Day 4’s challenge was to write a Triolet: rhyme scheme ABaAabAB (where capital letters represent lines repeated verbatim). Such formal structure poetry is always a challenge until you find the right line to serve as the spine. I’m not sure I quite have yet, but it’s a darn sight better than the original version.
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Excerpt from Cave at Sunset
From dark within the cave breathes earth And the wild fireflies all fail to shine Leaving every heart bereft of mirth
Funfact Day 4 – a baby porcupine poem
baby porcupines are called quite rightly & quite cutely porcupettes/
{& nothing more of this poem was written as the poet spent the reminder of his time absolutely & overwhelmingly smitten watching videos & googling porcupics online}
My housemate & I attended Vintage Vibes tonight. It was a somewhat serendipitous choice because we got to see the legend up close & steaming … & was relevant to songs of under earth. Despite the chilly air, Dave Le’aupepe was still able to generate some much needed mythic heat.
Funfact Day 2 – is based on the idea that Yoda was partly modelled on a photo of Albert Einstein. My Poetic Factoid revolves round the device of me Yodafiying three Einstein quotes.
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Excerpt from O onstage in 2023
he is sex : uncurling : on stage : foreplaying : with all of us : on & off the beat : always chanting about : always ranting about : love
Poetic Factoid #02 — Yoda Einstein
to the person who has the answers, don’t listen; who has the questions, to that person, listen
slowed down waves of sound & light we are a walking bundle of frequencies tuned into the cosmos
souls dressed up in garments biochemical & sacred, we are instruments through which our souls their music play, our bodies are
April is upon me more suddenly than I’d liked & I am throughly unprepared for Na/GloPoWriMo 2023. I’m my least motivated by the thought of writing a poem a day for a month I’ve perhaps ever been, yet I’ve never once seriously considered just not doing it. So the usual things apply. I’ll endeavour to read a volume of poetry every day & write a poem referencing / inspired by some element of the work read. I’ll also check out the various prompts sites to see if I can incorporate/be inspired by them. I find these artificial constraints often produce great results & poems that wouldn’t have germinated otherwise.
I’ll also continuing my themes-based approach to Na/GloPoWriMo, which has worked incredibly well over previous seasons, I’ve decided to work on a long-daydreamed, occasionally-added-to collection/chapbook of poems with the title songs from under earth. So that’s what I’ll be doing as my primary writing task each day.
However, as I will be looking to publish these poems/said collection at some point, I won’t be posting the entirety of each poem on my blog, but a [hopefully] tantalising snippet (many journals/etc refuse to accept poems even if they’ve just been on personal Facebook pages or blogs with only 100 subscribers). As a kind of compensation (& almost respite from the darker thematic nature of sfue) I’ll also be doing a daily (what I’m currently calling poetic factoids at least until a better title presents itself) … which in itself was a prompt from NaPoWriMo.net … that is to say a poem that plays with a fun fact.
Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem that plays with the idea of a “fun fact.” Your fact could actually be fun – or the whole point could be that it’s not fun. Maybe you have a favorite wacky fact already, but if not, Mental Floss’s “Amazing Fact Generator” is here to help!
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Excerpt from detritus — my home wards always wears away
every day the forest’s a little thinner
& mushrooms munch the colours of our year
Poetic Factoid #01 — guzzlers
archaeologists claim we were imbibing beer before the wheel’s invention
alcoholics argue this implies drinking & driving is an evolutionary imper-aperitif
During NaPoWriMo there are a plethora of sites & groups publishing writing prompts to help poets overcome the terrifying prospect of the blank screen or page day after day for 30 straight days. I rarely have a problem finding a topic but I usually check out what the prompts are in the groups I’m part of, just to see if there’s anything that interests me.
An Australian-run group called The Dirty Thirty’s chosen topic today was myth. The number 13 is lucky and scary and shrouded in myth. So today, let’s talk myths. In your poem, find creative ways to include the actual story your myth was based on.
This is manna from heaven for me & I immediately thought of one of my go to topics: the myth of Orpheus & Eurydice. I love this topic so much that I have several books devoted to the subject & I’ve written at least a dozen poems around the theme; the best of which I one day hope to publish as a chapbook or suite of poems (as part of a bigger volume) called songs of under earth.
The Death of Orpheus
after many years : wandering : ever-mourning : his lost Eurydice : Orpheus worshipped : only the Apollo-sun
one morning : at the Dionysian oracle : on Mount Pangaion : while greeting dawn’s rosy fingers : with his peerless lyre-playing : as part of his : daily sun god salute : the Maenads : resenting Orpheus’ refusal : to honour : his previous patron : sought to harm him : threw sticks & stones : yet the lilt : of his music : was so sublime : & so strong : the rocks & branches : refused to strike
enraged : they threw themselves : instead : in a furioso frenzy : ripping : rending : wrenching : his mortal body : to shreds : blood lust madness : engulfing them all
when the women : who tore him apart : tried to cleanse : their gore-covered hands : the river sank : below ground
as did : Orpheus’ shade : finally : to be reunited
gareth roi poet boi 