Making up for Lost Wifi – Days 9, 10 and 11

As you may well have imagined, I have been away and – alas! – out of the reach of a decent internet connection. Nevertheless, I got to meet some wonderful people and see some wonderful sights in Cardiff and Tintern, so I can’t say I’m sorry for that. Actually, if you ever find yourselves in Tintern and want to get lost in contemplation of Tintern Abbey, I heartily suggest you stop by The Anchor, the café-cum-restaurant-cum-bar virtually right across the street from the abbey. Not only is the view from their rooms absolutely stunning, and their hot chocolate delicious, but the staff are cheerful, lovely and kind! So kind, that only this afternoon, they let the mister and I stay on looong after the café’s closing time, to have our hot beverages of choice and enjoy the view. (It’s a rather long story, and it attests to how airheaded the mister and I really are, so I don’t really want to tell it. 😛 But trust me, the staff at The Anchor were more than just nice to us. 🙂 )

That being said, I’ve had some pretty eventful three days, so I had no shortage of subconscious material for the NaPoWriMo poems. So here they are, in order –

For day nine, we were challenged to “write a poem inspired by noir”, so I wrote one based on – if not noir, then certainly the pitch-dark, winding, single carriageway roads cutting through forests that (eventually) led to Cardiff.

Fish from the Dark

I caught you, swimming in the dark,
Disoriented by the slimy music
Swishing its razor-blade tail cannily,
Ambling in your general direction.
I saved you, blind little fish
Whom no one taught to be afraid.
In my arms, you writhed helplessly,
Gasping for the measured breath
I’d interrupted. I took you home
And carefully, very gently
Wrapped you in crisp sheets, wriggling
Their vanilla and rose scents
At your lungs. You tossed for
A while, but the cool reassured you.
You’ll never learn fear now,
My blind little fish from the dark.

The prompt for day 10 suggested an “un-love poem”, something I’m not sure I’ve ever tried before. The example they gave was by Margaret Atwood, and I thought it was so brilliant, I definitely need to re-post it here:

You Fit Into Me

You fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye

–Margaret Atwood

Ingenious, right? Now here’s my feeble attempt at this thing:

And the Red Looked Pretty

Giddy veils,
Sunny dresses,
Tight fitting
Glass shoes
Down the aisle.
Down they go,
Stepmother
Down the
Yellow brick
Road, silver
Sandals.
Down they go,
Wiz father,
Iron slippers
Scorching feet,
All because
Of a dainty
First kiss.

And finally, today’s (actually, yesterday’s, by now) prompt:

Today I challenge you to write a tanka. This, like the “American” cinquain, is a poem based on syllables, with the pattern being 5-7-5-7-7. They work best when those final two 7-syllable lines contain a sort of turn or surprise that the first three lines might not wholly anticipate.

Here it goes:

*~*~*

Seagulls kept laughing
We were only passing through
Quite oblivious
To the waves stopping mid-air
Our joy rewriting the world.