Last year I used the Marathon to create over 40 poems for a verse novel I’ve been plodding away on for years. It was an excellent way to create content that was 1) occasionally pretty good in it’s own right or 2) good starting points for editing. Which I’ve been doing for the past couple of days. I think I’ve probably got around 50-60 poems to write to finish the narrative, then I can assemble, cull, crunch, create when there are gaps or whatever is necessary. Regardless. I should after tonight have a pretty decent rough edit assembled. Yay!

As per the 2022 24 Hour Poetry Marathon I won’t be posting all of every poem on this website. I’ll post the best few lines or 2 to 3 lines that make the most sense out of context. Consider them: pseudohaiku.

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& we’re away. As with last year, the Marathon offers two official prompts every hour, one text-based & one visual. Being a sucker for punishment & given it worked last year I’m gonna attempt to create TWO poems every hour ... Here’s the first hour’s snippet.

(Hour 01 BONUS) 10.30-11.30pm. IMAGE PROMPT:  toll booth in forest

glow

ahead : oddly : a light : in a window : in a hut : a warm glow : in the darkness : of the forest

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(Hour 02) 11.30-12.30am. TEXT PROMPT, POV of self from 10 years ago

At least now it’s quiet
Except for Mummy sobbing on the floor
I go to her: Mummy I’m hungry
Go away she screams

I don’t know where to go

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(Hour 03) 12.30-01.30am. VISUAL PROMPT, woman sitting in an orange “well“

Well

sometimes i feel trapped : a speck of white dust : at the bottom of an endless well : at the bottom of a black hole : at the bottom of the universe 

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(Hour 04) 01.30-02.30am. BOTH PROMPTS combined: marriage poem without mentioning marriage + silver cave light space with benches

a slight snag

futuristic igloo : crossed with minimalistic man cave : for the modern adventuring extraterrestrial

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(Hour 05 BONUS) 02.30-03.30am. VISUAL PROMPT: computer chair in an empty room with polished floorboards  

moving 

we take what we need : to survive : but this house : i’m in : at the moment : has broken me 

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(Hour 06) 03.30-04.30am. TEXT PROMPT, flat earth

I quite like this poem, it’s short & kinda punchy so I’m posting the whole thing. The prompt in full was: “The earth is actually flat, you look over the edge and what do you see? Describe it.”

edgelords

if i could : look over the edge : of everything : what would i see

the edge : of the horizon : more dust
the edge : of the earth : tree roots crumbling into air : ocean waterfalling into mizzle
the edge : of the galaxy : perhaps even : the red desert hole of a planet : these interstellar arseholes came from

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(Hour 07) 04.30-05.30am. VISUAL PROMPT, swing on the edge of a field of sunflowers

flowers of the sun

that wild violent yellow
racing off towards forever

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(Hour 08) 05.30-06.30am. AUDIO + VISUAL PROMPT: Sylvan Esso – Funeral Singers (feat. Collections of Colonies of Bees) + man by fire beneath stars

Another complete poem post, cos it’s one I truly love. Not least because the Marathon led me to a song (perhaps band) I (will) really enjoy.

sparks

thank god : for friends who : sing at funerals : keep lighthouses : collect bees : float beneath ceilings : remain fresh : despite being behind the times : embody goosebumps : ache for books : live in sylvan worlds : flash time : stare skywards : sail boats to stars : love limitlessly : hypnotise laughter : huddle to fires : reveal in blue infinities : stick their arms out car windows : to let their hands : fly up with the force of the wind : like aeroplanes : as someone they love : drives them : endlessly home

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This was an interesting prompt, one that is often used: make a poem using at least 5 out of a list of 10 words (I always try & include all 10). Two words had a distinctly American flavour: elk & bayou. Given I am an Australian poet, I have changed those words which do not suit my poems being set in Oz. Nonetheless the original words did their jobs by forcing me to think in images I wouldn’t have done without the prompts. In fact they did the job so well, those 2 lines are my favourites from the poem…

(Hour 09) 06.30-07.30am. TEXT/VISUAL PROMPTS: ten words + 2 butterflies

Butterfly curses

Eyes that suck me in like mangrove mud

Always angry as a wild cassowary

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(Hour 10) 07.30-08.30am. TEXT PROMPT: title begins with words “what is love”

what is love

home : which now : contains : little more than drifting ghosts : to rescue a boy

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(Hour 11) 08.30-09.30am. TEXT PROMPT: “Extraordinary in Ordinary”

pillow talk

just to rest : for one night : in luscious luxurious : lighter than air : angel’s wings : fairy floss : cotton cloud cliche : comfort

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(Hour 12) 09.30-10.30am. TEXT PROMPT: poem about a closet

behold 

almost as if : the room breathes : albeit out of time : with me : so i stand still : in the doorway : trying to allow my breath : my heartbeat : to match the room : soon : we sync

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(Hour 13) 10.30-11.30am. TEXT PROMPT: profession description, humorous x2

Ryan: an abridged Resume

Many Name Bearer : Ring Diver : Cruiser of Lands : Star Partner : Sky Hunter : Brother Discoverer : Pod Rider : Doggo Adopter : Bad Man Outsmarter : Orange Hater (the colour not the citrus) : Propulsion Ponderer : Dam Buster : & of course : Earth’s Only Hope Against Evil Invading Army Of Desert Loving Crustacean Creature Things

Stella’s CV

Born again cave girl
Dweller in silent places
Reluctant Guerrilla Fighter in a war I doubt we can win
Grandparent Seeker
Admirer of Many Dawns

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(Hour 14) 11.30am-12.30pm.  PROMPT: redact a poem

REDACTED

here’s what we know : there are ⬛️⬛️ types of ⬛️⬛️⬛️ : currently on this ⬛️⬛️⬛️ : there’s the ⬛️ : which we think are at least partially ⬛️⬛️⬛️ but mostly ⬛️⬛️⬛️ : then there’s the : ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ things : of the two : the ⬛️⬛️⬛️ are more ⬛️⬛️⬛️ : they have a ⬛️⬛️⬛️ kind of ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ : or at least a ⬛️⬛️⬛️ board which makes them : pretty effective ⬛️⬛️⬛️ : though they can be ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ : with effort : the ⬛️ just run by rote : doing manual ⬛️⬛️⬛️ style tasks

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(Hour 15) 12.30pm-13.30pm. BOTH PROMPTS: another POV + pot head.

perfect posture

Priya has put the pot
On her head … & left it there

…
Despite our 
cautionary silence. We all cheer.
Now she’s dancing. Russian squat
Irish River. Twerking. Flossing.
The pot a part of her as much as her hair.

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(Hour 16) 13.30pm-14.30pm. TEXT PROMPT: poem pretending to be something else

Thank you Poetry Marathon gods … this is exactly what I needed.

ATTENTION

unfortunately
this poem factory
is currently 

CLOSED
FOR LUNCH

We will reopen again
at 2.30 ACT
after a bite to eat
& possibly a quick
lie down

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(Hour 17) 14.30pm-15.30pm. PROMPT: Kaleidoscope

But decidedly uninspired by kaleidoscope, chose to play round with this app instead.

burn it down

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(Hour 18) 15.30pm-16.30pm. BOTH PROMPTS: haunting + photo of 2 corvids

three ravens

& we wander on : away : wondering : what calamity occurred here : worse than elsewhere : to flaunt its : torment so brazenly 

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(Hour 19) 16.30pm-17.30pm. TEXT PROMPT: inarticulate surroundings, tiny truth

exhausted

we’re lost high on some tiny hills
somewhere in a valley of paradise 
overlooking a misspelt ancient 
Spanish warfield dripping olives

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(Hour 20) 17.30pm-18.30pm. VISUAL PROMPT: animal with red eyes in blackness

embers in the dark

Been exhausted so long
But his eyes in the dark
like red embers    glowing

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(Hour 21) 18.30pm-19.30pm. BOTH PROMPTS: start & end with running + yawning lion

running problems

iii.
Running nose
Dribbling onto a shirt
Worn 9 days running

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(Hour 22) 19.30pm-20.30pm. BOTH PROMPTS: pizza + silence

a small piece of peace

& suddenly : for the first time : there’s a beat : of genuine : silence : as we all remember : piping hot : pizza : greasy fresh : from the box : till Rueben breaks : the ceasefire : gotta be Hawaiian : & Priya screech-shouts : pineapple : on piz-zah! : please tell me you’re kidding

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Not quite sure what’s wrong with me … but as I finished the previous poem with half an hour to spare, I elected, ie, of my own volition, to undertake a bonus poem. (IKR!)

This was the full text of Hour 22’s prompt. — A few years back I prompted everyone to write a cheese poem because of this quote, “Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.” ― G.K. Chesterton. The same could be said of pizza, so that’s your prompt this year. Pizza.

(see above)

[& now, see below)

(Hour 22) 19.30pm-20.30pm. BONUS: cheese

sour cheese

“Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.”
G.K. Chesterton

Well might English 
writer, philosopher, critic
& Father of Brown

bemoan cheese’s woeful
under-representation
in the annals of poetics

as he himself 
being a descendent 
of Clerihew Chesterton 

aka the 1st Lord Chester ;
the name Chesterton
is an Elizabethan corruption

of Cheeses’ Town
from Latin Jesus’ Town
— & if cheese is good enough

for our Lord
surely it’s worthy of 
more diverse versification 

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(Hour 23) 20.30pm-21.30pm. TEXT PROMPT: a world that is not this one

this is not the prompt i was looking for

almost every poem I’ve written
over the past 22.5 hours
has been in a world not this one
as I continue to flesh out
my Young Adult Novel in Verse
manuscript Dropped the Sky —
a beyond dystopian alternearth
where seemingly 99.9% of earth’s
biomass has been exterminated
converted to fine orange dust
via an invasion force of intergalactic
end-of-lease style AI/cyborg crustaceans
& follows teenaged survivors
Stella & Ryan as they seek ways
on how to stay alive

that said it seems fair
I write this poem about me
… in this world as an inverse
to the prompt above — given
every previous prompt today
I’ve endeavoured to filter
through Ryan or Stella’s eyes
— even if it’s not okay

… I’m too tired to care 🤩

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(Hour 24) 21.30pm-22.30pm. TEXT PROMPT: poem about hope

the hope trap

1.
I hope I’m smart enough
That next year I remember
Nay, I decide not to sign up
For another poeting marathon
I’m getting waaay too old for this claptrap 

2.
Except of course I won’t
I’ll be here again with bells
Revelling in the subliminal
Fugue state at the end of a day
Built on but a few scattered 12 minute naps

3.
Because the beauty of Marathon:
Poet-style is the hope that in
This heteroclitic haze of exhaustion
Gold is struck & I just step out
The way, let the shine glow : then — snap!