Tag Archives: NAPOWRIMO

Day 10 – poem about memory

_filtered__by_aksdareflection

I think I’ve mentioned before that during NaPoWriMo, I try & draft several pomes a day, testing out ideas to see what sticks … & hopefully finding an idea worthy enough to develop into some sort of acceptable first draft.

This very short pome began life as a stanza in a longer piece which wasn’t pulling its weight. I spent a long time playing with versions of it, until I realised, everything I was trying to say was in these lines. Less is more & all that. So I abandoned the rest; copied-&-pasted this bit into a new document & kept cutting*, playing with enjambment, alternative words, & finally titles; a dozen versions came & went before I stumbled onto the current choice which seems so ideal I wonder why it took so long.

Speaking of long, this introduction is so, only because the pome is so short & I wanted readers to feel like they got value for money 🙂

filtrate

he craves age
so everything
can be better
than it was, when it was

 

 

 

*sure it’s only 14 words long, but once it was 19

Day 09 – poem about damage

1

If I said I understood everything I wrote, I’d be lying. Today’s effort comes from a form of poetry-generation; a pome-making game I guess. The steps are simple.

1. Make a series of lists (using prompts).
2. Choose one element from each list.
3. Find a way to combine them in one pome.

Ergo, below…

surveying the damage

through the window
yellow leaves cover the lawn
on the table bread is dark
brown like chocolate
— the wind blew all night
forcing doors & knocking
knick-knacks from sills

too cold to emerge
from beneath blankets
so the water did what it must
— spend the morning
throwing all my books
into a pulping machine
they’re useless now

 

Day 07 – poem about bicycles

Penny-farthing bicycle on a distant moon CROP

Some of my favourite poems come out of the dreams I have. Coincidentally they’re often among the easiest to write, even if I’m not always sure what they mean (the dreams I mean; I always know what my poems are about, huh-ha… ha).

night bike ride

you ride your penny farthing
along the lush lip of the moon
while I potter along beneath

pushing the chunky wheels
of my trike round hard as I can
without getting anywhere

soon you’ll be soaring along
the roadway of milky stars
& i’ll be watching you fade

Day 06 – poem about THE wonder of the world

text close up

Life can be such a poo the way it gets in the way. The first draft of this pome was finished well before 11am with intentions to tweak later in the day; but work, 2 & 1/2 hours of driving, that pesky niece again (thankfully the essay is due tomorrow, well today now) meant it’s had no chance for revision & is being uploaded a few minutes after my midnight. Ahh well, it’s a solid start that can be worked on later.

cheap paperback wonderland

though the pages are yellow, foxed
though the spine brittle
though the glue cracks
as each page tumbles over
transforming bound book
into loose leaves no matter
how reverentially i turn

despite the damage i inflict
upon this precious relic
long savoured by my mother
as one of her favourite fictions
i am once more lost   this time
in revolutionary cornwall
as the industrial age fires up
weeping at love gone awry
wailing harder when reconciled

every so often wandering astray
at the way words  no matter
the medium  these upright lines
curious curves  intermittent
dots & convoluted squiggles
repeatedly rearrange themselves
into emotional outpourings
that make them the greatest
of all wonders

Day 05 – poem about shadows

talking_to_the_moon_by_gilad CROP

This strange little poem grew out of the first three words which just popped into my head. The rest flowed out afterwards without much effort. Gotta have at least one poem about the moon or else it isn’t a real NaPoWriMo. Hope I haven’t done my dash by tossing it in so early in the month.

the moon & me

the moon
smothers

in violent light
holds head under

satin stain
on the wall

awkwardly cast
shadowself

always clawing
through to the other

(dark)
side of me

Day 04 – poem about research

cat_videos

As the poem explains, I was working on a different piece when I was interrupted (many times) by beloved niece. Since I didn’t have time to complete the previous composition, a hasty last-minute decision was made to salvage some of the wasted time into this … er, sparkling effort you see before you.

millennials on the interwebs

i.
just spent over 35
minutes on a back &
forth text argument
with my niece find
her somewhat wonky
feet learning how
to attribute sources
in academic writing
(yes i know, zzzzzzzz)
when i should have
been finishing today’s
poem of perfection
& utmost genius

spent too much time
trying to teach her
how to fish on the net
for more than just cute
kittens & youtube vids
of people falling off things

ii.
ergo: a condensed
summation of the encounter

If i use a quote from a
lecture how do i
reference it do you
know?

Google

It doent explain shit..

Type: how do I reference
a quote from a lecture
Harvard (that’s what I did)

None of them are
answeeing my question..
doesnt matte

Don’t get huffy with
me !!!

I dont even know who
the bloddy lecturer is
because  the lectures
written and it doesnt say
anywhete im looking
through everything!

Done..

Happy
or
Grumpy

It wasn’t a matter of
Google it was a matter of
working how who the
author was

Well why the fack you
even asking me then! I
don’t know who your
lecturer is 😝

I know but at first i didnt
know if the lecturer was
the author or if i had to
reference where they get
their info from..

Hhhmmmm
Not what you asked me

The more specific your
question, the more
accurate the answer is
likely to be 😂😂😂

Btw you’re welcome 😜

Solve it for yourself next
time lazy pants x

iii.
the radio silence
between my last
4 answers implies
there might not be
a next time for this
grumpy uncle

Day 03 – poem about calcium

473099813

A day in the life of a poet in 21st Century Australia.

limestone life 

each minute
rolls down
from the roof
of your sub
conscious
with glacial
slowness
stultifying
slomo tumble
accreting
minute minerals
overtaking its
predecessors
with precise
finality
bundling
at the bottom
where after
ponderous
uncertainty
allows itself
to fall
dripping
away to
the cave
floor

& so passes another stalactital 60 seconds
in the two hours agony that is … Job Club

even writing this poem has only added
another 18 minutes to my timesheet

Day 02 – poem about hermits

02 in_my_magnifying_glass_01_by_coollekotten-d4jgu83

case study #7

she makes peace with past tears ;
ignores the radio’s roster of sad songs
background faint which seek to suck
her into sinkholes she’s spent years
climbing out of ; sliding back in
– a triumph just buying milk

he prepares a packet-free meal ;
washes a load sans tissue-in-pocket ;
actually eats the watermelon before
it emulsifies in its clingwrap shroud
– little victories by most parameters
but he’ll take them ; gladly

& so we assemble our fragments

Day 01 – poem about growth

01 seaford

Good Lord. Is it that time of year already. I didn’t even realise til late Sunday that good ol’ NaPoWriMo had started the day before. Was I really gonna do this again. I haven’t been on Facebook much so I didn’t get any reminders from fellow poets who are attempting it this year. Are any? Luckily I’d jotted down a couple of draft pomes (I try & generate something every day & hopefully over a month, I get a couple of ideas worth developing). This was the least bad of those.

developments in irony

when we seem more interested in seeding
new subdivisions over the hills & plains
where once fruit trees turned heat
into sweetness & wheat rippled gold

where before that kangaroos & goannas
grazed — when we’d rather plant hardware
megastores & concrete commerce
cathedrals , cheek-by-bowel McMansions

in plots tarted up with wispy poetic
organic-sounding  names : This-&-That
View, HoHum Gardens or SomeOrOther’s
Farm ;  mockingly named for the agriculture

ploughed under to birth it — clearly a well
developed sense of irony plays a big part
in the selection criteria for local councilors
responsible for christening these cancers

& equally obvious we no longer wish
to produce enough food to feed ourselves

 

 

Day 30 – The Last Thing Remaining on My List

Last night, dear friend & wonderful poet, Louise Nicholas, launched her first, very beautiful, full-length collection of poems, The List of Last Remaining through 5 Islands Press. It was a fabulous warm funny (mildly drunken) night.

Today, after dipping my way in & out of the collection, I have taken the last line of her poem, “How to scale a fish” & tweaked it to use as the title of today’s poem.

moonlight, unearthed

& so it’s come : to that time : of life : to once again : take out the tools of excavation : to dust off : my brooms & tiny brushes : sharpen my trowels : put pads on my ageing knees : & get down in the pit : in the dirt : dig down through the layers : the strata of my happiness : & my grief : to uncover the bones : & broken pottery : & terracotta floors : of true love : lost : of childhood : lost : of embryos : washed down drains : blood on thighs, over tiles, over everything : & to keep digging : until all that’s left to see : is an empty grave : a soul shaped hole : a silver wash : of moon : light : & salt

fish scales

Last line: “as if unearthed in moonlight”