Getting nowhere again (n+a lot)

Oh wine I’ll just graduate
getting nowhere again
I’ll turn
that discount
digging up the tram rails
– well-windowed

I’ll just grade
getting nowhere again
I’ll turn that disclosure
digging up the tram rails
and welfare

oh wind

I’ll just grace
getting nowhere again
I’ll turn
that discipline
and welcome

the west

I’ll just goal
getting nowhere again
I’ll turn that directive

– digging up the tram rails

Oh well I’ll just go
getting nowhere again
I’ll turn
that dirt

wave

Last week I fell in love with the N+ machine. I was mesmerised by the results of my first experiment with it, and loved SO many of the lines it brought me. Today I’m in a more critical mood. I like bits and bobs, but certainly don’t think every strange word combination deserves to get a poem of it’s own.

I promised a weekly #N+Friday, and I still think that’s a good invitation to play around with some of my finds. Today, I combined a number of N+ stanzas into one new poem. It tells a story now – but I’m not sure it’s going anywhere 😉

Letter from Zagreb

Dear misfit,

May I please blow your trumpet?
You are needed now
In these days of consent minus one
You –
denied
limited
trumped –
are on a heroins journey
set by praying mantis

nerved by real news
you provide a hard copy
of neat love

In my musical
you’d be a proud member of the NUA
(now the no-unicorns-association)
no soul broker

Misfit
Please be careful
Cynical self help is a dud

Your disposition
may be
obscene
fixed
even heriditary

but if you were me
you’d love me
and
If I were me
I’d love you

till death do us part

Respectfully not yours,
Angela van Son

PS I forgot Inflection. Please remember i is a number, I’m not

One of the prompts for today at the generous octpowrimo page was to create a form of your own and share it with us. I realised I have a tradition that started some poetry months ago, to create a poem from titles (or snippets, or blog titles) from fellow participants and link up to them. A way to keep favourite parts, honour words I love, and express connection. I’m not even sure, but I think I invented this form myself, out of sheer enthusiasm.

Mine today is a variety on that: I’ve created a poem from the titles of my own poems this poetry month. I think I managed to incorporate all!

I prefer the form where I honour other peoples words, but I need more head space and time for those than I have right now. The good thing about todays version, is that invited me to look back at my own work this month and it works well as closure.

Today is our last day. #OctPoWriMo finishes. Again I’ve made great connections, read amazing poems, and got to enjoy my poems being read, liked and commented on. An inspiring and healing month. Thank you organisers, participants and readers!

If you like the idea of title poems, you can find more examples here.

Contemporary vows

This user agreement
is a contract between me and you
it applies to our marriage only

By marrying me
you agree to comply
with all the terms and conditions
please read all of them carefully

We may amend this user agreement
at any time by renewing our vows –
separation takes 30 day’s prior notice

If one of us closes our marriage
we will cancel any scheduled or incomplete transactions
we must withdraw all love from our marriage prior to closing it

Both of us will remain liable for all obligations
related to any offspring the marriage produced

#NaPoWriMo day 11. The prompt by Kwoya Fagin Maples is to write “a poem that addresses the future, answering the questions “What does y(our) future provide? What is your future state of mind? If you are a citizen of the “union” that is your body, what is your future “state of the union” address?””. The clashing images of body, mind and state of the union address stood out for me.

My poem takes the contract of marriage rather literally. I took a user agreement, and adjusted it. In a way it’s found poetry… It also fits the deal/no deal prompt at Writer’s Digest I believe.

I had to hunt a poem down to share it with you today. I read it, but forgot who wrote it. But the poem lingered in my mind… Here’s Kathie Haigh‘s take on yesterday’s  simultaneity prompt: Tripping over time. I love its high tempo slow motion! When you read it, you’ll understand what I mean 🙂

by Angela van Son

Lost and found

A  bag of anything
A bucket list of dust
Different shades of luck

The last compilation poem for now. Three days in a row of creating a poem by blog titles and posts of fellow participants in #NaPoWriMo. I might do more later, but I don’t want it to become a gimmick. And I’m behind on some interesting prompts, so time for a new challenge!

You can find the poem that provided the title here.

Escape

Roshni the moving finger writes
just another wakeup call

Ride the wave
Unlucky in luck
our mothers and fathers mad heartsmad hearts knew
resilience is a Friday’s fairytale

In the stilly night
The confused angel’s trumpet
blows a night song

(The title comes from this poem by J Luukkonen)

I had such a blast yesterday! It was great to be the featured participant on napowrimo.net. I’ve never had so many visitors on my blog before. It was such a joy to have you visit, like and comment. Thanks to everyone who dropped by.

I also thoroughly enjoyed reading all the bop poems. What a fabulous prompt! I hope to try my hand at it, but not today. I’m still tired from a very long working day yesterday.

I love today’s prompt (alliteration and assonance), but I already had a second poem based on websites and titles of you, my fellow writers (like yesterday’s).

For me this is a lovely way to pay tribute to the gems you create. Again please don’t take it personal if you’re not in it. There are too many beautiful options to use all of them.

I realise I haven’t asked permission, I hope nobody minds that I to linked to their work. If you do, please let me know and I’ll remove the link.

This and other poems

My dearest Grapeling
it could be that
the ordinary average thoughts of us
are but instructions for not living a life

So maybe
yogic release
and looking in the mirror
can wipe the thoughts of words
and bring back the glitters of life

Until that annoying voice
of a bad fairy
in the guise of a poet
whispers – again:

A poem is a machine for making
a writer’s fountain
so write, ally, write your
soul structured lines

Once more we are temporary saints
our faith unlocked
bitten by a timorous beastie

Had I but one more day
I’d heal our elusive verse

We have a thing for words

Did you know there’s poetry in your poetry? This poem is based on websites and titles of you, my fellow writers. It’s an ode to your beautiful words.

Please don’t take it personally if you’re not in this one, it doesn’t mean I don’t like your words. I gathered so many beautiful snippets that I have enough for three or more poems I believe. Today’s is just the story that this poem wanted to tell. Please don’t take that story personally either.

I don’t have a clue yet what the prompt is for day 10 of #NaPoWriMo. I’ll be away all day, so I wrote this in advance.

You can find the website that forms the title of this poem here.

Yzmpqipof

Obscure, ancient origins
frames made of wood

bars struck by mallets
made of willow wood
spoon-like bowls

Each bar an idiophone

Wikipedia articles are full of poetry. You just need to wipe out a lot of the words 🙂 Today’s prompt was to write a poem with a word or idea or line that it isn’t expressing directly. The poem should function as a sort of riddle.

You can solve the riddle by taking the title of the poem and substituting each letter with the letter that comes before it in the alphabet.

Putting objects into algebra

TRUTH: row

HIM: Scientific display mode

ME: Alpha entry mode
Converting complex to real
Converting real to complex

HIM: Differential equation solver
Significant digits displayed

ME: Constant entering
editing
Random redefining
Analytic functions
affect implied units

HIM: Counters loop structures
Counters negative steps
Debugging programs

ME: Immediate entry mode reverted
Arguments go on stack
Interpreting of immediate guesses HALT

ME: the wild card
HIM: the delimiter

I didn’t have a special dictionary (the day 17 prompt) so I used this instead. The only words not coming from the index are him, me, the and the. WordPress has messed with the lay-out, but I don’t know how to restore it.

I’m curious if anybody recognises this type of row?

 

Liberty beneath the Jolly Roger

Gender associated with land and sea
African American manhood
Chastity as an element of masculinity

Writing, by women at sea
Wild nights! Wild nights!

Fraternal societies on shore
Captains and racial prejudice
Delicacy as an element of masculinity

Transiency of sailors
Poetry of the sea

Victorian ideology of middle class
Neptune ceremony
Dependence as an element of masculinity

Warriors, female
Sailors, female

Liberty beneath the Jolly Roger

Picture source and article on this female pirate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Bonny

The prompt for #NaPoWriMo day 12 was to write a poem based on an index. Mine is taken from Iron Men, Wooden Women. Gender and Seafaring in the Atlantic World 1700-1920 (Baltimore and London 1996).

Since female pirates messed with what the world expected from women, I felt this poem should mess with gender too. Every single word comes from the index, except for the title. All the options from the index missed some cheer. This one was a chapter. The poem ends up being a bit weird and I’m not sure I find the result convincing. I enjoyed the writing process though 🙂

451 Fahrenheit

The city on fire
I, Claudius
Led the exodus

We left Rome, the ancient city
Followed the golden compass
To Perdido Street Station

Only to find a black hole

The Pickwick papers – burnt
Don Quichot – burnt

Me – a black swan

The challenge for day 10 of #NaPoWriMo was to write a “book spine” poem, with the titles you find on your book shelves. Since I wasn’t at home when I wrote this, I had to do it from the top of my head. Which was more difficult than I expected 🙂 I fit in 11, as far as I’m aware of.

Painting By John Martin – Former image source [1]; current image source [2] Location : Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=919324