NaPoWriMo prompt: The idea is to write a poem in which two things have a fight. Two very unlikely things, if you can manage it. Or perhaps your two things could be linked somehow – like a rock and a hard place – and be utterly sick of being so joined.
NaPoWriMo: Optional prompt for the day. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem that is inspired by a piece of music, and that shares its title with that piece of music.
This poem went a bit to the winds.
I began thinking of the song ‘The Power of Love’, a Song by Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
Then I thought of the song, and the film, ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’ – the song originally by Percy Sledge and the film (1994) Directed by Luis Mandoki and starring Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan, as a recovering alcoholic.
That film is meaningful to me, but then I thought of one of my all-time favourite films – ‘Life is Beautiful’ and began to rock to the romantic melody of Barcarolle (by Jacques Offenbach) . ‘Life is Beautiful’ is a 1997 Italian comedy-drama film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni.
Today, we challenge you 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. The “surprise” ending to this James Wright poem is a good illustration of the effect we’re hoping you’ll achieve. An abstract, philosophical kind of statement closing out a poem that is otherwise intensely focused on physical, sensory details
#NaPoWriMo And now for our prompt – optional, as always! Today, we’d like to encourage you to take a look at @StampsBot, and become inspired by the wide, wonderful, and sometimes wacky world of postage stamps.
‘to play with rhyme. Start by creating a “word bank” of ten simple words. They should only have one or two syllables apiece. Five should correspond to each of the five senses… Use your expanded word-bank, with rhymes, as the seeds for your poem. Your effort doesn’t actually have to rhyme in the sense of having each line end with a rhymed word, but try to use as much soundplay in your poem as possible..’
I had a house full of visitors this weekend, so I had no opportunity to do all of Day 13’s challenge. However, I did think of 5 ‘sense’ words and 3 of my young guests, helped generate a selection of rhymes.
I decided to use the rhymes we generated yesterday, in combination with today’s challenge (Day 14), which is to
‘write a poem of at least ten lines in which each line begins with the same word (e.g., “Because,” “Forget,” “Not,” “If”). This technique of beginning multiple lines with the same word or phrase is called anaphora, and has long been used to give poems a driving rhythm and/or a sense of puzzlebox mystery.’
April 13th is my late mother’s birthday, and, inspired by a garden full of forget-me-nots, which were her favourite bloom, (until dementia robbed her of that too), I composed this.
Forget me not
Forget-me-not when you replay the sight
of what might have been our plight
that bright night
when in our minds’ eye was only the light
of what looked like danger,
but seemingly
was alright.
Forget-me-not when you talk and shout
about all our doubts
in whispered confessions of trust
and how we announced from roof-tops aloud
that the faith we espoused
in the cacophony, at times, was reduced
to nought.
And forget-me-not when taste-buds are tingled
by shots of sweet and even your feet
savour the delicate flavours
of when we chanced to meet and eat
by the white sands, quite replete,
until all our joy
was complete.
And forget-me-not when the fragrance evokes
the smoke from our one last toke
and how all our senses were awoken
and in bliss we would joke
and soak in the delicious evening
until the mesmerising spell
was broken.
As all your senses, cells and members
remember
triggering the memories
of times and places,
sights and sounds
scents and flavours;
promise me-
That you’ll forget-me-not
when it’s all too tough
and you’ve had enough of missing the hugs,
of missing the laughs and the sharing of us.
When you want to snuff out the grief
and move on and forget
all that stuff.
Please move on
but forget-me-not.
A photograph of forget-me-nots in my garden today. Happy birthday, Mammy.
I decided to combine the FMF prompt of ‘LIMIT’ with the NaPoWriMo challenge that I had just begun to compose on the train from St Pancras Station…
For the NaPoWriMo challenge, I took my inspiration from the opening sentence, rather than the optional prompt. It was written there:
‘Happy twelfth day of NaPoWriMo / GloPoWriMo, everyone! (Too bad it’s not like the twelve days of Christmas – maybe we could have twelve words a-rhyming, eleven stanzas singing, ten poets sighing, etc., etc.)’
The tune became an ear-worm and, as it is April, it struck me that we are now on the 12th day of Easter, the first being on Easter Monday, April 1st.
And so we now have: (and you have to now sing it to the proper tune)
The Twelve Days of Easter
On the first day of Easterthe True Love gave to me –
Life through His death on that Tree.
On the second day of Easterthe True Love gave to me –
Love without limit,
AND
Life through His death on that Tree.
On the third day of Easterthe True Lord gave to me –
Redemption,
Love without limit,
AND
Life through His death on that Tree.
On the fourth day of Easterthe True Lord gave to me –
Wisdom of the Spirit,
Redemption,
Love without limit,
AND
Life through His death on that Tree.
On the fifth day of Easterthe True Love gave to me –
To take part in this challenge, a blogger friend suggested I explore different types of poetry to make this more interesting.
The only poems I ever wrote in the past tended to be free verse, sometimes with rhymes, often without.
So today I have picked the prompt word ‘CAGE’ and have tried a Haiku and an acrostic poem.
I enclose a brief description of what each style of poem is.
Haiku
The haiku (or hokku) is an ancient form of Japanese poetry that has become very popular all over the world. Renowned for its small size, haikus consist of just three lines (tercet); the first and third lines have five syllables, whereas the second has seven. Haikus don’t have to rhyme and are usually written to evoke a particular mood or instance.
She’s trapped in bars of
Bitterness, lies and fear, but
the door is not locked!
Acrostic
This type of poetry spells out a name, word, phrase or message with the first letter of each line of the poem. It can rhyme or not, and typically the word spelt out, lays down the theme of the poem.
dawnfanshawe 