How to create world peace

1.0
Buy good seeds
Tend to their needs

2.0
Buy good seeds
Tend to their needs
Provide ways to cool off when things heat up
Provide means to stay warm when temperature drops

3.0
When plan fails
Buy new seeds
Keep practicing
Until you succeed

I found this one in an old notebook this weekend. It made me smile.

I’m sharing it today because I’ve started reading Myriam San Marco’s book Sakura, and my first thought was “I’ll never write again. This writing is so powerful, mine’s not needed.” I know that sort of thinking is a fallacy – all our writing is needed. All our painings. All our hugs. All our presents. All our presence.

Still, I recommend Myriams book if you’re into gutfelt poetry. Get it from https://burningeye.bigcartel.com/ if you can, a poet deserves to make a buck! Or two…

 

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Ineffectual

Dog
Barking fiercely
In my heart
He wants to protect
Ricochet

Child
Shelled, hiding
Safe place lost
She makes herself invisible
Gone

Quivering poet Gabriel Moreno was kind enough to ask me if I was still writing, when we met in Amsterdam. I hadn’t; it took some time to recover from #NaPoWriMo. But he made me remember I love writing. Thank you Gabriel!

In my next life

In my next life I want to be a scallop
and watch you with 110 eyes

In my next life I want to be an octopus
to embrace you with eight arms

In my next life I want to be a hagfish
and love you with all four of my hearts

In my next life I want to be a sponge
to kiss you with all my mouths
– correction –
with all my orifices whose function is to ingest food

In my next life I want to be a crocodile
and bite you like you’ve never been bitten before

In my next life I want to be a sun fish
I’d produce three million eggs for you

In my next life I want to be a pistol shrimp
my snap almost as hot as the sun

But these things
don’t add up
because
I’m just a silly old cow
who can’t stomach you

You’re
A skunk
– blinding me
A hairy frog
– you’d break your own bones to create claws
A Texas horned lizard
– shooting blood and chemicals at me from a distance

I choke on your quills
move away
and wait
for my next life

I know I can save you

https://www.animalanswers.co.uk/animals/which-animal-has-the-largest-number-of-eyes/

http://www.sciencefocus.com/qa/top-10-which-animals-have-strongest-bite

https://www.animalanswers.co.uk/blog/whats-the-noisiest-animal-on-earth/

https://www.animalanswers.co.uk/blog/animal-self-defence-experts/

Today’s prompt was to write a poem that engages with a strange and fascinating fact. Some day during #NaPoWriMo I wrote this draft, and I figured it suits the prompt rather well. I’m too tired to invest in a final version though!

30 poems in 30 days… we’ve did it again. As usual National Poetry Writing Month has been an inspiration, fun, exhausting and full of wonderful connections.

A great big shoutout to my favourite #NaPoWriMo website and the people who invest so much energy in it. This is what is known about them (copied and pasted from the website):

“NaPoWriMo is owned and operated by Maureen Thorson, a poet living in Maine. She started writing a poem a day for the month of April back in 2003, posting the poems on her blog. When other people started writing poems for April, and posting them on their own blogs, Maureen linked to them. After a few years, so many people were doing NaPoWriMo that Maureen decided to launch an independent website for the project. This site was designed by the very nice people at 2the9design, who know waaaaayyyyy more about back-end coding stuff than Maureen does.  But this site isn’t meant to be “official,” or to indicate ownership or authority over the idea of writing 30 poems in April. There is no corporate sponsorship of this project. No money is intended to change hands anywhere. Maureen just likes poems and wants to encourage people to write them. The site doesn’t ask for your email address, or any other personal information. Heck, you don’t even have to give your name.”

Maureen, I hope you’re in as much awe of the beautiful effects your website sparks (creativity, world wide connections, personal growth, etc.) as I am!

By Angela van Son

 

Is there no way out of the mind?

Easy answer: No
Problem: You’re bound to eternally walk stairs that neither go up, nor down
Challenge: How to find your way when there’s no exit?
Dilemma: What’s worse, to keep walking or to stop?

Medium answer: Possibly
Problem: How can you know if you’ll like it?
Challenge: How to find your way when there’s no map?
Dilemma: What’s the exact amount of out you want to go?

Hard answer: Yes
Problem: You might not be able to get back
Challenge: How to find your way when everything is the way?
Dilemma: Do you want to go on a road to nowhere?

This was today’s prompt: Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on the Plath Poetry Project’s calendar. Simply pick a poem from the calendar, and then write a poem that responds or engages with your chosen Plath poem in some way.

I chose Apprehensions, a poem from February 1962. I took the line that spoke to me most as a starting point: “Is there no way out of the mind?”. The end result surprised me, I wouldn’t have considered this a poem. But it’s where the prompt led me, and I’ll accept it as my entry for today 🙂

Plath’s question made me think of a famous litho by M.C. Escher, Klimmen en dalen , that he made in 1960. His piece was inspired by an article by L.S. Penrose, a British psychiatrist, geneticist, and mathematician and his son Sir Roger Penrose, a British mathematician, physicist and philosopher of science. Their article, first published in 1958 in the British Journal of Psychology, was (partly) inspired by… the artwork of Escher.

Full circle – or perhaps full Möbius strip 😉

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hoyvinmayvin/5518848101

A limiting condition

When she opened her eyes and said ‘I love you’, he wondered Can it be true?
When she asked for his hand in marriage he asked ‘Are you sure’?
When she said ‘I do’, he secretly thought I find that hard to believe.
When they lived happily ever after, he played Will you still love me tomorrow on repeat.
It was only on her death bed that he plucked up the courage to ask Was it me you loved, or just that I kissed you awake after 100 years of sleep?

The prompt for today was to write a prose poem. I’m not sure I’ve done that. I’m also not sure I didn’t do that.

No feature today. I’m in a hurry, and I didn’t read a lot yesterday. My brain just said STOP.

16.000 points

If I was to fail
once more
I’d fail you
instead of me

I’m done failing me
I’ve practiced it
to perfection
but never got
a medal

No gold, no silver,
no bronze
– not even single use plastic

My bends and bows (hops, jumps and leaps)
a perfect exercise
got me no reward
at all

I’m done failing me
I’ll practice
failing you
to perfection

I’ll win the world cup

I’ve been looking forward to featuring A Dark Day by Jennifer Patino today. It’s beautifully written and contains several gems. Like this one:
“time & I don’t acknowledge each other directly
anymore, we question each others’ existence”

Today’s prompt on #NaPoWriMo.net was tarot, by the way.

Bad man

You know I’m bad, I’m bad, you know it
He sang his favourite song
each time he undressed

The butler would fold his clothes
so he dropped them on the floor
chortling I’m bad, I’m bad, I know it

He though about tomorrow’s headlines
as he adjusted his ears, grabbed his crotch
and gasped Who’s bad?

– spelling had never been his forte –

Todays prompt on napowrimo.net was to write a poem that includes images that engage all five senses. Mine appeals only to sight and vision. Does that make it half on prompt? 😉 You may recognise some earlier prompts too: upending, and the human side of a villain. Together that brings forth this unknown human side of a hero…

I’m featuring Azimuth today. I haven’t figured out which poem yet, I like so many of them! Maybe start with Déjeuner sur l’herbe, which includes the crying offspring of a troll. And then move to Up-ending the gift horse, which is rather descriptive in its upending (* snicker*). And then find your own favourites 🙂