Lucky Cat Comics

Welcome all to April and another month of poetry. This is a very, very busy April for me, so I don’t expect to make every day in a timely manner. But I have managed a little something for today, following the prompt from NaPoWriMo.net. Today’s prompt; “write – without consulting the book – a poem that recounts the plot, or some portion of the plot, of a novel that you remember having liked but that you haven’t read in a long time.”

colleague mentor comrade mole

ex-wife partner ally foe

whodunnit where when why

tinker trailer soldier spy

Hello All and welcome to the last day of NaPoWriMo 2023. Today’s prompt, “to write a palinode – a poem in which you retract a view or sentiment expressed in an earlier poem.” I scanned my month of poems, and discovered in my poem from April 8, (the 20 little poetry projects poem) that I had this line that might be fun to retract: (full disclosure, after posting this, I retracted the retracting and rearranged the poem, twice.)

“Every quotable quote came from an aggrieved party”

Quotable how?
Quotable new?
Quotable now?
Quotable few

Citation thou
Citation knew
Citation bow
Citation true

Aggrieved how?
Aggrieved you?
Aggrieved now?
Aggrieved too?

Quotable how?
Quotable new
Quotable now
Quotable you!

Hello All – Today’s prompt, from the NaPoWriMo site, “Start by reading Alberto Rios’s poem “Perfect for Any Occasion.” Now, write your own two-part poem that focuses on a food or type of meal. At some point in the poem, describe the food or meal as if it were a specific kind of person. Give the food/meal at least one line of spoken dialogue.” I have a particular favourite.

Meet Cute

MacIntosh Honey Crisp
Meet Aged Cheddar

You come from vastly
different worlds

Fresh young apple
Crackling with nectar

Stodgy solid cheese
Musty and bold

One heart shaped fruit
one brick of dairy

They are groomed 
Carved and put to bed


Ever after

Mingled in a blanket
Of flour tortilla

They wink and sigh
Crisp flirting with Elastic

Some dates paper bag
On the go, beach or park

Others, evening smoulder
Melting together with wine

So simple so grand
A waltz through the ages

Hot or cold they whisper
“You complete me.”

Hello All! Today’s prompt is to write a poem based on an index. And this poem is inspired by the index in my favorite book on children’s literature, Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult, by Bruce Handy.

imagination
…and Aesop; mules, morals, foxes
…and animal stories; just so, beloved bests
…and Baum; witches, wizards, striped soxes 
…and Cleary; friends, siblings, pests
…and Dr. Seuss; cats, hats, Horton, whos 
…and Good Night Moon; air, cow, hush, kittens
…and Milne; donkeys, piglets, poohs
…and Potter; rabbits, foxes, mice, mittens
…and red wheelbarrow; chickens, rain
…and Sendak; Max, monsters, wild
…and White; some pig, spider humane
…and Wind in the Willows; animals, beguiled

Hello All. The prompt today was “begin by reading Bernadette Mayer’s poem “The Lobelias of Fear.” Now write your own poem titled “The ________ of ________,” where the first blank is a very particular kind of plant or animal, and the second blank is an abstract noun. The poem should contain at least one simile that plays on double meanings or otherwise doesn’t quite make “sense,” and describe things or beings from very different times or places as co-existing in the same space.”

The Crabapples of Logistics

Sent to the trucks
parked like sardines,
empty parking lot
all to myself.
Mechanical day in an
industrial city,
black tarmac underfoot
cloud ceiling overhead.
Fifty three feet of 
trailer tunnel to reach 
tall double locked doors,
backed up into a 
tree lined wayside.
Contemplating life choices
that led me to wrestling
with tractor trailer latches,
the doors swing open
knocking into the trees
and showering me with
pink spring flowers.
Climbing into the grey
metal box, I’m smiling in
my wash of blossoms

Hello All. The prompt today – write a poem that focuses on, or plays with the meaning of the subjects name. I mostly played.

Judy Dench

Your name
Judy, Judy
Simple game
Judy, Judy
Not to blame
Judy, Judy
For your name
Judy, Judy

All the same
Judy, Judy
The surname
Judy, Judy
Means selfsame
Judy, Judy
Woman’s name
 Judy, Judy

Lots of fame
Judy, Judy
Much acclaim
Judy, Judy
You became
Judy, Judy
England’s Dame
Judy, Judy

Hello All. Today we write a love poem, one that names at least one flower, contains one parenthetical statement, and in which at least some lines break in unusual places. We started by reading the poem by e. e. cummings somewhere i have never traveled, gladly before. In honor of mr. cummings, I have done my poem in lower case.

poetry of diamonds

the pacing of poetry isn’t wasted
protagonist pitches woo at the plate
dusting caressing tantalizing
each inning a stanza
each batter writes a line
slicing words out of air
adding time - adding space -
cutting to the quick
         hitting bone or
                         - - - carving a hole in the sky
spectators bloom as lovers
a hill of phlox waving in the breeze
(asters, coreopsis, butterfly weed,
lupine - varieties of local enthusiasms)
come to rest, a lover’s heart on a string.
recite recite to stir the soul -
quoth the man in black - foul ball.

Hello All. Today’s prompt, to write a review of something that does not always get reviewed.

Allow me to describe
A system preposterous 
That only those aloft
View the calamitous 
Nature of design that
Made so nefarious 
Can swallow in total
Movement surreptitious
Progress can be halted
Spelled by serendipitous
Wrong way turn right or left
Navigation paradoxical 
Urban design Pollock-sonian
But somehow irresistible 
Roads of the Bostonian
1 star

Hello All! Today’s prompt – use sections and numbers to break up the poem, and set it in a specific place that you spent a lot of time once, but do not get to much anymore.

1

Land 
between
two rivers
rolling in my head
Sky 
framed
by green and gold
soaring in my heart

2

Voices 
calling 
mellow and low
in tall pastures
Larks
singing
a mimics call
from yellow throats 

3

Rust
leaves
valiantly clinging
rattle in the wind
Geese
darken
cooled clouds
pursuing the sun

4

Earth
velvet
 encrusted
 silver stalks
Drifts
softly
cover lattice fence
rolling ever on

Hello All. Today’s prompt was to take a poem by Emily Dickinson, strip it of its dashes, and put it together as prose, then break it apart again into a new poem. I have chosen Hope is the thing with feathers. Here is her poem #274.

Hope is a thing with feathers (274)

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

And here is my version, with only respect to Miss Dickinson.

The Song

The Bird is the soul
that perches, with feathers,
and sings.
The tune, without words,
should never stop
at all.
Never stop in the storm,
never wash away in the gale.
The sweetest songs must go on,
to keep the many warm.

I’ve heard over land and sea,
the chillest, strangest song.
And yet never,
even in extreme adversity,
has the little Bird asked
anything more 
than for me 
to sing along.