Monday, April 11, 2016

Napowrimo 2016 Days 7 - 10

Oh dear, I've fallen quite behind I'm afraid. But don't count me out, I'm still here! Time to catch up . . . Here's a poetry wham bam coming your way!

Day 7: Tritina: 3 three line stanzas with a concluding line. Each line has a concluding word in the following pattern ABC CAB BCA, with the last line having all three words.

A: Several times a day,
B: We take our walk,
C : And afterward from your fur, I must pull stickers

C: You chew at the stickers
A: Multiple times a day
B: After we return from our walk.

B: Along the beach I hope to walk
C: We three (or four) will not find any stickers
A: Oh how I long for the day.

All words: I long for the day when I shall walk with my two great loves and not find any stickers.


Day 8: A poem about flowers

In tropical climes
Flowers abound
In all sorts of forms
They can be found.

They climb on vines
Adorn bushes
Decorate trees
To which flower does my heart pushes?

Is it the ones which grow in lines?
The aster?
The jasmine?
Or is it the double oleander my heart is after?

What flower does my heart seek to find?
Perhaps its the hibiscus?
The rose?
A flower with sap most viscous?

Which flower is sought by this quest of mine?
All of them!
All of them I desire!
I'll pluck an example of each and braid my hair with these gems!


Day 9: A poem that includes a line you're afraid to write . . . oh dear . . .

In November,
I was in a wreck.
My car rolled more than a few times.
I walked away with nary a scratch.
And I can't help but wonder why
My life was spared.
I should be dead, deceased, extinct!
But I'm still here;
Why me?
Is there something more I'm meant for?
If so, why didn't I know it before?
What am I doing?
I'm quite lost, I'm afraid.
And the girl in the mirror
I don't think
Is the one that I should see.
Now which line is the one that scares me? You tell me.

Day 10: Book Spine Poem - I don't have a lot of books here . . .

I've got a small library
It represents my interests many
Perhaps a book will strike your fancy?
There's Loveology for the lovelorn
The title of the book, paired with the description makes me scorn
Loveology is a theology of love, the back claims
Don't you know your latin, I exclaim?
-ology means the study of
So really, Loveology is the study of love.
Maybe that isn't your cup of tea.
You'd prefer something with a recipe
In that case, The Cookie Bible is the book you should see
So many recipes, yet I've only cooked a few.
The last two are textbooks,
But still they might interest you.
I don't have a book on flamingos or fish,
But if you want to learn about the paedomorphic
Then Reptiles and Amphibians of Texas, I'd recommend.
Lastly that brings us to a book, I'm sure will intrigue you
If rodents and lagomorphs
Strike your fancy, Mammalogy is the book I'd reach for.


Well there's something, at least.

Keep on churning out the poetry, friend!
Sharon

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Napowrimo Day 6

Today's prompt was to write a poem about food, or inspired by food, or about our relationship with food. Mine is closest to the latter.

"Anorexic?"
They questioned.
"Bulimic."
They reasoned.
"Gumby."
They jeered.
I was thin, a little gangly.
Girls can be mean in high school.
I was awkward,
but man could I eat.
I ate when I was bored, sad, mad, glad,
And of course when I was hungry.
I ate four meals a day, plus snacks.
But I never purged in any way,
My body was just built that way.
I could eat, eat, eat
And not gain an ounce for weeks.
Medical professionals seemed unconcerned.
But  girls always made comments about my size
In response to which, my cheeks burned
And I was anorexic, they more often than not implied.
Even now "You're so TINY."
They say.
But now, while I'm still built that way,
I barely eat one meal a day.
Having been accused of an eating disorder for so long,
I seem to have developed one along the way.
I still like food I do.
And I still like to eat, eat, eat.
But I've gotten so good at procrastinating
That I even wait to put food on my plate.
Most days I get one good meal and a few snacks
I love to cook
But my quantity of meals per day seems to top out at two, max.
I usually blame it on lack of time
But there is part of me deep inside that says,
"I'm thin and I'd prefer to keep it that way."


I don't really talk about this much . . . Suffice it to say, I like food, but my relationship with it is not the healthiest. In high school I definitely didn't have an eating disorder, but now? I'm not sure. I really wish people wouldn't comment on my size or weight, but it is what it is. I guess.

Sharon

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Napowrimo Day 5

Today's prompt was to write a poem inspired by the oddly interesting names of heirloom vegetables. I have worked the names of a few into a completely unrelated free verse poem.



like a Sunrise full of Bumblebees
at the beginning of an Early Golden Summer
when you Crook your Neck because the sun is so bright,
sometimes I have a Tongue of Fire
and speak my mind freely with no filter
but really I am like a Clemson, Spineless
I always regret those hasty words and wish my tongue was tame
my words are sometimes too big for me to stand behind
and I feel as though they my tongue taunts me, yelling “Fooled You!”
and I wish to retire to a Turkish Striped Monastery
where the monks have taken a vow of silence
so that my words may never betray me again


The heirlooms I incorporated are as follows (not in the order they are in the poem):

Fooled You Hybrid Pepper
Turkish Striped Monastery Tomato
Sunrise Bumblebee Tomato
Clemson Spineless Okra
Early Golden Summer Crookneck Summer Squash
Tongue of Fire Bean
 



Happy Heirloom Inspired Writing!
Sharon

 

Monday, April 4, 2016

Napowrimo day 4

The prompt was to write a poem about the cruelest month, but I couldn't decide on a cruelest month so I've written a poem that has reasons each month could be the cruelest month - though no reason seems good enough to me to declare a month cruel.

January is the cruelest month
          You have to remember to write a new year
          The nights are cold and long
          You have few holidays to enjoy.

February is the cruelest month
           A fat baby flies around shooting people with arrows
           People celebrate love
            A groundhog predicts long winter or early spring
            Fate at the hands of a groundhog – really?

March is the cruelest month
            It seems as though it’s warm
            But then it suddenly is cold
            And then – to make it all worse – the allergies set in!

April is the cruelest month
           Everyone is a fool on the first
          Taxes are due the 15th
           Will you get cash back or will you have to write a check? We shall see!

May is the cruelest month
          Graduates have so much hope
           It’s getting consistently warm – maybe even hot
           Kids just can’t wait to be free

June is the cruelest month
          Everyone and their dog gets married
          Pointing out the loneliness of those who are not
          The longest day of the year occurs – when will the heat end?

July is the cruelest month
          We celebrate the beginning of a brutal revolution
           Gunpowder fills the air
          The dog days of summer are here!

August is the cruelest month
           Summer is coming to an end!
            We must get ready for school
             And it always seems that we really wasted our vacation.

September is the cruelest month
          Other places have fall in September, but Texas is not so kind
          Cool crisp air, apples on trees? Not here, no sirree!
          At the end of the month is a personal reminder of growth; the 30th can’t go by without me
           Feeling at least a little bit old.

October is the cruelest month
            A false sense that winter is coming
            Hope for a comfortable Halloween
            Adults can’t go trick-or-treating – no candy for me!

November is the cruelest month
                This November will be a year since my wreck
               A pretty bad accident it was – but physically I’m okay
               Thanksgiving will come then and I’ll spend all day cooking and hoping for no drama.

December is the cruelest month
             My bank account will groan
             The days get shorter

              Nights spent wrapping carefully, beautiful packages made – undone in minutes on the day.

Napowrimo Day3

I'm already behind . . . oh well! Two poems today to catch up!

First is yesterday's which was to write a fan letter poem - which I didn't really do. Instead I've written a poem about Marie Antoinette, but not really a fan letter, I'm not sure what I would classify it as, but here it is:

Marie Antoinette
Born in Austria
Youngest of fifteen
Trained from a young age to be queen
Married King Louis XVI
And there her misfortunes began
He did not even make the wedding
They were married by proxy you see.
They lived a life quite lavish.
Things went downhill fast.
For King Louis,
No good was he
At ruling his country.
The people they did revolt.
The streets of Paris ran red with the blood
 Of the ruling class and the nobility
First went the king
Then dear Marie
Was falsely accused
And her head was demanded too.
I have always had some odd attraction
To Mademoiselle Marie.
Misfortune befell her
Though she never did anything wrong.
When people get mad
They act like cads
And go beheading innocent people.
Of Dear Miss Marie,

I’m quite fond you see, though inexplicably.

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Napowrimo 2016 - Day 2

Today's prompt was to write a poem in the form of a family portrait. Ms. Thorson suggested spending time discussing each member of your family, but I took a different route. Also, the portrait I reference does exist (though it isn't framed); it is over the couch in the living room at my parents' house. Without further ado:

We smile down from the wall
Six of us in all
Five wear red; one in white.
I smile unaware of how much life will change
Me, the youngest in the frame.
My siblings are all there, but alone
No plus ones I mean.
And my parents are happy too
Because their family is always together over holidays and breaks from school.
Oh, I was such a fool
To think it would stay this way.
When was this picture taken anyway?
Was I in high school?
Or still trying to survive junior high?
Our faces really don’t look very different.
But now my siblings are pairing off.
My parents and I took a family photo for the church directory this year
Just the three of us.
A family of six; reduced by half.
And yet we are more.
My brother, his wife, their son.
My sister, her husband.
My sister, her boyfriend.
You can’t invite one without expecting the other.
They are attached at the very hip
As connected as conjoined twins.
Sometimes I just want to spend time with them
Only them.
My siblings and me.
Why can’t they see?
Maybe I am a little bitter
Because years ago they rejected my significant other

Ah, but that is another thing entirely . . .


2 days down, 28 to go!
Sharon

Friday, April 1, 2016

NaPoWriMo 2016!

It's April and that can mean only one thing: NaPoWriMo!

Today's prompt from NaPoWriMo.net was to write a lune which is similar to a haiku, but has three lines with a syllable count of 5,3,5. Here is my very simple lune:


Anchors on a boat
Weigh it down

So to do my doubts



Happy Writing!
Sharon