National Poetry Writing Month 2018, Day 15

2018/04/15 — 1 Comment

For Day 15, I again deviate slightly from the Napowrimo.net prompt, which is to write a poem ‘in which a villain faces an unfortunate situation, and is revealed to be human (but still evil).’

I was going to try to work with it, remembering a bit Robert Klein once did about how even the worst Nazi could still have a soft spot for a puppy—but then I read that Hitler had his people test the cyanide Eva Braun eventually took on his German shepherd (her dogs were subsequently shot), so I gave up on that idea, instead looking at a more contemporary variety of villain…

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National Poetry Writing Month 2018, Day 14

2018/04/14 — 6 Comments

For Day 14, I have managed to properly work with the Napowrimo.net prompt. The task was to create entries for an imaginary dream dictionary with the words provided.

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The Lilac Years—Monday!

2018/04/13 — Leave a comment

My latest collection of poems, The Lilac Years, is just three days away!

Pre-ordering is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, or you can check IndieBound for a bookstore in your area to order it from.

The Lilac Years
Kevin J. O’Conner
216 pp., softcover (5.5″ x 8.5″)
Alarm Cat Press
ISBN: 978-0-9988781-4-0

(13 April 2018)

National Poetry Writing Month 2018, Day 13

2018/04/13 — 1 Comment

I have again managed a slight deviation from the Napowrimo.net prompt. For Day 13, the prompt is to:

write a poem in which the words or meaning of a familiar phrase get up-ended. For example, if you chose the phrase “A stitch in time saves nine,” you might reverse that into something like: “a broken thread; I’m late, so many lost.” Or “It’s raining cats and dogs” might prompt the phrase “Snakes and lizards evaporate into the sky.”

Somehow this got me thinking about the first Twilight Zone episode I mention in my poem. I couldn’t figure out how that had anything to do with the prompt, but I figured I’d follow it and see what happened. I think I sort-of figured out there towards the end. I even made up a word along the way (except it turns out it was already a real word, so never mind)…

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National Poetry Writing Month 2018, Day 12

2018/04/12 — 1 Comment

This poem is a slight deviation from the Napowrimo.net prompt for Day 12—‘a haibun that takes in the natural landscape of the place you live.’ I don’t particularly like haibun, a form that consists of prose followed by a haiku. At least, I have never read one that did not bore me within a couple of sentences. Consequently, I have never written one until now.

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