Tag: NaPoWriMo

Day 14 Passiflora Incarnata

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image credit: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/passiflora-incarnata/

Today, I was remembering. . .

Passiflora Incarnata

Remember the day we met

Remember the day we parted

Remember the in-between

Remember the sycamore trees in December

Remember the lilacs in May

Remember the limestone walls & palisades

Remember the blank canvases & the gesso

Remember the studios scented in terpentine & oil

Remember the easels in gardens with light

Remember the gardens with duets in song

Remember the gardens in cold November

Remember the passiflora incarnata in June

Remember the meditations under the moon

Remember the pentimento of our days.

Jacquelyn Markham (4/14/24)

Napowrimo.net Prompt: Today’s (optional) prompt asks you to write a poem of at least ten lines in which each line begins with the same word (e.g., “Because,” “Forget,” “Not,” “If”). This technique of beginning multiple lines with the same word or phrase is called anaphora, and has long been used to give poems a driving rhythm and/or a sense of puzzlebox mystery. To give you more context, here’s an essay by Rebecca Hazelton on her students’ “adventures in anaphora,” and a contemporary poem that uses anaphora to great effect: Layli Long Soldier’s “Whereas.”

PAD 13 Rhyme Play: Perched in a tree

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Perched in a tree, feeling free

As I perched in a cottonwood tree, feeling as free

as a bird who could fly, I thought I heard a flute

song far far from me—like smoke in the sky,

the melody went by.  It seemed so close to me,

I could kiss the fingers of the one who played flute,

but alas, then, it went mute and I heard only the noise of a car!

It was far from me, but still, it jarred my bliss

in this peaceful spot that wasn’t cold nor was it hot.

It was until the car, pure bliss. Oh what a bitter pill

to lose the trill of the flute and the melodies of Bach,

traded for zoom, zoom, zoom of the car.  And that car

was not far at all from my blissful state in the tree!

Jarring me, giving me jitters when moments ago

I felt only bliss and a kiss of the breeze that

carried the song of a mockingbird and a flute.

What glee! What bliss! To be so free! To close my eyes

to feel like a soft kiss the notes of the flute

and the birdsong! Until the car, smoke, and the noise

made it fly from me as I perched in this cottonwood tree!

Jacquelyn Markham 4/13/2024

Jacquelyn Markham, poet & writer, author of Rainbow Warrior, Finishing Line Press (2023), Peering Into the Iris: An Ancestral Journey and China Baby, among other titles.

And here’s the prompt for today’s poem:

Napowrimo.net: “our optional prompt for the day asks you to play with rhyme. Start by creating a “word bank” of ten simple words. They should only have one or two syllables apiece. Five should correspond to each of the five senses (i.e., one word that is a thing you can see, one word that is a type of sound, one word that is a thing you can taste, etc). Three more should be concrete nouns of whatever character you choose (i.e., “bridge,” “sun,” “airplane,” “cat”), and the last two should be verbs. Now, come up with rhymes for each of your ten words. (If you’re having trouble coming up with rhymes, the wonderful Rhymezone is at your service). Use your expanded word-bank, with rhymes, as the seeds for your poem. Your effort doesn’t actually have to rhyme in the sense of having each line end with a rhymed word, but try to use as much soundplay in your poem as possible.”

Day 12 A Tall Tale

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Jacana-image credit: wwwthespruce.com

The Woman Next Door: A Tall Tale

There once was a woman who lived

on a street called Bob O’Link

just beyond an avenue named Jacana

after the bird who walks on lily pads.

She stayed in a small Cape Cod of red brick

with no distinctive architecture, but

neat windows up high, & a room to paint the moon,

overlook for neighbor’s trimmed

& landscaped yard. Her house sat on a grassy lot

with two twig dropping maples, a semicircle of

dwarf hollies & a spindly rhododendren.

The little brick house appeared nothing unusual,

but inside, a river ran through the basement,

rising high after the rain.

The witch woman in a flowing gown,

or priestess if  you prefer, molts

in cycles with the seasons & phases of the moon.

photo by poet

She chants, burns sage in an Abalone shell,

raises energy & draws down the moon

to make her good magic.  Ancestors

visit her in dreams & visions.

She paints & writes her own mythology.

Shaman Jacana transforms, hopping

from lily pad to lily pad, always

searching her next home.

You see, she’s got gypsy in her soul.

            Jacquelyn Markham (4/12/24)

And, the prompt that started all of this!

Napowrimo.net: “And last but not least, our optional prompt. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem that plays with the idea of a “tall tale.” American tall tales feature larger-than-life characters like Paul Bunyan (who is literally larger than life), Bulltop Stormalong (also gigantic), and Pecos Bill (apparently normal-sized, but he doesn’t let it slow him down). If you’d like to see a modern poetic take on the tall tale, try Jennifer L. Knox’s hilarious poem, “Burt Reynolds FAQ.” Your poem can revolve around a mythical character, one you make up entirely, or add fantastical elements into a real person’s biography.”

Day 11 The Painted Desert Glowed

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Courtesy of Stef Dunn Photography

Painted Desert Memory

The painted desert glowed rose red in the sunset

when we drove west &  you were so young

with your auburn hair.

Jacquelyn Markham (4/11/2024)

Today, Day 11 of the poem-a-day challenge in honor of National Poetry Month, 2024, we were encouraged by Napowrimo.net to write a one line poem: “our optional prompt for the day honors the “ones” in the number 11.”

Maureen Thorsen writes: “Today, we’d like to challenge you to write either a monostich, which is a one-line poem, or a poem made up of one-liner style jokes/sentiments.” This prompt sends us to Writer’s Digest where we find a different prompt and an example of monostich (a one line poem) by Robert Lee Brewer.

Regret

by Robert Lee Brewer

I hold a chip bag that only holds crumbs.

That’s a sad story, Robert, but I think mine is even sadder or at least nostalgic!

By the way, if you want to check out the prompts at Writer’s Digest, curated by Robert Lee Brewer, you can find them here:

Robert’s prompt for today is: “For today’s prompt, write a memory poem. The poem could conjure up an actual memory that you have from your childhood, or last week, or earlier this morning. Or the memory could be made up. Or the memory is just a starting point for a completely different poem. Your memories, your poems.”

I combined the two prompts for a one-liner memory poem.  Hope you like it!

Rainbow Warrior

Jacquelyn Markham, poet & writer, author of Rainbow Warrior, Finishing Line Press (2023), Peering Into the Iris: An Ancestral Journey and China Baby, among other titles.

Day 9   Ode to My Bluejeans

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Ahhh a little sleep and a whole new attitude as Day 9 of the poem-a-day challenge arrives. A little lighter in the vein of Pablo Neuruda’s “Ode to My Socks” (see prompt from Maureen Thorson by clicking here at Napowrimo.net or below).

Ode to My Bluejeans

some stretch in the bluejeans required

bluejeans must be rugged but with style

often worn bluejeans can usually be revived

with a twirl in the clothes dryer

bluejeans pulled on for a knock on the door

bluejeans for a stroll in the “back forty”

bluejeans with a hat & sunglasses

for a trip to the mailbox

bluejeans & boots for a serious trek

in the overgrown field

bluejeans & flip flops

for a quick trip to the store

bluejeans to plant

rootbound dianthus, viola, & dill

hang bluejeans on a hook for easy grabbing

until one day bluejeans demand

their turn in the washing machine

to retain their usefulness & for

a reward of almost new bluejeans

skip the dryer—except for the twirl

for minor touch up

blue jeans you are a loyal friend!

Jacquelyn Markham (4/9/2024)

Prompt:

“Our prompt for today (optional, as always) takes its inspiration from Pablo Neruda, the Chilean-born poet and Nobel Prize Winner. While he is most famous in the English-speaking world for his collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, he also wrote more than two hundred odes, and had a penchant for writing sometimes-long poems of appreciation for very common or mundane things. You can read . . .“Ode to My Socks” here, and “Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market” here.” (Napowrimo.net)

Jacquelyn Markham, poet & writer, author of Rainbow Warrior, Finishing Line Press (2023), Peering Into the Iris: An Ancestral Journey and China Baby, among other titles.

Day 8 the fates at their looms

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citation below: Brittanica

It’s late. This prompt has troubled me, and I have come up with a paradox, a conundrum, a riddle that has no solution, no answer, and is perhaps an exercise in futility. The question of “what if” is what I explore in this poem about “an encounter or relationship that shouldn’t have happened.” (Read the complete prompt after the poem.)

the fates at their looms

What fate is in store?

If only a different time, age, space.

If only Oppenheimer never met the atomic bomb.

If only the atomic bomb never met Los Alamos,

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or Bikini Atoll.

If only Deepwater Horizon never met the Gulf of Mexico.

If only Hitler never met Germany.

If only Sitting Bull never met the U.S. Forces.

If only Frida Kahlo never encountered the bus that hit a streetcar.

If only Christa McAuliffe hadn’t met the Challenger.

“What if” questioning could go on forever.

But the fates weave at their looms.

If only we could tempt, bribe, cajole the weavers

who spin, measure, and cut the threads of fate.

Could we change these fateful times?

Jacquelyn Markham (4/8/2024)

From Maureen Thorson’s Napowrimo.net poem-a-day challenge: “Finally, our (optional) prompt for the day takes its inspiration from Laura Foley’s poem “Year End.” Today, we challenge you to write a poem that centers around an encounter or relationship between two people (or things) that shouldn’t really have ever met – whether due to time, space, age, the differences in their nature, or for any other reason.”

Citation for image:

Citation: Schadow, Gottfried: Fates sculpture,  Encyclopædia Britannica

(https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fate-Greek-and-Roman-mythology#/media/1/202442/202550

Day 7 Wish You Were Here

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at the shore – photo by poet J. Markham

wish you were here

after all I am solo

at the seaside grill on an island

a swirl of eclipse energy

wraps me up

in my thoughts of other times

but, hey, today is now & I’m alive

so wish you were here

to drink the chardonnay

to share the overflowing

crabcake benedict & grits

to cross the rivers

to meander the maritime forest

to find the path &

to walk the shore with me

wish you were here

Jacquelyn Markham (4/7/24)

photo by the poet

By the way, the prompt for today! Courtesy of Napowrimo.net

And last but not least, we’re taking it easy with today’s (optional) prompt. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem titled “Wish You Were Here” that takes its inspiration from the idea of a postcard. Consistent with the abbreviated format of a postcard, your poem should be short, and should play with the idea of travel, distance, or sightseeing. If you’re having trouble getting started, perhaps you’ll find some inspiration in these images of vintage postcards.

Day 6 Weird Wisdom

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“And now for our (optional) prompt from Napowrimo: “Today’s we’d like to challenge you to write a poem rooted in ‘weird wisdom,’ by which we mean something objectively odd that someone told you once, and that has stuck with you ever since.”

Oh, how I struggled with this prompt! Truth is, all that weird wisdom has stuck! So here’s the poem for day 6!

Bird singing in the morning!

The Staying Power of Weird Wisdom

The trunkful of weird wisdom  

that I learned as a child never emptied.

My mother rivalled a character in a Flannery O’Connor story

with her wealth of proverbs, warnings, and clichés.

Maybe I lacked a dress for the prom, or a hat for Easter,

or a book for school, but never a lack of weird wisdom.

Necessity is the mother of invention, (how many times did I hear?)

A leopard doesn’t change its spots.

A fool and her money . . .(yes a litany of these!),

a bird in the hand, a journey of a thousand miles. . .,

Oh, and “all that glitters isn’t gold!”

Beggars can’t be choosy, daughter.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, now!

How many times?

Don’t cross that bridge ‘til you come to it?

If wishes were horses, we would all take a ride,

young lady! But the weirdest wisdom

of all that puzzles me still:

“Sing before breakfast; cry before night.”

What? We should all sing like birds.

Sing to sunrise! Sing to the morning!

Sing to the new day!

Moral of the story:

Some wisdom is not only weird, but better left unsaid!

Jacquelyn Markham (4/6/2024)

Day 5 The Blessing

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The Blessing of the Poet, the Delphinium, and the Jay

after Alicia Ostriker

To be blessed

said the poet

is to feel inspiration

flow into you

like the lyre of Orpheus

or Shelley or the angels

To be blessed

said the Delphinium

is to “knock their eyes out”

with a blue so deep and

vivid even the sea goddess

would be envious of you

though your indigo

is fleeting and hers

returns every sunlit day

To be blessed

said the jay

is to call out

jay jay jay

in a raucous entré

though you really want

to sing a melody like a lyre

in Orpheus’ hands

or the angels.

Jacquelyn Markham

(4/5/2024)

Delphinium

Thank you Napowrimo for today’s prompt:

“Friday is here, and so is the fifth day of Na/GloPoWriMo.

Now, let’s get to our optional prompt! Today we’d like you to start by taking a look at Alicia Ostriker’s poem, “The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog.” Now try your hand at writing your own poem about how a pair or trio very different things would perceive of a blessing or, alternatively, how these very different things would think of something else (luck, grief, happiness, etc).”

Angel with lyre image credit: Image credit: http://www.dana-mad.ru/gal/image.php?img=5387

Day 4: Mermaid: Triolet

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Today’s prompt from Napowrimo (thank you Maureen Thorson!): “Our (optional) prompt for the day challenges you to write a poem in which you take your title or some language/ideas from The Strangest Things in the World. First published in 1958, the book gives shortish descriptions of odd natural phenomena, and is notable for both its author’s turn of phrase and intermittently dubious facts.”

Because, truly, I do think it a little strange that the manatee, or its cousin the dugong, ever looked like a mermaid to the lonely sailors of the sea, I chose this idea from the “strangest things” book.

Image credit: https://mermaid.fandom.com/wiki/Mermaids_(Mythology)

From the book, I chose the entry on “Mammal Prototypes of the ‘Mermaid’”

“The prototypes of the “mermaids” of legend are among the least known of all animals to naturalists because of their underwater habitat and their secretive habits. They are the manatees of the Caribbean region and the dugongs of the Indian Ocean. They constitute the only remaining species of the serenia, or moon creatures, distant relatives of the elephant. Both have a somewhat human facial appearance. They feed standing upright in the water, their flippers held out before them like arms. Sometimes the females hold their calves in these flippers. Seen from a distance, they have a curiously human appearance, which may account for the many reports of mermaids and mermen.”

And though, I think the sailors must have been hallucinating to spot a manatee or dugong and see a mermaid (less often a merman), I wrote my poem in response to this entry.  And because I spent a good part of my day in the dentist office, I decided to write a short poem, called a Triolet.

Not sure that was a timesaver, but here’s my triolet and poem for day 4. That intricate rhyme scheme with two refrains is a challenge indeed!

Mermaid: Triolet

She rises from the churning waves.

Ahoy, a maiden from the sea

What makes a mermaid act so brave?

She rises from the churning waves.

Will our ship she try to save?

Keep us windward and not lee.

She rises from the churning waves.

Ahoy, a maiden from the sea.

image credit: https://www.shared.com/9-pictures-that-prove-manatees-are-the-oceans-cutest-creature/

Note: (To learn more about the difference in manatees and dugongs, read this article by Emily Brauner.)