Lucky Cat Comics

Hello All! A series of very long work days caught up with me, and derailed my Poetry Month posting. So here are 3 poems, to get me up to date.

April 21 – Delight

The prompt for the 21st, choose an abstract noun (from a list) to use as the title, and write a poem, with short lines, containing at least one made up word.

Delight

Crotchety comes
Crotchety goes
But your smiles
Always shine
Through

Your turn of phrase
Your gift of gab
All the jokes 
We had as 
We grew

Fussing on car trips
They ate my Snookeroo
Now the finest 
Journeys certainly
Include you

Wedding look backs
University woes
We can laugh at
Loony things
We knew

Counting the many
Joys in my life
My siblings
Over sixty
Are two

April 20 – Future Archeology

The prompt for today, to write about an object discovered by future archeologists. I have always wondered:

In 10,000 years
what will they think of you?
Toy or Idol?
Icon or Over-Lord?
My tiny R2D2

April 19 – A Myth from Childhood

The prompt for the 19th was to write about a myth from childhood, or horror, or fantasy, that has stuck with you through the years. Mine may be unlike any other, but it still with me, every time I drive under a railway bridge.

The railroad bridge looms 
All steal and angles and dark
A heavy train approaches
All smoke and wheels and noise
They told me, I know it,
I think I think I think
The car slips under the bridge
All chrome and 8 track and family
My eyes are on the moving train
All awe and wonder and thrill
I know, someone told me
I think, I think, I think
The caboose is almost overhead
All boxy and simple and red
The car passes under the connection
All train and linkage and caboose
Does it happen? Is it free?
Does some magic break the link?
The car rolls on, the 8 track loops
All Lerner and Lowe and Beetles
I long to know if the caboose is free
All slow and coasting and solo
Someone told me, years ago
I think I think I think

We will remember

You brought us joy and laughter

Shine on Ben, shine on

Hello All. The prompt today, write a poem about an edible plant. After a 12 hour day I just had time for this little ditty.

the life span of peas

Tendrils reaching 
Clinging climbing
Leaves unfolding
Late spring timing
Flowers blooming
Bees humming
Pods setting
Peas coming
Summer crisping
Ready brining 
Plants vanishing
Rabbit dining

Hello All. Todays prompt was to write a poem of negation, to describe something by what it’s not. After an 11 hour work day, here is my poem.

Sleep I implore you,
The sheets they await
Let me restore you
Curl up for it’s late

These are not your ceilings
This is not your floor
The mirror reflects your feelings
But a keycard opens the door

Inner cupboards always
Starkly bare as bone
The outer narrow hallways
Repetitions of alone

No mail piles the desktop
To testify life happened in
A space fronting a truck stop 
This must be a Brampton Inn

Hello All. The prompt for today was to write a poem extolling the virtues of something, or someone, while actually exposing your doubts. I wrote about that ever popular pearl of advice – study hard and become rich and famous.

Get Rich and Famous

Grow up young thing,
fly into the world.
Study hard for
success will follow
the money to find
Fame.

Fame
Celebrity
Notoriety
Infamy

The path is well worn,
following the rainbow end.

Grow up young thing,
trek into the world.
Study what you love,
work will follow
the passion to build
Reputation.

Reputation
Integrity
Honesty
Trust

The path is long,
with many intriguing byways.

Grow up young thing,
roam into the world.
Study the smiles around you,
goodwill will follow
the generosity of
Kindness

Kindness
Respect
Empathy
Peace

The path is winding,
and best traveled together.

Grow up young thing,
Set off into the world.
Hand in hand
in hand.

Hello All. Today the prompt was to write a parody or satire of a well known poem. I have chosen The Next Poem by Billy Collins, which I will include, in all its glory, below. But first, with all apologies to Mr. Collins, my entry –

Not The Next Poem

Had the question ever come up,
NaPoWriMo poets would all say the same thing:
the only poem we are interested in is this poem,
the one being written, the poem of today.

It is the only answer,
which conjures up some kind of hope
and manages to place on the lighter tray
of the scale of desperation a gram of promise.

The problem is
as soon as you start to write it,
this poem is not yet a finished poem,
rather a poem your are trying to write,
a poem that needs time and attention,
a clinging fungi needing to be fed now,
no time to wait for the future richness of decay.

And that is why I have an obsession with 
this poem, in where it is going,
or how it will manage to find a way to the end.

It could waft into daydream,
maybe shift into the rehab waiting room
where I really am entering this into a notebook,
or circle back to the layers of fungi, for all I care.

All I care about is this poem,
not the next one, or number 15, or 20,
which might even have a harder prompt-

A haiku - what hangs on your miniature tree?
A clerihew - how does a shrouded piano sound?
The ultimate prose poem of a caged bird?
Or, how about this?
How to finish a poem with a striped umbrella?

And here is the original poem by the wonderful Billy Collins, originally published in POETRY May 2004, and copied from poetryfoundation.org

Today was a busy day, so I am not sure I gave the prompt its proper due. The prompt was to try writing a short poem (or a few, if you’re inspired) that follows the beats of a classic joke. Emphasize the interplay between the form of the poem – such as the line breaks – and the punchline. I seemed to have tried to emphasize the form . . .

Hello All. This day the prompt is to write a poem that addresses itself. A “Dear Poem” poem as it were. This drew me right to my favorite form.

Beloved Haiku
Perfect petite poetry
Widens worlds for me


Oh friendly reader
A haiku written for you
Now it exists too

Hello all. Todays prompt is to write a poem that incorporates something overheard. Well tonight I was a witness to this exchange.

Tic-Tac-Toe

The archery range is a buzz with folks
Some shooting arrows
Some telling jokes

Two little girls sit with paper and pen
Playing tic-tac-toe
Over and over again

But not with each other, no, each their own games
X-ing and O-ing
In their own frames.

To a passing archer, a doll-like face said
“Don’t shoot your bow
Play tic-tac-toe instead?”

“Why not play with your sister?” the bowman replied
“You both know the game
You are sitting side by side.”

“We are banned” they said, with faces so sad
“We can’t play against each other 
for one year said our Dad.”

Today’s prompt, as you can tell, was to write a sea shanty. You will be able to tell what my main activity was today, as you read mine. And it was written to the tune of “Haul Away Joe” with a life time of thanks to Theodore Bikel. It’s a doozy.

Pay All Our Dough

When I was a little lad, me mother always told me
Save your travel receipts, and keep in the know
And when I was a youthful teen, my bosses all would scold me
Fill out your W4 and keep withholdings low

Pay, we must pay, we pay our tax together
Pay, we must pay, we work for the dough
Pay, we must pay, we pay our tax forever
Pay, we must pay, we pay with our dough

And when I grew and joined a crew, me HR person told me
Use form W4-P, your pension you will grow
When the forms grow tall as trees, my tax preparer scolds me, 
Tivvy!
If your late again my boy, some penalties you’ll owe

Now I am an older bloke. I know I am not civil 
Pay, we must pay, we’ll pay what we owe
When the tax man comes, I’ll run him off and send him to the devil. 
Tivvy!
Pay, we must pay, we’ll pay all our dough

So I bought a boat, a home of note, to use as a deduction
Pay, we must pay, we’ll pay for your boat
Section 179 makes it fine, there is no real corruption
Pay, we must pay, away you will float

Pay, we must pay, you’ll sail for finer weather
Pay we must pay, we pay all our dough
Pay, we must pay, deductions stay together
Pay, we must pay, I’ll play with your dough