Day Thirty

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Thirty

TOENAILS BLUE

You know

I know that - you’re playing a game

You tell me you paint your toenails blue

You mess with my head - but you stay the same

All night you talk to…? I haven’t a clue

You know

I know that - there is only you

Behind your grin and bear it persona

Sparkling and dizzy - and heady just you

Fizzy like Tizer pop and Corona

You know

I know that - you figured me out

You’ve got to stop sending – post cards in code

Stop listening to the monsters that shout

And mail me a letter to my abode

You know

I know that - the other and this

You know

I know that - it’s you that I miss

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Day Twenty Nine

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Twenty Nine

The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was to

write a poem based on things you remember.

Here’s mine:

MEMORIES

Monday we said we would always be bold  

My very first kiss – sixteen – seconds old

Falling back to earth in a lead balloon

She thought that she was flying to the moon

Memories can flatter and sometimes please

Dib dib dib - Dob dob dob - all of those d’s

Falling off the pier she soon learnt to swim

Remember the day of the world cup win

Akela – the sex pest – we’ll do our best

She tried to tempt me did I pass the test

Remember the cold November the fifth

Tuesday was colder she told me forthwith

I’m always wrong so she won’t let me stay

Monday through Tuesday - to half day Wednesday

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Day Twenty Eight

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Twenty Eight

The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was to write a poem

that tells a story backwards, therefore, the first line should

say what happened last.

Here’s mine:

SHE HATED

Finally she pulled the trigger and walked away  

She hated them all with a vengeance

The alley cats that rooted through trash cans like bin dogs

The fat cats that came over her neighbour’s wall

The wild cats in the shed at the bottom of her garden

Anything to do with cats she hated

But only because they made a lot of noise

Of course she hated children more than adults

In reality Betty was the archetypal curtain twitcher

To protect the innocent or so she said

On her home computer she would change all the names

She would type it up from the shorthand later

Everything went into her reporter’s notebook

She had to write everything down

She couldn’t help herself

She wrote things on a postcard sometimes

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Day Twenty Seven

   NaPoWriMo 2016

   Day Twenty Seven

   HER MADE UP WORLD

   Her made up world of shopping for shoes/ Under the bed she has continents of them/ Amazonian rain forests full of knee high boots/ Islands the size of Timbuktu stuffed with carrier bags/ And receipts for stiletto’s that she’ll never wear/ I went to visit her once and she took an hour to find an odd shoe/ It was under the bed after all she said when I asked/ I spent the day with her and she changed her shoes nine times/ Under the mattress her high heels peep up like Nepalese peaks/ Lower down in the Antarctic of her dreams beneath the floorboards/ And the permafrost the pure lake water is double maybe triple distilled/ For people like me who always thought shoes were just for walking/ She says No, shoes are for wearing sometimes, but mainly for keeping for life/ If you don’t believe me ask Imelda Marcos just don’t let the termites flood in/ 270416

  The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was to write a poem with longer lines than usual.

Day Twenty Six

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Twenty Six

APRIL

What about April

Even weeds are weedier

What happened to spring

More showers this year than last

And today the snow came back  

In Piccadilly

The man with the feeding tray

Waiting for the birds

The grass is always astro

Dream on you know you can’t play

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Day Twenty Five

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Twenty Five

PHOTOGRAPHY

From time to time

We travel by photography

From one time frame to another

From the present to the past

And from the past into the future

Through the same eyes

We see things in different ways

As if for the very first time

Light is thrown upon the Darkness

Illuminating our minds for ever

We wonder if those shadowy figures knew

That we would still be able to see them

One hundred years after they had gone

Like we know that those that follow us

Will be able to see what we have done

How we lived and the contribution

We made to their lives or perhaps not

From time to time

We travel by photography

From one time frame to another

From the present to the past

And from the past into the future

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Day Twenty Four

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Twenty Four

MANET POSES

She’s kickin’ mad for it like Baudelaire

Done time in prison and she doesn’t care

The painted canvas of her portrait cries

Up in the gallery despite her lies

If I don’t tell her she won’t know the truth

She set herself apart she’s so aloof

As fleeting as modernity methinks

Art Nouveau rings another round of drinks

A gin and tonic and she waves goodbye

As plastic dingle dangles from her eye

The evil flowers that destroyed her soul

Cemeteries that couldn’t make her whole

Roadside crosses planted with red roses

She paints her toes doing Manet poses

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Day Twenty Two

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Twenty Two

ITZY BITZY 

When the sun is shining right through

Rough as you are and feeling blue

Phew Itzy Bitzy Timbucktoo

Choose to be there I want you too

Phew relief that you came back home

Rome is no place for one so young

So young Itzy Bitzy like you

Bleu as they say you are en France

Dancing cool to the latest dance

Romance like Venice and Paris

Marry in the Blacksmith’s workshop

Hop on a train to Gretna Green 

Seen scene everybody’s seen you

You know it’s Earth Day when the sun …

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Day Twenty One

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Twenty One

FIGHTING FOR LIFE

Standing still revolving at the same time

Itemise this and that throw the other

Her blanket keeps her warm on the dry nights

Nights when it rains she sleeps under the arch

The arches where all the addicted go

Going there is the worst thing that she hates

She hates it more than queuing up for food

Food that she gets once a day God bless her

Her and a million like her sleep outside

Outside in all weathers fighting for life

File this that and the other sling your hook

Cook some soup take it down to the kitchen

The kitchen where the fire is always hot

Shot to bits on a Saturday so what

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I didn’t do the prompt at NaPoWriMo today.

Day Twenty

3ww

Week 476

Pacify

Rage

Scarce

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Twenty

Here’s mine:

Flash Fiction in 51 Syllables

ONLY A GAME

After losing the big game, Dawn tries to pacify her Pet Robot. However scarce it may be for a Robot, he flies into a rage. Dave can’t see what all the fuss is about ‘it’s only a game’, he says.

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Day Nineteen

NaPoWriMo 2016                                             

Day Nineteen

HOW TO TAME A TROGLODYTE

Is life a competition or a game

Pray tell me soon my all creative one

Ask your troglodyte to discuss his name

He’ll grunt and groan ignoring you for fun

Club you to kingdom come if you let him

You need to exercise control all day

Bind him tightly and whip him till he’s thin

Feed him minute amounts and make him pay

For sins of generations on his back

Exact his breath with boiling lemonade

Kick his wisdom teeth into a black sack

When he’s ready send him out on a raid

Buy ‘How to Tame a Troglodyte’ the book

Make sure the author signs it take a look

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The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was to write a ‘How To’ poem

Day Eighteen

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Eighteen

THE ROOKIE
The conjurer tried to conceal
an ace up his sleeve but no deal
for the audience saw
that the rookie was raw
and the magical deal wasn’t real
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I did the Madeleine Begun Kane Limerick prompt today. The idea was to use the rhyming word conceal or seal in the challenge.

Day Seventeen

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Seventeen

The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was to
write a poem incorporating at least ten words
from a specialized dictionary - I chose my words
from 'Woodwork for Winemakers' by C.J. Dart
& D.A. Smith.

My Words were:

Plonker
Carboy trolley
Bottle rack
Mobile bar
Pulper
Bottle carrier
Malt grain crusher
Cork flogger
Floating syphon
Pulp squeezer

And this is what I wrote:

BACK TO BRIGHTON

Who’s the dolly with the carboy trolley?

Bonkers about the bottle rack plonker

It’s Holly and she’s looking for lolly

Dish the dosh and hit her with a conker

I think she’s got a crush on the crusher

It used to be the bottle carrier

Had her eye on the winery brusher

Before that it was the dray farrier

South America would not be too far

Then there was Python the floating syphon

And the malt grain man at the mobile bar

If only she could go back to Brighton

I caught her kissing the pulper geezer

Was the cork flogger a better snogger?

In the back kitchen behind the freezer

Or was it the Canadian logger

She told me the pulp squeezer was better

She just hoped that he would not forget her

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Day Sixteen

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Sixteen

CHINA TOWN

MANCHESTER

Welcome to Manchester

Or should that read

Greetings from Manchester

Or perhaps

Welcome to China Town

Or maybe that could say

China Town Manchester

Whatever the weather the

Umbrellas are out shielding

And shading us from the sun

Parasol City this is not

Welcome to The Rainy City

on a sunny day perhaps?

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They had an Almanac Questionnaire as today's
prompt at NaPoWriMo. I chose 'Picture on your
City's Postcard' from the extensive topic list.

Day Fifteen

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Fifteen

MONKEY

Trouble don’t come so easy these days

You need to take a broom and brush it

Push it to the limit if you can

The bin dogs and alley cats know these things

And the garbage man

I’ve been waiting all day for you to come home

The wife said to the monkey

Double trouble hubby bubble

The wife said to the monkey

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The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was to write

a poem that incorporates the idea of doubles.

Day Fourteen

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Fourteen

The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was to write a San San Poem.

Here's mine:

FREEZE

She looks at me etcetera

Pulling a mean and bitey face

I hide her cone shade but stay close

Wishing I had gone to Petra

The rose red city would be ace

She lifts her gun and starts to squeeze

Squirting water towards my nose

I pick my hose up and shout Freeze!

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Day Thirteen

3ww

Wk 475

Melancholy

Nimble

Opaque

AFTER THE CRASH

Sometime after the crash, Dave had a touch of melancholy madness.

Dawn tried to console him, saying, ‘the windscreen was virtually opaque’.

The nimble pet robot had been behind the wheel, still Dave blamed himself.

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The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was a bit cookie, 

so I did the Wednesday thing at 3ww.

Day Twelve

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Twelve

The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was to write an Index Poem.

Here's my attempt:

AN INDEX POEM

Acid heads are as bad as those that are

Alcohol fuelled filled to overflowing

Aluminium cans get kicked down the street

Ammunition can be so explosive

Batteries can power her motor and

Bleach can be used to clean her kitchen sink

Bombs can explode at unexpected times

Brown can be seen as a colour or not 

Calcium’s out there in rocks and in chalk

Carbon can be found in the sun and stars

Charcoal can be kicked about the back yard

Chrome she cleans with aluminium foil

Detonate the bombs and ammunition

Dimes cents dollars and yen can’t compensate

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Day Eleven

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Eleven

WATCHING

WASHING

Watching it intrudes into my

Life it takes up a huge amount

Of room in my living space

I watch it sometimes

But sometimes not

It talks to me informs me

Sometimes it tries to sell

Things to me products and

Ideas that I don’t need  

Sitting on a table by my sofa

It is wider than it is high and

These days it has a flat screen

It has preset channels to receive  

Television and radio broadcasts

And a wireless remote control

I drape the washing over it to dry

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I didn't really stick to the prompt today, but I tried to give it a surprise ending.

Today's challenge at NaPoWriMo was to write a poem in which you closely describe an object or place, and then end with a much more abstract line that doesn’t seemingly have anything to do with that object or place, but which, of course, really does. I think of the “surprise” ending to this James Wright Poem as a model for the effect I’m hoping you’ll achieve. An abstract, philosophical kind of statement closing out a poem that is otherwise intensely focused on physical, sensory details. Happy writing!

Day Ten

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Ten

The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was
to write a book spine poem. I chose five
books from my bookcase and wrote the following:

UP ON THE BOOKCASE

Up on the bookcase she’s still writing plays

Adventures melt titles leap off the shelf

Ben Okri – An African Elegy

Books with a bit of wear and tear like Skin

Ten Short Plays – Nicola Batty & co

Memories of places we used to go

Guide to the Musée d’Orsay - in Paris

Modigliani on the hotel wall

The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen – Garner

The very last book that she ever bought

Debut On Two – a BBC Books book

Up on the bookcase with her play inside

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Day Nine

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Nine

I couldn't understand the prompt at NaPoWriMo
today so I wrote a FlameThrower.

BABIES KNOW

Happy don’t come easy sideways

Sway the boat don’t rock it baby

Babies know much more than we think

Inking forearms is forbidden

Denton is on another plane

Lane after country lane we drive

Arriving home before midnight

Night turns into daytime too soon

On the day God created man

Manchester was what He wanted

Granted it took some time to do

Don’t things always look so upbeat?

Eat yourself stupid they won’t care

Are you mad or really happy?

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Day Eight

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Eight

The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was to write about flowers.

Here's mine:

FLOWERS

All covered in bangles

Done up like Beau Jangles

So cosy

Like poesy

Red roses sans mangles

Cream cheese and hot bagels

Laid out on long tables

Like plastic

Fantastic

Red roses green stables

Red damaged and tangled

Green droopy bits dangled

Red rosy

Girl’s posy

Plastic flowers mangled

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Day Seven

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Seven

The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was to write a Tritina

Here's mine:

POOR CANDLESTICK MAKER

He might love her but she loves the Butcher

Next time I think he will try the Baker

Butcher Baker or Candyfloss Maker

He even asked out the Cocktail Shaker

Still no joy for she too loves the Butcher

Cake in hand he’s waiting for the Baker

She was late coming out of the Bakers

When she did he said Hey Miss Cake Maker

She said what? And went into the Butchers

Butcher Baker poor Candlestick Maker

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Day Six

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Six

The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was to write about food.

Here's mine:

EVER EXPANDING ANDY

Since bread and cheese with herbs became his dream

The cabbage soup diet would not suit him

Eating himself to death with cakes and cream

I don’t think that he will ever be slim

Shedding a few pounds would be a riot

Of course that’s not as easy as it seems

Lose the weight first then go on the diet

Ever expanding Andy – burst the seams

He needs something that’s carbohydrate free

To cut out fizzy plonk and all that beer

He don’t want to go bark up the wrong tree

Or partake of something that he can’t cheer

One of these days he’s going to be slim

Ever Expanding Andy roll on Jim

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Day Five

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Five

The prompt at NaPoWriMo hadn't been posted when
I went out this morning, so I wrote a little rhyme
for my Hello Baby collection.

CHOCOLATE

WHISKERS

Lily kitten pussycat

Nimble as an acrobat

With her chocolate whiskers sat

On a thimble Lily cat

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Day Four

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Four

The prompt at NaPoWriMo today was: In his poem “The Wasteland,” T.S. Eliot famously declared that “April is the cruelest month.” But is it? I’d have thought February. Today I challenge you to write a poem in which you explore what you think is the cruelest month, and why.

Here’s mine:

NEVER KNOWING KNOWINGLY

Sitting there looking - bored forever

Never knowing knowingly - owing me

Ring me - bring me - sing me a song

A long, long - long lost song

Why pay rent on a concrete tent

When you can drive a Winnebago

He sings the jingle over in his head

Like a metronome windscreen wiper

If any month was heaven sent

It must be March or May

But the cruelest month that ever was

Was the one when we couldn’t pay

Sitting there looking - bored forever

Never knowing knowingly - owing me

Ring me - bring me - sing me a song

A long, long - long lost song

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Day Three

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Three

Today’s prompt at NaPoWriMo says: Let’s turn our vision outward, and write fan letters. I challenge you to write a poem in the form of a fan letter to a celebrity. Now, this could be a celebrity from long ago, and needn’t be an actor or singer (though it could be). You could write to George Washington or Dorothy Dandridge, Marie Curie or The Weekend. Happy writing!

Here’s mine:

WHACK! AND WHAM!

Dear Batman, I’m your biggest fan

Robin’s bobbins compared to you

You’re greater than the also rans

Superman, and Spiderman too

You’re the best of the very best

They just don’t measure up like you

And I’m not talking Adam West

The Riddler can’t out riddle you

Love the way you Zapped! The Joker

Kerplop! Thunk! Blam! One thump, Pow! Swish!

When you hit him with that poker

And Catwoman is such a dish

So, Batman I’m your biggest fan

I love the way you Whack! And Wham!

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Here's another Batman piece I wrote in 2010 clink~da~link

Day Two 2016

NaPoWriMo 2016

Day Two

Today’s challenge at NaPoWriMo is to write a poem that takes the form of a family portrait. You could write, for example, a stanza for each member of your family. You could also find an actual snapshot of your family and write a poem about it, spending a little bit of time on each person in the picture. You don’t need to observe any particular form or meter. Happy writing!

Here’s Mine:

MY ROBOTIC FAMILY

Photogenic not photosynthesis

I swear the picture’s looking back at me

A million years ago in days of bliss

Of me and my robotic family

Such artistic vision encapsulates

And mirrors my eternal entity

This very soul of mine which can’t escape

Then in my mind I truly would be free

They say you only reap the things you sow

My hair is purple blue and red aflame

My eyes are whiter than the driven snow

Looking back my portrait is still the same

I used to cry each time they sold my clone

As time progressed I valued being alone

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Day One 2016

Happy NaPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo

Day One
Today’s challenge at NaPoWriMo is to write a lune. This is a sort of English-language haiku. While the haiku is a three-line poem with a 5-7-5 syllable count, the lune is a three-line poem with a 5-3-5 syllable count. You can write a one-lune poem, or write a poem consisting of multiple stanzas of lunes. Happy writing! 

Here's mine:

BETWIXT

AND

BETWEEN

Betwixt and between
Still raining
Waiting for summer

Clouds threaten

Waiting for summer

Shorts and tee

Umbrella

Betwixt and between

Rivers flood

Still raining

Waiting still hoping

Raining still

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