Today’s napowrimo.net prompt is to write (ugh!) an Earth Day poem. I am not a huge fan of Earth Day. I see it the way George Carlin did, as expressed in his ‘The Planet is Fine’ routine from Jammin’ in New York: a lot of it is pure self-interest. We care more about our immediate environment than we do about our planet ‘in the abstract.’ So, I did not bother with addressing any environmental themes in my poem. I went with a more universal theme—one that seems especially appropriate, seeing as how Prince just died…
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poem
National Poetry Writing Month, Day #21
Today’s napowrimo.net prompt is to write a poem about a fairy tale from the point of view of a minor character. I forgot about that part once I started writing, so I had to make a couple of small changes after I finished. My poem is about Hansel and Gretel, ostensibly from the point of view of the birds who ate Hansel’s trail of bread crumbs…
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National Poetry Writing Month, Day #20
Today’s napowrimo.net prompt is to write a kenning poem. I ignored the part about ‘kenning-like descriptions of [the] thing or person’ of whatever I chose to write about, since the examples I saw of that kind of poem did not look very interesting. Instead, I chose to substitute kenning-like descriptions of the things that appeared in the poem.
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An experimental poem
This is an experiment of sorts, playing with words to give them unexpected suffixes or conjugations. This was something I used to do with a friend about 25 years ago. Most of what we came up with has faded into memory; the only example I remember is mobular, which could be used, say, to describe a baby who has learned to crawl, and now is crawling all over the place—e.g., She’s become mobular. I see that particular ‘word’ as a combination of mobile and ambulatory. (Another example might be the prisoner played by Damon Wayans on In Living Color.) Anyway, I thought I would carry things further by trying to write a poem in that style. It was harder than I thought it would be—but here it is:
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How to fall asleep in a chair at the public library (a poem)
Today’s napowrimo.net prompt is to write a ‘how-to’ poem. Technically, I have already posted my poem for the day—but that was really a ‘readymade’ poem, so here is one that I just wrote.
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National Poetry Writing Month, Day #19
Today’s napowrimo.net prompt is to write a ‘how-to’ poem. My poem—a quote of an old typewriter drill (it’s basically a readymade poem)—was inspired by a Facebook post by a Washington state congressman.
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National Poetry Writing Month, Day #18
Today’s napowrimo.net prompt is to write a poem ‘that incorporates “the sound of home.” Think back to your childhood, and the figures of speech and particular ways of talking that the people around you used, and which you may not hear anymore.’ This prompt did not particularly call to mind much, so my poem ends up taking a different turn, into a random recollection.
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National Poetry Writing Month, Day #17
Today’s napowrimo.net prompt is to write a poem using at least ten words from a specialized dictionary. I used International Paper’s Pocket Pal, a pocket-sized paperback of print and graphic arts terms and concepts. (The terms I used are listed in the tags.) I wrote it in the form of a double viator, a six-stanza variation of the viator in which the last line of the first stanza travels up as the first line travels down throughout the poem; by the final stanza, they have switched places.
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National Poetry Writing Month, Day #16
Today’s napowrimo.net prompt is to answer a questionnaire about a place (real or imagined), then write a poem based on one or more of the answers. I ended up writing about my immediate surroundings—more specifically, in the context of my decision to make this what I call a ‘quiet day’. That means no unnecessary conversation, and no devices whose purpose includes producing sound (e.g., telephone, stereo, TV).
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National Poetry Writing Month, Day #15
Today’s napowrimo.net prompt is to write a poem that incorporates the idea of doubles, whether that involves writing the poem in couplets, or actually making doubles in some way the theme of the poem.
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Ordinary Average Thoughts 