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.

Misfit

mindless model
mimicking beauty
moribund miss world
made speechless
motionless mime
misleading mirror
May I take your hand and dance?

If I’m correct, I’ve just penned my first pleiades. Which makes me on prompt for day 30 of #OctPoWriMo. The penultimate day.

i is a number (I’m not)

i is a number (I’m not)

i has a special faculty it’s constructed totally there’s no other complex number that’s like that i was made up to create the opportunity to solve equations in physics what if i is the square root of minus one what if i DOES exist? turns out you can count on it to disappear once the equation is solved i made things possible that weren’t possible before	i have a special faculty i am constructed totally there’s no other complex being that’s like me i was made up to create the opportunity to solve equations somewhere, somehow what if i am a square root of minus one what if I Do exist? turns out you can count on me to disappear once the equation is solved i make things possible that weren’t possible before
solve equations create opportunities i will disappear	equations solved opportunities created i did disappear

The prompt today at octpowrimo.com was numbers, and host Amy McGrath provided a list of numbers that have specific connotations. My in house mathematician tried to get me to write about cardinal numbers, because they’re counterintuitive, beautiful, inventive and realising they existed needed a lot of inventiveness and creativity (all hail the fabulous brain of Georg Cantor!).

I, on the other hand, fell immediately for i… i has more poetic opportunties than I’ve used. Look at this:

• the powers of i repeat in a cycle
• dividing by i is equivalent to multiplying by the reciprocal of i

Doesn’t that want to make you do math – or write a poem?

If you like my attempt at combining poetry with science, you can find more when you click on the tag science.

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mpancha/2505656136

Dud

My dreams are made of this
me floating on air streams
at will, no fear of falling
I know I’m in control

Skating at full speed
luscious curves, never bumping
into anything
I know I’m in control

My days are made of this
– turbulence
– falling
– bumping
– slow motion struggles
– tmIoncloir-n

The prompt for today at OctPoWriMo.com was Split in two.

Cynical self help

No one
hates you more
than you

Some of us have brains who turn against ourselves. Those brains lie.

This one is totally off prompt – the prompt was colour. Obviously, this poem would be black. The poem is about many people I know, and many people I don’t know. Bless your heart if you don’t know what this feels like. Bless your heart even more if you do and you struggle with your mental health.

 

 

 

Please be careful

It barked today
It bared its teeth
into a mean snarl
and barked
– barked
showing its teeth
indicating
pain would be inflicted
if the line was crossed

It barked
– barked
meanwhile wondering
why the line wasn’t clear
and needed barking
in the first place
it had clearly pissed
its territory already

But it barked – barked
ready to bite
if provoked
meanwhile wishing
for someone
to say

It’s safe
It’s allright to stand down
It’s safe

I see the line
I smell it
I hear you

Thanks for the warning
I’ll take care of you

The prompt for #OctPoWriMo today was Inside out. I’ve used the dog illustration before, for another barking poem called Ineffectual.

Nerved

A door walked into a bar
and said: I swing both ways
Nobody took him up on his offer

There was a prompt about doors opening in two directions – or something like that. I’m distracted by a happy child who has autumn holiday and suggested we could make ourselves some Halloween stuff. Priorities!

 

Real news

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from FB,
that place that’s often ridiculed for being fake. window-dressing
a hot-wired algorithm for spreading fake news

is that the people I admire on there
have one thing in common
they do things THEIR way
They dare to be open
They dare to be different
They dare to be
even when these things
come at a cost
– often a great one

Here’s to you – Charlotte Farhan Art
Here’s to you – Alex Bear
Here’s to you – Pan Art
You connect, your way, even when it’s hard

For me, FB is hot-wired with inspiration
Artist – adding beauty to my life
Teachers – taking me into worlds I didn’t know
Rebels – showing a different way
Huggers – with arms so long they span the globe
Seekers – of happiness, self love, themselves
People – caring about each other, even when they’ve never met

I know I sell my data to the devil by being there
but it buys me a little piece of heaven

The prompt for today at octpowrimo.com was open. I decided to write from my heart and not care about form too much. I don’t care if is poetry, prose or neither – the text is true.

I know I didn’t mention the poets, but both #OctPoWriMo and #NaPoWriMo have been a source of meeting great people, reading wonderful things, entering new worlds, my brain and heart being fed and healed.

I hope to add some works of the artists to this post so you can see them, but I’ll have to ask first. If you’re curious, you can start by visiting their sites or their public Facebook pages:
http://www.facebook.com/Artist.Charlotte.Farhan/
http://www.facebook.com/artbypan/
https://pantheartist.com

Apocalypse Child by Charlotte Farhan

Phoenix Child by Charlotte Farhan

You left me in pieces by Charlotte Farhan

 

Hard copy

They lock me up. They keep me separate from the outside world. This cramped space leaves me longing for freedom. Instead I make myself small, trying to fit in. It reeks in here. There’s a stale smell of urine. All I can think about is fresh air. I want to stand up, make myself seen. I want connection, I want to be loved. The damp darkness is killing me. But I know it’s not safe out there. I want you to see my beauty, but you won’t acknowledge me. When I bare myself to you I get rejected.

The picture I sent
doesn’t show my core
just the unsolicited exterior

I know it’s not a proper haibun, but it’s as close to one as I’ve ever been 🙂 The prompt today at octpowrimo.com was See me, the suggested form a haibun

Neat love

Let me sleep on it, he said
I’ll give you an answer in the morning
but he could tell she’d heard
that line before

She walked away and said
don’t forget
two out of three is sad

This was written as an epilogue to a poem called At the crossroads. I never added it to the poem, I think I thought it was too cheesy 🙂 But I enjoyed it when I found it today and I have plans for this evening. So today is life first, poetry later…

For those of you who don’t know the songs of Meat Loaf by heart, I’m adding one of the songs that this poem refers to.  Many of his songs fit todays prompt of betrayal well I believe. Here’s to  #OctPoWriMo day 22!