NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Twenty-Three

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Twenty-Three

I'm doing the prompt at napowrimo.net today.

Today, let’s try writing triolets. A triolet is an eight-line poem. All the lines are in iambic tetramenter (for a total of eight syllables per line), and the first, fourth, and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines. This means that the poem begins and ends with the same couplet. Beyond this, there is a tight rhyme scheme (helped along by the repetition of lines) — ABaAabAB.

Here’s an example by Thomas Hardy:

Birds at Winter
Around the house the flakes fly faster,
And all the berries now are gone
From holly and cotoneaster
Around the house. The flakes fly! – faster
Shutting indoors the crumb-outcaster
We used to see upon the lawn
Around the house. The Flakes fly faster
And all the berries now are gone!

Here’s mine:

UP AND DOWN

Life’s more like a rollercoaster

Thrill seekers coming back for more

For the cherries in the orchard

Life’s more like a rollercoaster

Up and down and squashed and tortured

Always more as time gets shorter

Life’s more like a rollercoaster

Thrill seekers coming back for more

230413

Day Twenty-Three last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Twenty-Two

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Twenty-Two

HER/HIMSELF
Writing her/himself into history
his/her story was much the same as mine
minerals buried deep beneath the ground
sounds like nature's taking over again.

Ayn Rand and her cultist followers
Lower Manhattan's never been the same
Sambucas wouldn't help them that much
that much I do know about  these things.

Ingenuity comes in droves sometimes
time's running out for some of us
usually it's me that's running away
way down south and up the yellow brick road.

Frog and Toad we're off to see the Wizard
arduous as it is it beats writing.
210413

Day twenty-Two last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Twenty-One

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Twenty-One

Inspired by but not posted to the prompt at Sunday Whirl.

Poetic Flash Fiction in 51 Syllables

HEARTS HARDEN
Promise me you will shelter against the bomb, when infidels fire one. Resilience is time well spent, no matter what, the drugs will be shipped. Hearts harden to shock us, they want their land to thrive and ours to struggle.
210413 

Day Twenty-One last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013

Day Twenty

The prompt today at NaPoWriMo.net is as follows: Today I challenge you to write a poem that uses at least five of the following words: owl, generator, abscond, upwind, squander, clove, miraculous, dunderhead, cyclops, willowy, mercurial, seaweed, gutter, non-pareil, artillery, salt, curl, ego, rodomontade, elusive, twice, ghost, cheese, cowbird, truffle, svelte, quahog, bilious.

Happy writing!

Here's mine: (I chose - upwind, clove, twice, ghost, and mercurial).

A MERCURIAL GHOST

A mercurial ghost came to visit

it isn't a ghost it's a ghoul is it

sitting there upwind

Indian Queens grinned

edging over the clove twice revisit

200413

Day Twenty last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Nineteen

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Nineteen

Today’s prompt at Napowrimo.net comes to 
us from a list that Daisy Fried put together: 
Write a poem in the form of a personal ad!
Or, if you like, try any kind of want ad. 
Personal ads, though, do have a kind of poetry to them. 
The personal ads of the London Review of Books are 
particularly famous, and have even spawned a book. 
When I was younger, one of my favorite guilty pleasures 
was getting a copy of the local alternative newspaper and 
reading through the personal ads for (a) witty ones and 
(b) really horrible ones. One of my favorites was a witty one, 
which went something like this:
Antonymically Correct?
Ham-fisted, vindictive milquetoast seeks ineducable, filthy 
harridan to castigate, bore, and neglect. 

Try and top that, if you like. (Oh, and by the way, the 
personal ad doesn't actually have to be about you, of course. 
Feel free to invent every last thing about it). Happy writing!

Here’s mine:

HELP!

Beatles fan wltm similar

perhaps please please me at the cinema
or Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Old codger coffin dodger hold my hand

190413

Day Nineteen last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Eighteen

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Eighteen

I'm doing today's prompt at Napowrimo.net!

This prompt comes to us from Cathy Evans, 

who challenges us to write a poem that begins and 

ends with the same word. You could try for something

in media res, that begins and ends with “and,” for example. 

Or maybe “if.” Or perhaps you could really challenge 

yourself and begin/end your poem with a six-dollar word 

like “antidisestablishmentarianism.” (Just kidding!) 

Whatever word you choose, I hope you have fun with it!

Here's mine:

THE ONE

One on one they're about the same as us

usually we'd rush out and take them on

only as I can see their weaponry now

no way will we beat them one on one

None of them out there last time were yet born
ornamental as that might sound to you
your young soldiers will surely die tonight
night after night none will be spared no none

Oneness in the ranks will beat these chancers
erstwhile as they might think they are out there
here we go then into battle once more
rebuffing the enemy with oneness

One of us and only the one will win
in this total war we will be the one
180413

ONION ON YOU HERO
(THE ONE REVEALED)
Only as I can see their weaponry now

no way will we beat them one on one

in this total war we will be the one
ornamental as that might sound to you
none of them out there last time were yet born

Oneness in the ranks will beat these chancers
night after night none will be spared no none

Your young soldiers will surely die tonight
one on one they're about the same as us

usually we'd rush out and take them on

Here we go then into battle once more
erstwhile as they might think they are out there
rebuffing the enemy with oneness
one of us will win and the one only
180413/1

Day Eighteen last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Seventeen

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Seventeen

Today is Margaret Thatcher's funeral
and it was revealed during the service
at St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London
that she was part of the scientific team that
invented Mr Whippy ice cream.
My prompt for today is to write a nursery rhyme
about her. So for today only, no matter what
your political persuasion, this is just for fun.

MRS. THATCH

Grantham grocers counter slices

mixing Mr Whippy ices

A ceremonial dispatch

at Saint Paul's for Mrs Thatch

170413

Day Seventeen last year.

Finally, just for the record - Bus Degradation. 

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Sixteen

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Sixteen

Yesterday was my five hundredth post on this blog
and the phone didn't stop ringing, which inspired my
poem for this the sixteenth day of NaPoWriMo 2013.

Here it is:

DEAD WRINGERS

His home phone never stopped ringing

Ringing, ringing, ringing in his ears

Tearfully he disconnected his Ansaphone

Phone calls were taking over his life

Life was for living he told himself

Elfishly he turned the damn thing off

Offering the ringers no choice at all

All that happened was - they rang him some more

Some moron had found his cell phone number

Cucumber dog and partridge trombone

One two three, five-five-five, six nine, nine eleven

Eventually though something had to give

Give me strength he said, jumping into the canal
All the ringers were watching, waiting, wringing him out

160413

Day Sixteen last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Fifteen

NaPoWriMo 2013

Day Fifteen

SHE DON’T
She don’t see things that way no more
No more than she ever did how’s about you
Useless as a broken tambourine
Urination is hardly the answer

Swerving dodging left field and right
And writing down every rite of passage
Sage and onion would make a better stuffing
Stuff like that always bugs her sideways

Wayside in the jungle of discontent
Tentative as it might be she must discuss it
Cuss it or swear on oath or her babies’ life
Living that way isn't the answer ever

Everest is the tallest mountain still
Illuminate her a little bit more
150413

LAWSUITS CENSUS
(SHE DON’T REVEALED)
Living that way isn't the answer ever
And writing down every rite of passage
Wayside in the jungle of discontent
Stuff like that always bugs her sideways
Useless as a broken tambourine
Illuminate her a little bit more
Tentative as it might be she must discuss it
Sage and onion would make a better stuffing

Cuss it or swear on oath or her babies’ life
Everest is the tallest mountain still
No more than she ever did how’s about you
Swerving dodging left field and right
Urination is hardly the answer
She don’t see things that way no more
150413/1

Halfway last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Fourteen

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Fourteen

I used Mad Kane's weekly Limerick prompt for my Day Fourteen.

IMELDA SHE'S NOT

A woman who likes to cook stews

goes upstairs to count all her shoes 

Imelda she’s not 

but soul food she’s got 

Or is it sole food that she brews 

140413

Day Fourteen last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Thirteen

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Thirteen

PROPAGANDA

Propaganda all-out war

who can really know for sure

Pyongyang who's right who's wrong

who pulls his strings sings this song

130413

Day Thirteen last year.

Na PoWriMo 2013 Day Twelve

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Twelve

TOTAL WAR

Thought control in Pyongyang

total war for all the gang

Who pulls his strings Kim Jong-un

Beijing perhaps very soon

120413 

Day Twelve last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Eleven

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Eleven
The prompt today is to write a tanka. This, like the “American” cinquain, is a poem based on syllables, with the pattern being 5-7-5-7-7. They work best when those final two 7-syllable lines contain a sort of turn or surprise that the first three lines might not wholly anticipate. You can string a bunch of them together to make a multi-stanza poem, or just write one!

Here's mine:

ROCK 'N' ROLL

The rock 'n' roll years

on stage in front of the crowd

the deafening throng

looking for a miracle

five thousand more mouths to feed

110413

Day Eleven last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Ten

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Ten
Inspired by but not posted to Haiku Heights

INCENSE

Morning prayers 

long before breakfast

the monks rise

100413

Day Ten last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Nine

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Nine

NOBODY LISTENS
Sitting here looking at a blank screen
one day melds into the next
time disappears into the pot
melts like it's not that important
who knows who cares what's real
I do but nobody listens to me

Why would they what have I done
for them what have I done that matters
to them when was I their hero
what did I do to help them when
I had all the money in the world
all those years ago in the old country
090413

Day Nine last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Eight

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Eight

Posted to Haiku Heights

GRASSHOPPER

Between the goalposts

he bounces like a football

this season and next

080413

Day Eight last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Seven

NapoWriMo 2013
Day Seven

Posted to Haiku Heights

APRIL

Cold wind in April

The Redstarts worm their way home

Spring is late this year

070413

Wise Words from a Troglodyte, 
time doesn't exist - till you miss the train.

Day Seven last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Six

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Six

UN POCO LOCO

(MISHMASH)

Dance doodle
doodle boogie
woogie doodle

dance doodle doodle jazz

Un Poco Loco

fast fast slow slow 

Un Poco Loco 

and all that jazz

Oh so extravaganza

surely dancing mambo 

the way they groove to

the sax so Un Poco Loco

with Bud with Curly with Max

 060413

Day Six last year

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Five

NaPoWriMo 2013

Day Five

Today's Challenge:

I challenge you to write a cinquain on this, the fifth day of NaPoWriMo. A cinquain is a poem that employs stanzas with five lines. Each line has a certain number of accented or stressed syllables, and a certain number of overall syllables per line. In the “American” cinquain, a form invented by a woman with the highly unfortunate name of Adelaide Crapsey, the number of stresses per line is 1-2-3-4-1, and the number of syllables is 2-4-6-8-2. So the first line would have two syllables, one stressed and one unstressed. The second line would have four syllables, two of which are stressed, and so on. This kind of accent/syllabic verse can be a bit frustrating at first, but it’s useful for learning to sharpen up your language!

Here's my Day Five

YOU BET
Okay
here it is then
Ladies day at Aintree
then the sold out Grand National
You bet
050413

My Day Five last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Four

NaPoWriMo 2013
Our prompt for today (again — totally optional!) is a little odd, but here goes. Recently, I read an article about the Scottish science fiction writer Iain M. Banks. His books often have spaceships in them. And those spaceships have extremely odd, poetic names. Like: Prosthetic Conscience, Irregular Apocalypse, Unfortunate Conflict of Interest, Gunboat Diplomat, Very Little Gravitas Indeed, A Series of Unlikely Explanations, Just Another Victim of the Ambient Morality, Jaundiced Outlook, Frank Exchange of Views, Lightly Seared on the Reality Grill, Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints, Abundance of Onslaught, Refreshingly Unconcerned With the Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity, A Fine Disregard For Awkward Facts.
There’s a whole twitter account devoted to tweeting Iain-M-Banks-like names for spaceships. So your challenge for today is to write a poem with a title drawn from one of these spaceship names. Feel free to pick a genuine Banks, like the ones listed above, or to take one from the twitter. And if you think of your own Banks-like spaceship name title, feel free to use that! The poet Barbara Guest wrote an essay warning poets about starting from the title, but while I've found that a wonderful poem usually finds its right title, I've also found that the right title can easily lead to a wonderful poem!
Happy writing!

Here's my Day Four

INVINCIBLE JIM
(THE INVISIBLE MAN)

In his imagination he was invisible

invincible nothing was broken

tokens and toys all in the box

the box was locked and bolted 

malted milk and biscuits ready

steady go up the wooden hill to bed 

bedlam in his head screaming

dreaming he was invincible

invisible nobody could see him

Jim the invincible invisible man

040413

Day Four last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Three

NaPoRiMo 2013
Day Three

PINK LINT
sooner or later (and he hoped sooner)
something had to give
they talk about experimental
and state the obvious

bang it all goes up in smoke
cream cakes would have been better
cheaper even much cheaper
but there's always a reason for

the things that governments do
they never call the shots they
just react to them and withdraw
back into anonymity

that's what he told me anyway
of course he should know
because his girlfriend went out
with a policeman once or did she

just get arrested I really can't
remember it was all so long ago
he was the sort of geezer that
always knew someone who knew

something about everything so
of course I trusted him you would
have done too he was very convincing
later (much later) I found out that he

was a con man he just got you to
trust him and then he ripped you off
I was lucky because I didn't have any
money in my bank account you see

I didn't trust banks anymore than he
trusted governments so when he told
me that he'd moved all his money
offshore to Cyprus I just laughed

sorry mate I said I'm pink lint
030413

Day Three last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day Two

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day Two

MOTIVATIONAL
like the day
it all came back to haunt you
when you lost your memory
and the words failed you
just when you needed them the most
she said and you did the opposite she said

like the day
you sold your soul to the devil
for a pocketful of change
whose dreams did you steal
with that dream-catcher you bought
with the money that you stole
when he crushed you with his sole
she said you're so fake so unreal she said

like the day
that you really thought
that people wouldn't talk
how much did it cost you
to burn the midnight oil
and you plastered incantations
onto the cavern wall
she said how motivational was that she said

like the day
you sat there preaching to yourself
like you were the new guru
and hung the crutches on the cavern wall
and proclaimed another miracle
she said if only you could make him walk she said
020413

Day Two last year.

NaPoWriMo 2013 Day One

NaPoWriMo 2013
Day One

THIS BUGLER
He sits there waiting what for he knows not
not for the first time it won't be the last
last night was of course a little bit worse
worse than he could ever have imagined
imagination is where it's all at

All at sea perhaps please don't rock the boat
boating lake blues like you can't imagine
imagination is where it's all at
at the risk of of of repetition
repeat this anagram if you dare to

Two million renters can't be wrong can they
they can't this bugler he sits there waiting
010413

TWIRL IN A BATH
(THIS BUGLER REVEALED)
Two million renters can't be wrong can they
worse than he could ever have imagined
imagination is where it's all at
repeat this anagram if you dare to
last night was of course a little bit worse

Imagination is where it's all at
not for the first time it won't be the last

At the risk of of of repetition

Boating lake blues like you can't imagine
all at sea perhaps please don't rock the boat
they can't this bugler he sits there waiting
he sits there waiting what for he knows not
010413/1

Day One last year.

Pre-NaPoWriMo..

LIKE
I wrote a quick line for Mad Kane
It's not rock 'n' roll its just plain
A Limerick no
You're mad to think so
So, Like, if you think it's insane
26032013

NaPoWriMo 2013

Introduction
NaPoWriMo 2013

It will soon be April and that means it's NaPoWriMo time again. The idea is to write thirty poems in 30 days, and this will be my fifth year.

You can read my entries from 2009, 10, 11, and 2012 by scrolling down the right hand sidebar on this page and clicking the links.

If you would like to have a go this year, you can sign up at Maureen's site here. Otherwise check out some of the other participants here.

Sanctification

TIC-TAC SINFONIA

To take us there back to infinity
Ice creams even now contaminated
Choices are for us to make and to take
Trumpeting heralding like a third eye
Areal to the universe bar none
Contamination damnation et al

Stupid as it all seems, my dreams are real
Infinity sucks, says the, Sofa King
Nonsensical to those chosen to choose
Fukushima used to be oh so nice
Only the lonely understand me now
No way, no one else could be so stupid
I want them to go away, if only…
All my dreams are like this now, they’re so true.

26022012

SANCTIFICATION
(REVEALED)

Stupid as it all seems, my dreams are real
Areal to the universe bar none
Nonsensical to those chosen to choose
Choices are for us to make and to take
To take us there, back to infinity
Infinity sucks, says the, Sofa King
Fukushima used to be oh so nice
Ice creams even now contaminated
Contamination damnation et al
All my dreams are like this now, they’re so true
Trumpeting heralding like a third eye
I want them to go away, if only…
Only the lonely understand me now
No way, no one else could be so stupid.

04022013

Posted to dVerse Poets

WITH DANDELION JAM

He plucks 

shards from star-parts

as meteorites whiz by.

Desperate as 

a troglodyte

she force feeds the baby

with dandelion jam.

Loony as 

the man on the moon

they wait patiently  

for the 

next space shuttle

to whisk them back to earth.

07012013

Posted to dVerse poets

Like Modigliani

THE WAY SHE WAS

I must be patient now the way she was

for all those years sitting there in that chair

waiting for me to fix something for her

wanting to dictate a chapter to me

Sitting there imprisoned in that mad place

I knew she wanted me to take her home

waiting for me to read about Gauguin

wanting to paint like Modigliani

I’m the patient now sitting on the ward

waiting for the nurse to extract some blood

wanting the doctor to say that I'm fixed

I must be patient now the way she was

29012013

Posted to dVerse poets for Open Link Night

Sally's Farm

SALLY'S FARM

My dreams pile up like oranges
waiting to be unpeeled
layer after layer dangling like threads
enticing as a spiders web

Sally wants to measure everything
paint the whole house white
clean every nook and cranny
the list is endless

Falling down the stairs yesterday
I came here to get well again
but she's got me baking bread
and cleaning out the chicken coop

If you don't work you don't eat said Sally
choking on a piece of wholemeal rye
(like she feeds me anyway she just waits
for the van like my other carer did)

Sometimes the sun seems to go backwards
left to right instead of the other way
like the meds she forces down my red lane
making me and the front room turn blue

The television is monotonous
an incessant rattle in the corner
but that's the only decent company I'll get
until the meals on wheels lady arrives

24012013

My name is Amundsen

YOU LOOK A BIT SWEDISH

(I BET IT'S COLD UP THERE) 

If I looked the way he did you'd say 

You look a bit Swedish I bet it's cold up there

I'd reply the sauna's okay come on in

Afterwards when the snow starts to melt

we'll talk about the weather

you'll try to forget that my name is Amundsen

and ask me (like I'm a chocolate wristwatch) 

have you always lived in Switzerland

17012013

I'm back

FOOTPRINTS

walking barefoot

footprints on the moon

little green men

hovering towards me

the footprints were mine

walking in circles blind

the green men were Martians

they thought that I was

the man on the moon

04122012

Nowhere...

NOWHERE

Now here

Now here Now-

here now

12062012

Into the darkness...

INTO THE DARKNESS

flying through rain clouds making up stories

dealing with satan screaming like bedlam

thinly veiled madness finite as jelly

bouncing like atoms crashing and thrashing

nightmares recurring shouting at demons

fighting with devils escaping from hell

black cats and broomsticks swinging from lamp posts

swearing at Jesus and killing herself

writing on raw flesh with needles and ink

scratching her eyes out ladies in waiting

surfing on rainbows looking for lovers

eating for England hating the weather

08062012

Please note:
The above is the first part of a much longer piece that 
will be aired on my Dream Genie bloggage very soon.

Three Word Wednesday CCLXXI

3WW
Dampen
Keep
Tremble

Here's mine:

POETIC FLASH FICTION IN 51 SYLLABLES
He begins to tremble as he asks his god for forgiveness again.He dampens it down, turning his thoughts into words as he starts to pray. The deeper he digs the more clues he keeps on finding, don't tell the judge. 09052012/1

DON'T TELL 

THE JUDGE

The deeper we dig 

the more clues we 

keep on finding, 

don't tell the judge.

They dampen it down 

turning their thoughts into 

words, as they start to pray

he begins to tremble 

as he asks his god 

for forgiveness again.

09052012

Conclusion

NaPoWriMo 2012

CONCLUSION

Phew, another hectic April, and my fourth NaPoWriMo completed. This year I choose not to link my posts to the prompt sites daily, because I knew that I wouldn't have the time to read and comment on everybody else's work. As a result of this action, the amount of people reading and commenting on my work dwindled too.
TAKING PART
There were a few days when I managed to link to the prompt sites and this did result in more hits to SweetTalkingGuy. The bottom line in all this of course is the taking part, and the conclusion is here on this blog as a record for all to read.
TRIOLET
I did a few versions of the triolet form on different days, the idea for this coming from an early prompt on Maureen Thorsen's NaPoWriMo site. This was a new form to me, it was simple as far as the rules go, but difficult to get right. I think the secret is in getting a good first sentence which is strong enough to be repeated in the fourth and seventh lines. Anyway, I enjoyed writing them.

FLAME THROWER

This time last year I was enthusing about the FlameThrower form, and I gave some examples of this style in the 2011 conclusion which you can click to at the bottom of this post.

EXPERIMENT

This year on Day Twenty-Four of the challenge (to write thirty poems in thirty days) I went a bit crazy and wrote an experimental poem with the title Experiment, I set it out as an acrostic piece and I used words beginning with E for the first line, then words starting with X for the second line, etc. I then shuffled the experiment letters up and made thirty-six different anagrams of the acrostic word like Extreme Nip, Mine Expert, and Tex Pier Men. You can read the result here.

FINALLY

Congratulations to everyone who took part in this years NaPoWriMo, you deserve a virtual pat on the back. So until next April, may I take this opportunity to say Happy NaPoWriMo!!!

Here's my Conclusion from NaPoWriMo 2011