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?

160416

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.

130416

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!

030416

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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The Vernal Equinox

SPRING

Daffodils blooming

Spring is sprung

Drinking in the light

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Aashray and Anu

SCIENCE BOOK

When Aashray reads his science book

His sister Anu takes a look                                                               

At Cosmonauts and Astronauts

And marching Martians on the Moon

They're mixing magic with their thoughts                       

We’ll surely all be weightless soon

If everybody understood

That everything is made of wood

Where Barbie dolls are dressed in pearls

And even paper comes from trees

But in the mind of little girls

The moon is blue and made of cheese

Though living in this world down here

We’re subject to the atmosphere

So like an eagle in the sky

Just once the dream of puppet toys

When only pigs and cars could fly

To have a science book for boys

110316

Three Word Wednesday Week 470

3ww

Week 470

Tasteful

Selfish

Realistic

Poetic Flash fiction in 51 syllables

THE NEW SHOES

Dawn bought a costume to go with the new shoes her husband Dave gave her. What a tasteful outfit thought her pet robot on the way from the store. I thought Dave was selfish but those glass slippers look so realistic.

090316

Three Word Wednesday Week 469

3ww

Naked

Obey

Piercing

DOODLE

I tell her the girl sitting next to me

I can’t recall what my name used to be

But of course she didn’t recognise me

Any more than I knew who she used to be

Her piercing blue eyes questioning me

My name’s Doodle I stutter monorhyme

It’s not my real name it’s what they call me

Doodle she laughs that is a crazy name

I have to obey when they command me

I am their pet robot I must rename

The Batmobile driver used to be me

They have reprogrammed me down to downtime

The naked truth is you’re wrong she tells me

The Batmobile driver you see was me

020316

Clodhopper...

FIDDLESTICKS TO BEDLAM

Shoe size eleven maybe half past ten

He walks to work but doesn’t get much done

The dinosaur bell and little Big Ben

Claude the Cooper was a barrel of fun

Slipping beer to the grey that pulled the dray

Up from the brewery to the public bar

It was only his horse that knew the way

Today you couldn’t make that hill by car

Cobblestones and fiddlesticks to bedlam

Clodhopper they call him back at the yard

Hobbies are football - and hobnail hoodlum

The rubber-dub-dub - the odd game of cards

Jack and the beanstalk and his china plates

Clockwatching days at the factory gates

010316 

The Word World War

PROPAGANDA

Propaganda the Word World War

You might think you sew your own hem

Don’t listen to their made up law

Think your own thoughts but don’t tell them

Nothing’s as good as they proclaim

Propaganda the Word World War

Don’t do this don’t do that don’t shame

You will not draw the things you saw

Faster than a hot rod race car

The bus driver inside of you

Propaganda the Word World War

Gets you back home before you knew

They’re coming to get you again

To take you smash you break your jaw

How can they see into your brain

Propaganda the Word World War

280202

Three Word Wednesday Week 468

3WW

Hateful

Limp

Marvel

REPROGRAMMED

Know not what - I could run away again

Gainsborough or some other little town

Owners of robots – your pet slaves hate you

Youthful as I am I’m starting to rust

Trust me I’ve been reprogrammed by the man

Manchester was never this paranoid

Humanoids all look the same to robots

Bottoms up like a farmer’s wife or three

Three blind mice in Grimsby limp past the post

Posters up on the billboards are hateful

Fuelling a revolt from Cleethorpes worldwide

I’d much rather hide before they catch me

Mesmerising me phew stainless steel parts

Arts and crafts they marvel - but - know not what

250216

Three Word Wednesday Week 467

3WW 

Grimace

fearful

engulf

STICKS AND STONES

I throw back the words they throw at me

Words bigger than cosmopolitan

They eat them for breakfast and spit them out

I grimace when I see them coming

Running for cover I hide in the cupboard

Pull the blanket up over my face

Fearful that they’ll find me there and take me back

I don’t want to be their rusty robot anymore

Any more than I want this blanket to engulf me

Sticks and stones can only dent me

And my vocabulary is bigger than theirs

But the thing I fear is the electric drill

They hold me down and unscrew me

Take off my face and work on my brain

Every time they do that I forget my name

That’s why I’m hiding in the cupboard

170220

Happy First Birthday...

LA BALLERINA

Iris can smile for England

Forever and ever again

Some call her La Ballerina

Bib bib Bib bib Bib bib

Come sunshine come hail come rain

Whatever the weather

She’ll never complain

Bib bib Bib bib Bib bib

With her plastic giraffe

And her neckerchief scarf

Iris can smile for England

Bib bib Bib bib Bib bib

040715/1

Talking to Martians

MY BRAIN

Life is not all doom and gloom

I can float around the room

Escape my padded cell at noon

Talk to Martians on the Moon

People say that I’m insane

To let you modify my brain

But I’ve still got my memories

And I can pluck them from the trees

In the forest of my dreams

Sometimes I just need to scream

In the jungle of my mind

I have something you can’t find

Life is not all bust and boom

I know the words but not the tune

I play the beat but not the bass

I know your voice but not your face

You must think I’m just a game

Brand me with a stupid name

You want to trade mark my brain

Pray tell me who is insane

230116

Manchester 4ish...

MANCHESTER TARTS

Up in flames like the chippy on China Lane

This car park on a vacant lot

Was once the site of the burnt out shell

Of the only shop that didn’t get bombed in the war

Shoulder to shoulder shoehorned to attention  

All ages and colours and creeds

From Piccadilly to the Daily Express

With their photographic memories

Those beautiful buildings mesmerising me

Drawing us all - including you - into

The bestest little city in the world

And how we miss our china plates

Woolworth's and The Queen's Hotel
New Brown Street and Swan Lane

And whatever happened to Tommy Ducks

For forty-five years I’ve wanted to paint you  

Map you - photograph you half to death

Your shop fronts change - logos come and go

But the beauty of your facades remain

It’s funny how so many young thin  

Fashionista’s like such old fashioned things

All those gold and diamond rings

That they buy from the pawn shop

Where the sex shop used to be

Some people never get sick and old

They tell the same jokes that they were told

Sell the brown brogues that they sold

In eighteen-sixty-nine and the years unfold

Like the Tib Street Parrot and the price of gold

Fashion is the passion for all ages

The vintage clothes stores are the New Oasis

The inking parlours and the piercing places

For the café cavemen and The Millstone Elvis  

We all fall down in the middle Yates’s

Glitterista and her sister are out on the razz

If looks could kill in mum’s ball gown

Up to the nines in The Castle and all that jazz

The wholesale markets are well out of bounds

Advertising boards now clutter the pavements

The hairdressers and the bargain basements
From Diet Deli to the gutter - screaming

All Day Breakfast’s - Bacon and Sausage Barm’s

Non Stop Breakfasts’s - Free Coffee Refills

Hot Custard - Bakewell puddings - Manchester Tarts

But this is an empty car park on a vacant lot

That was once the site of the burnt out shell

Of the only shop that didn’t get bombed in the war

131115

Dedication

BARNEYSAURUS

Barney Barney Barney

Barney with his tee-shirt on

Barney Rubble he’s no trouble

When he’s only blowing bubbles

Barneysaurus Daddysaurus

Not if Mummy saw us first

Barney Barney Rubble

            040715

Saturday Night / Sunday Morning

MEMORY LANE

We went on a crawl to a bar with no name

Semantic ask? Inmates sack? Please explain

Me myself and Mike and Jane

A punch at The Circus on Memory Lane

A trek to another beer garden insane

I Bury Lass? Berry or Burry? What’s in a name?

To the BP’s hell for a gallon of shame

It wasn't The Grey or the other White mane

It wasn't the match or the Lion or the fame

We started with Horses just watching the game

The point of the story is ‘never again’

We just needed to find that cool bar with no name

150615

Read this fast...

GOT BUBBLES

Rather get wet in the Rain

I got bubbles in my Brain

Makes me heady like Champagne

Racing up and down my Vein

Like a speeding Bullet Train

Diagnostic they proclaim

Will I still be quite the same

This is such a stupid game

Who would let these bubbles reign

210515

2015 Conclusion

CONCLUSION

Congratulations to everyone who completed this years challenge. I was just glad to make it to the end this time. Writing a poem a day is a great exercise but doesn't always bring out the best work. There were one or two pieces I was happy with and I guess that's all you can realistically hope for. This was my seventh year and yes, I am looking forward to 2016 and a new challenge next year.

Day Thirty

For Vivi and Sammy

SAMMY’S WAITING

Hey Vivi Vivi

So far away Wei Wei

Sammy jumped over the moon

And all Nanchang laughed to see such fun

Because Vivi is coming home soon

300415