anaphora – Ordinary Average Thoughts

National Poetry Writing Month 2019 Day #9 (pts. 1 and 2)

2019/04/092019/04/15 Kevin J. O'Conner2 Comments

For Day 9, I combine the two prompts I have been using: The prompt provided by poet (and bookstore owner) Chris Jarmick on his blog, POETRYisEVERYTHING, calls for a poem that uses anaphora. The napowromo.net prompt calls for ‘a Sei Shonagon-style list of “things”’. (And I forgot to update the title of this post. It [...]

Beginning to melt (a poem)

2017/10/31 Kevin J. O'Conner

Written this Tuesday morning while listening to the music that follows… Pouring forth into clouds and whispers the slow, steady build makes her presence known Hours accumulate into days and disappear Pouring forth behind steeled glances and snaking lines she bides her time Rainfall makes floods from cloudy skies Pouring forth through fluid movement blurring [...]

Of (a poem)

2017/10/30 Kevin J. O'Conner1 Comment

I started this with the line about the wheat stalk. I don’t know why, but I went with it anyway… Of a wheat stalk, climbed and broken, comes the straw similarly bent and bruised. Of pages set in galleys seventy-one years ago, words pressed from ink absorb light, that I may read. Of this stormy [...]

Iona, the Ethereal (a poem)

2017/10/292017/10/29 Kevin J. O'Conner

I wrote this earlier today, after learning about the new Ruby Throat album. This poem can be read two ways: either in order, or the long lines followed by the italicized lines. In time to sink the boat and watch it disappear into the dirty yellow depths she emerges In time to stem the [...]

The failure of signposts (a poem)

2017/10/29 Kevin J. O'Conner

You can’t trust everything you see… Signposts appear at irregular intervals suggesting turns but failing to commit Old signposts referenced fire and steel, ink in the well then disappeared in the rear-view mirror Some signposts change without warning and not the slightest concern ever in love with tragedy and mystery The newer signposts are not [...]

Western Family Original Saltines (a poem)

2017/10/28 Kevin J. O'Conner

I should not have been surprised—Western Family products tend to be kind of gross… Western Family Original Saltines the official saltine for the man whose life is forever on the verge Western Family Original Saltines thin and tasteless barely enough substance to hold together Western Family Original Saltines crumble at the slightest bit of pressure [...]

This poem (a poem)

2017/10/262017/10/26 Kevin J. O'Conner

I have spent a good chunk of the day looking for places to submit poems to; this poem came out of that… This poem will not contain a New Yorker serious story told in somber tones with thick, chewy words like ‘lugubrious’ or the names of parts of speech for the purpose of creating artificial [...]

Early (a poem)

2017/10/25 Kevin J. O'Conner

I often wake up earlier than I’d like… I woke up early and immediately cursed my lack of sleep I woke up early and immediately thought about going back to sleep I woke up early and immediately rolled over to go back to sleep I woke up early and immediately went back to sleep I [...]

Some dreams I had (a poem)

2017/10/24 Kevin J. O'Conner

Today was an editing-and-errands day, so this is the only poem I wrote today… I had a dream that whispered in my ear but I couldn’t make out the last word of the sentence I had a dream that she led me into a building where we were safe—but I don’t know why we were [...]

with difficulty (a poem)

2017/10/23 Kevin J. O'Conner

Haven’t done a verbless poem for a while… with difficulty the question the query the request for a leg up with difficulty a circle incomplete light a sliver with difficulty the stone the feather the precipice with difficulty a door, ajar a note with a tear insulation of stubbornness with difficulty [...]