsy when a line is much longer or much shorter than the others. So I guess a mix of both it is.

I am a night owl and it is just after midnight that I'm working on this and I'm struggling to figure out what to write about. I have a tendency to not write until very late resulting in poems published late, unless I stay up and work on them when the next day's poetry prompt goes live, but I don't know what to write about. Contrary to the thought that just popped in my head, I am NOT going to write about that.



I once had a dream
that you
died.

I said it couldn't be true
It couldn't be right.

But others insisted.

So I put on blackandwenttothefuneralandsat in the back
full of fear
That your family would sneer
And snarl "What are you doing here?"

And there, in front of the church
In an open coffin
You lay
All pale.

My heart pounded
pounded
pounded
in my chest
and my ears.

This isn't right.
I said.



I awoke in a sweat, my heart racing, my mind in a haze of confusion: was it true?
Had I lost you?

You
called
Early
in the morning.

"I'm glad you called," I said, "I dreamed you were dead."
You seemed completely unphased
You joked.

Joked.

"That's right, I'm calling from the grave."

I must have objected.

You
Asked how it'd happened
"Something about a car and a bridge."
You made a joke

Again.

"Well that couldn't be true,
I don't drive cars."

You told me I needed to change something I was doing
That was giving me weird dreams.

Then you changed the subject.

But it still nags at me.

If something happened to you
Would I know?
Would I be
told?

And really, I guess
it boils
down
to
this:

Does anyone

anyone

in your world
know we are
a
"we?"

Losing you is perhaps
my greatest fear

But the thought haunts me

haunts

me

Would I even know
if
you

disappeared?

So yeah, that was interesting,

Sharon

NaPoWriMo 2018 - Day 5

April 5th

Today's prompt is an interesting one. It almost sounds like a writing assignment. It boils down thusly:

1. Find a picture.
2. Find a poem in an unfamiliar language.
3. "Translate" the poem into English (or your native tongue) as though the poem is about the picture.


The picture I chose to use was one I took at a state park today. I was trying to take a picture of the honeybee, but my phone focused on the background instead. The poem I used for inspiration is by Ann Jaderlund and was in Swedish; you can find the original and its translation here. I chose a language I know nothing about so that I wouldn't be trying to literally translate the poem, although I must admit I saw the name of the poem in English and that could be why I was drawn to it.

Bees are drawn to flowers and I am drawn to bees
The bee gets nectar and pollen from the flower
On these things it feeds.
Even bees need water.
I need water too.
Are there more things in commons than these?
Does the bee watch me similarly?
The bee hums to another flower.
Unaware of the bee and me
The river rushes 
on.









I'm not sure how much inspiration I really took from the original poem, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Happy writing

Sharon

NaPoWriMo 2018 - Day 4

April 4th

Essentially today's prompt boils down to this: Discuss the abstract with concrete nouns. You really should check out the post at NaPoWriMo.net today (linked in the date above). I love Maureen's example (go read it, I'll wait).

Also, you should read the craft resource that inspired today's prompt. It's an essay by a poetry professor that contains the advice "put a dog in it." I find this advice a bit ironic as my Day 2 poem prominently featured my dog.

I think I tend to write fairly concretely, but the idea of writing about something abstract concretely threw me for a loop. It took me awhile, but a subject came to me while I was reading Julie Wade's essay (the one I mentioned above; I'll just link to it here; even though you can get to it from the NaPoWriMo page).

I apologize that my poem is (in my opinion) a bit long. If you would prefer something shorter, I have written a concise poem to the same prompt; just scroll all the way to the end.

Please do comment on today's post or any of my previous (and future) posts. I love the community this project creates. Feel free to link to your poetry blogs - I love reading others' works.



I was afraid to work in my hometown
Because I was afraid of what 'they' would say.
Former teachers, friends, acquaintances, their parents.
I could imagine myself waitressing
They would smile at me
And as I would walk away they would shake their heads and say
"She was so smart. She had such promise. What happened?"
I could imagine them speculating
Un-true realities.
Un-fulfilled promise - that's me.
Like seeds you plant
In perfect soil that you bought from the Tractor Supply store
The kind that leaves your hands black and a bit musty smelling
And you made sure it was in a spot that wouldn't get too much sun
Or shade
And you carefully watered it
Fertilized it too
And, at first,
That little plant grew.
It poked its little green head from the soil
Full of promise of the beautiful flowers to come.
It stretched out its green dicotyledons
But then, for unknown reasons, it withered and died.
That's me, promise unfulfilled.

So instead, I chose to work thirty minutes away
In retail.
Yes, retail.
A store that is open practically every day.
I never imagined it would be this way.





And another briefer bonus poem for today's prompt:

Unrequited love
Is rather like a letter
Sent and returned unopened
Stamped: "Return to Sender."

I feel a bit morose now; I hope today brings you happier poems.

-Sharon

NaPoWriMo Day 3

April 3rd

Today's prompt is a bit of an odd one. To write a poem that is a list of made up band names. So here goes . . .


Escape the Rooster
Let the Puppies Run Free
The Blind Cat
A Bit Crazy
The Yard
Overrun by Poison Ivy
Indecisive
My Middle Name
Five Angry Dads
Catheters Make Wee
Sleeping on the Couch
No TV for Me.

Welll that was weird,

Sharon