Days 14-19

So… once more I’ve spent some days without a decent internet connection, so here’s another one of those ‘catch up with the NaPoWriMo flow’ posts.

Day 14:

An Imagined Affair

The blisters of an imagined affair,
Ugly and rough-edged: the ghost
That never dared to live –
How does one dig a grave for it?
What kind of spade should one use,
How deep the hole, should it have
A marble effigy, an epitaph? A crossed-out
Epigraph? This time of the year
I always remember you – fake memories,
I find, are the hardest to bear.

Day 15 – I believe a new theme is emerging, besides birds and flight, and that is silence… The prompt for the day, by the way, was to

a pantun. Not a pantoum — though they are related. The pantun is a traditional Malay form, a style of which was later adapted into French and then English as the pantoum. A pantun consists of rhymed quatrains (abab), with 8-12 syllables per line. The first two lines of each quatrain aren’t meant to have a formal, logical link to the second two lines, although the two halves of each quatrain are supposed to have an imaginative or imagistic connection.

Silent

Here, crowed, shameless laughter abounds
Combed feathers rise and fall in the wind –
Tired of ecstasy, all sounds
I’ll lay to rest, my heaving lungs rescind.

Day 16 – I was again inspired to write a haiku. Really, that’s probably the best poetic form I can think of.

***

Sharp-edged moon sickle
Shredding the womb of the night –
I’m a child, a mute.

Day 17 – we were urged to try our hand at a lyrical greeting, and I’m afraid mine turned out… well, rather sinister. I just couldn’t help it, I kept thinking of murderers and carnivals. (Sadly, WordPress messed up the playful layout I had settled upon for this poem, so the boring, ‘normal’ one will have to do for now…)

Premeditated Greeting

Welcome!
into the growing mist,
my friend!

Today!
will bloom with carnival
and suspense!

Just think!
what fun we’ll have amongst
the flutter!

You doubt?
the healing powers of a good,
strong vintage?

Relax!
and tell me all about your sorrows,
sweet soul!

You’ll see!
my tent is full of wonders
and love!

Come in!
my heart is truly drunk
with rapture!

Day 18 – we had a prompt feeding right into my obsessive love for circularity and repetition! It said:

to write a poem that begins and ends with the same word.

So there you go!

Camera

Distance – I read it in your eyes
As you reached for the camera
To seize the clouds, the trail
Of an aeroplane, the opaque,
Muted grey of the unsolicited
Moon. I tugged at your elbow,
Mortified, scattering a tribe
Of urban doves, breaking
The skyline with my insistence.
I stole your polished lens
With every intention of driving it
Into eternal slavery. I pointed
The camera at your defeated scowl
But it stubbornly captured
Only the blur of distance.

And, finally, day 19 – today, that is. The prompt said to –

Write a poem in the form of a personal ad!

And the idea piqued my imagination! This is probably the funniest poem I’ve written to date (which is, not very funny at all, but at least I’ve made an effort). I had a lot of fun coming up with it, if nothing else. 🙂

Refined gentleman

aficionado of Botticelli
inveterate nihilist
owner of intimate summer retreat
in Belize
looking for unprejudiced lady
convent educated
sharp fangs
no reflection
for long-term relationship.
Pray earnest response.