NaPoWriMo #8: Time for Bed

The elves in my head give me nothing but dread
when they pound their wee hammers in frolicsome knells
upon their brass gongs.  They beat drums made of lead
and subject me to torments of ten thousand hells
'til I wave my white flag and retreat into bed.
Then the songs of their noise start to conjure up spells.
Gossamer faeries spring up from the deep.
and dance all night long with the elves while I sleep.

--April 8, 2013
Prompt: Ottava rima--an eight-line poem with a rhyme scheme of ab ab ab cc.  Traditionally it's supposed to be in iambic pentameter, but I had trouble enough with the rhymes!

NaPoWriMo #7: Turtle in a Tank

I see black squares painted on your belly.  
I see you glide unburdened by your shell.
I wonder how you grew so small.
An age ago you swam with dinosaurs.
You gave piggyback rides to shipwrecked sailors.
Now you fit inside my pocket.
What is freedom to a turtle in a tank?

--April 7, 2013

Prompt: Every line is a single, declarative sentence, except the last one, which is a question.

Note: I got through the first week of NaPoWriMo!  I'm rather surprised.  I didn't expect to be able to write poetry everyday.

Weekly Update: 4/6/13

These past few days, I've been feeling slightly depressed.  It's a soft and lingering sadness, a shadow that hangs over my heart.  I think it comes of overmining my ideas.  I love to write, but sometimes when I write too much, I feel drained of emotions, a little empty.  I think the worst part is putting your whole heart into something and wondering whether any of it will be read, appreciated, cherished.  You hope for it, but realistically you know that most of what you write will languish in obscurity.  You wonder what's the point.

I got another rejection this week.  #20, I think.  Maybe that's the cause of all this angst.

Anyway, this month, I began Camp NaNoWriMo and NaPoWriMo.  In essence, I write 15,000 words a week and a poem a day.  So far, that's been going fine, but so far I haven't had a lot of substituting jobs.  Next week is vacation, so I should be okay.  It's the last two weeks that trouble me.

I feel--as I always feel--that I should have gotten more accomplished this week.  I've been disorganized lately, and I haven't kept track of my hours.  Again.

NaPoWriMo #6: Little Wrinkled Thing

Little wrinkled thing,
peach-soft, coated
in slime. You
draw air from
my lungs.  You
cry for attention.
Hush.
Don't you know,
little wrinkled thing,
the world wants
to kill you?
They'll gnaw you.
They'll scratch you.
They'll eat you
up.  Don't worry.
I'll give you
my skin.  Until
you're big enough
to take their
beatings, I'll bleed
for you, my
little wrinkled thing.
Hush.
So many things.
I must decide
who to protect
and who to
die.

--April 6, 2013
Prompt: Say Goodbye in a Poem.  (I did not do this. Instead, I found myself musing on ideas and how easily they are killed by criticism.)

NaPoWriMo #5: The Fault of Spring

Is it
the fault of spring
that warm days drive men to
war, that cherry petals fall on
corpses?

--April 5, 2013

Prompt: Write a cinquain, a five stanza poem with 2, 4, 6, 8 and 2 syllables, with an even number of stressed and unstressed sylables.  (I'm not sure I got that part right.)

NaNoWriMo #4: What Makes April a Cruel Month

What makes April a cruel month
is her insistence
on veiling forgotten nests
with white cotton puffs
of freckled cherry blossoms.

--April 4, 2013

Prompt: Use a name of an Iain M. Banks spaceship (ie, Lightly Seared on the Reality Grill) as a title of the poem.  But this didn't inspire me, so I just wrote my own poem.

NaPoWriMo #3: Silly Shanty

The first time I swam in the ocean,
I got swallowed by a whale.
She brought me to the very bottom,
And that's where I begin this tale.

I met with Poseidon and his daughters.
They didn't like the sight of me.
So they shooed me to a desert isle
with a single coconut tree.

I had no companions save for Ginger,
my pretty little calico cat.
But one day a coconut fell from the tree,
and my pretty little Ginger went splat.

Pirates sailed to my island.
They were searching for lost gold.
But I stole their ship while they dug and dug
And I left them out in the cold.

I sailed to Tahiti and New Zealand.
And then to the island of Japan.
A samurai showed me how to use a sword,
but I missed and sliced open a man.

His family swore to have their vengeance.
They slew me and stuck me on a pole.
My soul slipped down into Hades,
Where Cerebus devoured me whole.

Saint Peter came to read my misdeeds.
He told me I'd done so very wrong.
He asked me what I regretted the most,
And I said, "Ever writing down this song."

--April 3, 2013

Prompt: A Sea Shanty (A rhymed, rythmic song of the sea)

NaPoWriMo #2: Mermaid's Melody

I have swallowed tears of whales
and choked on bones of jellyfish
to walk with Lover hand-in-hand
on white shores made of dried stardust.

I have sung a song of love
in coral woodlands, vast and deep
"Come back to me," my mother cries.
I hear her voice yet in my sleep.

I have sailed a silver ballroom
in a green dress soft as moss
to witness Lover pluck a kiss
from a strange maid's lips of rose.

I have sung a song of love
in lonely dungeons, dark and deep.
"Come back to me," my lover cries.
I hear his voice yet in my sleep.

I have combed the salty dewdrops,
scarlet blood, from out my hair,
just to keep in Lover's chest
the knife carved of my mother's pearl.

--April 2, 2013

Prompt: A poem that tells a lie

NaPoWriMo #1: Epitaph on an Artist

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after.
He sought it in low-countries where men turned their head.
But when he met the beast, it would not yield.
So he wrestled with it until blood
Was wrung from his veins, until
Tears dripped down his face, and Defeat
Graciously accepted him.
Children stare at the scars on his body,
Eyes bright with wonder.

--April 1, 2013

Prompt: Use the first line of a famous poem to write your own poem.

Poem Used: "Epitaph on a Tyrant" by W.H. Auden

Introduction to NaPoWriMo

April is National Poetry Writing Month, also known as NaPoWriMo.  So, I'm going to try something a bit different.  This month, I'm going to write and post all my poems on this blog.  Now bear in mind that I'm not really a poet and my material isn't polished.  For me this is an experiement in endurance and brevity.

For more information on NaPoWriMo go to www.napowrimo.net

Happy April.