Tag Archives: NaPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo 2015, Day 13: Riddle Poem–“Sort of Rhymes with Rimbaud”

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The prompt: Write a riddle poem that describes something without ever naming it.

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Sort of Rhymes with Rimbaud

If you speak my language, Ndovu is my name;
but in any other country, my name is not the same.
No fair using Google.  Save that for the end.
It’s more fun solving riddles if the rules you don’t bend.
I pack my own big suitcase, my own piano, too.
Once people thought I wasn’t smart, so that’s another clue.
Part of me’s a stocking. It’s what I’m noted for.
And I am also loyal–faithful to the core.
Sometimes I hold umbrellas, though it’s a cruel fate.
People like to look at me  in spite of all my weight.
I’m playful as a baby and a workhorse when I’m older.
Have you solved my riddle or are you getting colder?
If you haven’t guessed by now, I think you’ll never get it.
Why don’t you be my opposite?  Why don’t you just forget it?

Solution: 1-8, 3-17, 5-21, 7-1, 8-20, 9-22, 11-33, 12-32
Solution to Title: 2-3, 3-17, 6-24, 9-17, 14-5

The solution key: The first letter of the answer to the riddle is the 8th letter of line 1 of the poem. The second  letter is the 17th letter in line 3, etc. Be forewarned that the word hinted at in the title is in Swahili.  How else could I insure you wouldn’t cheat? Okay, now you hate me.

 https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/from-the-collection-of-the-artist/

New World Miracle: NaPoWriMo 2015, Day 9

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New World Miracle1
New World Miracle2 New World Miracle3

Today’s prompt is to write a visual poem.  This is one I tried to publish earlier this year when WordPress was not accepting pingbacks, so perhaps not many have seen it, and certainly not in this form, as when I published it, it was all evened out into regular stanzas by the blog formatting.  It occurred to me to save it in jpeg and treat the pages as photographs and that seems to have worked.

http://www.napowrimo.net/participants-sites/

NaPoWriMo 2015, Day 8–Palinode Poem

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The Prompt: Write a palinode–a poem in which the poet retracts a statement made in an earlier poem. if you don’t have an actual poetically-expressed statement you want to retract, maybe you could write a poem in which you explain your reasons for changing your mind about something.

Of Stable Mind

There’s nothing I said yesterday that I’d like to retract.
Such wishy-washy thought systems leave me cold, in fact.
Those things that I believed in last week, last month, last year
are pretty much the standards that I still hold dear.
I’m not veering toward the right. I don’t like war games much.
Haven’t changed my taste for chocolate or changed to Greek from Dutch.
I still like Indie movies, the Avett Brothers and
prefer the beach to mountains as I like my walks in sand.
Though change is epidemic with apps changing every day,
when it comes to my beliefs, I think that I’m just going to stay
right here in the middle of the leftward slanting crowd–
where thinking for yourself is both encouraged and allowed.
No knee jerk either way, please, and respect for everyone
so long as they aren’t given to persuasion with a gun.
So I’ll post no apologia for anything I’m thinking.
I’ll row home in the boat I came in even if it’s sinking!

High Noon With Emily Dickinson

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The Prompt: High Noon–At noon today, take a pause in what you’re doing or thinking about. Make a note of it, and write a post about it later.

As it happens, I couldn’t sleep last night and so didn’t actually fall asleep until 5:30 this morning.  Therefore, high noon found me signing on to the NaPoWriMo site to get my day’s assignment. So, at high noon, that’s what I was doing.  The results you may find HERE.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/high-noon/

NaPoWriMo 2015, Day 4: Internet Appetizers

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DSC02137 - Version 2

Internet Appetizers

Casting our nets wider,
we gather matching minds and hearts
like small silver fish–
just a tiny bite, each one,
trying to fill a big appetite.
No big fish
to struggle to land.
Just nibbles,
one after another,
taking the edge off our hungers.

The Prompt: Write a “loveless” love poem. Don’t use the word love! And avoid the flowers and rainbows. Try to write a poem that expresses the feeling of love or lovelorn-ness without the traditional trappings you associate with the subject matter.

This subject seemed to grow when it came time to do my Daily Post on WordPress.  To see more of what I’ve said, at greater length, go HERE.

NaPoWriMo 2015, Day 2: Stars

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                                                                    Stars

Sometimes, on an Indian blanket spread on the night-dewed grass, I became aware of them.
They were always there waiting in the ever-clear South Dakota nights.
Anything could have happened on a night like that,
Reclining with no ceiling over us,
Silence split by crickets, frogs, the chipped barks of dogs.

Summertime freed us to the great outdoors.
Traitors to our beds, we chose the long-grass cushioned backyard.
Attacks by neighborhood boys an exciting possibility,
Rescues by my bellowing dad, in jockey shorts, standing on the back porch.
Sleep not on our agenda for hours afterwards.

Slumber parties meant for anything but slumber.
Taking a walk at midnight and crossing the path of no one.
Air in the night a different elixir
Returning to roll in the grass in shortie pajamas—that pre-sexual thrill.
Stars of our own summer, we strutted our stage until the wee hours.

Something in the night freeing something in us.
Taken by the stars to other selves, far above us.
Aware of the mysteries laid out like a path in front of us.
Returning reluctantly to our pre-teen lives,
Safe beneath the dangerous stars.

The WordPress prompt today was to write about texting, but Since I have never texted anyone in my life, thought I’d tell you what life was like in a pre-text world. And here’s a picture to go with both the subject of texting (old-time style) and the above poem:
https://grieflessons.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/a-photo-a-week-challenge-muted-colors/

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/its-a-text-text-text-text-world/

NaPoWriMo 2015, Day 1: Following Your No’s

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Following Your No’s

It is not fuzzy and is not hot.
(It’s hard describing what it’s not.)
It has no eyeballs but has a mouth.
Cannot go up but prefers south.
When it takes a trip, you go along.
It’s lauded in many a poem and song.
It likes to run but has no feet,
asks no permission to leave its seat.
It has no cheek but is a Tongue.
When it’s a man, it is not young.
It is no planet but is a Moon,
I fear this poem can’t end too soon.
I’m tired of saying what it ain’t.
This negativity makes me faint.
If you don’t know what I’m describing,
it’s a lie that you are not imbibing.
It’s clear that you ‘re not listening–
not noticing that I’m glistening.
How many clues do you need to get?
It’s not just me who is all wet!!

The NaPoWriMo Prompt: A Poem of Negation–Write a poem that involves describing something in terms of what it is not.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/tagline/
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/fool-me-once/

NaPoWriMo 2015 Day 1: At 67–I Guess that It’s Too Late for Me to Live A Life Of Sin.

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In case you are wondering why I have two posts, they actually gave us an earlybird prompt on March 31, so we had two prompts for April 1.  No fooling!  Here’s the first one I wrote:

At 67

I guess that it’s too late for me to live a life of sin.
I’m simply going to have to make do with the life I’m in.
Although life’s dance has furnished me with many a wild whirl,
my past is littered with false starts at being a bad girl.

It seems that dirty dancing doesn’t fit my constitution,
for somehow I just seemed to fail the sexual revolution.
Strange sexual positions never seemed to please.
They only did my back in and ruined both my knees.

It’s much too late to try to build a palate for champagne,
for experience has taught me that it’s safer to abstain.
The guilt I felt for shoplifting had just one resolution.
I felt the only answer lay in complete restitution.

Cocaine made my nose drip and pot just made me fat.
And that’s how I got into the position where I’m at.
Too chubby now for hot pants and too frigid for them, too,
I’ve found that there is only one more thing for me to do.

Rather than complete the acts that formerly I would,
it’s easier to only do the tame things that I should.
So though I must confess my bad girl days are at a halt,
I’ll admit I am a paragon merely by default!

Today’s Prompt: Lamentation for the other lives we could have led is something we probably have all felt. Today, why not try writing your own poem that begins “I guess it’s too late to live . . . .

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/fool-me-once/

Writing Habit

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The Prompt: Winning Streak—What’s the longest stretch you’ve ever pulled off of posting daily to your blog? What did you learn about blogging through that achievement, and what made you break the streak?

Writing Habit

I’ve written every day since April 1, 2014, except for yesterday, when I couldn’t get online all morning. I then got involved in working with the illustrator of my next book, who came to visit for two days to work on the covers. They are now finished, except for the lettering, and he’s done a wonderful job. Thrilling! I actually did answer yesterday’s prompt today and I’ve answered every other WordPress Daily Prompt since May, when I switched over from the NaPoWriMo prompt. I have not, however, managed to post a pingback to the WordPress Prompt page 3 or 4 times in the past and have not now been able to do so for the past 7 days, which is frustrating. I wonder if anyone reading this knows what the problem is and why some can trackback/pingback and others are unable to?

Blogging and the WordPress and other prompts have given me two things: a daily audience and pressure/permission to make writing a priority. I write every day, first thing, with very few exceptions. I now exercise in the late afternoon instead of the morning, giving me the entire morning to write if I need it. If I have activities, I get up early to write and sit waiting for the prompt like the parent of a teenager out after curfew.

I also sometimes post things I’ve written as a draft, waiting for a prompt to which they will relate. This serves as a backup as well, but so far I haven’t had any writer’s block. I think writing every day helps to prime the creative flow. I expect it to be there, so it always is. I also try not to censor myself. It’s necessary to let thoughts flow naturally. One can always delete or edit things later, but sometimes what feels not up to par when being written actually ends up being good. We need to give ourselves a chance and to be as supportive of ourselves as we are to our fellow writers.

NaPoWriMo Withdrawal

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Searching for a topic!!!!

Searching for a Topic (picture taken at La Manzanilla beach this March)

(picture taken at La Manzanilla beach this March)

Well, April (National Poetry Writing Month) is over and so there goes the start to my day. Must say I became addicted to waking up each morning with a fresh topic for poetry presented to me, as weird as some of them may have been. If anyone is still reading this blog, perhaps you would like to suggest a topic for me and I’ll continue to do the poems. I’ll choose from topics submitted each day and continue to do the “act.” If no one suggests a topic, I will slowly fade into the horizon until next April.