Today, the NaPoWriMo participants were challenged to write a cinquain, a form of poetry requiring a stanza of five lines, in which each line consists of, in order, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 2 lines with, again in order, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 1 stresses each. (Phew, that rule was a challenge just to …
Offshore Breeze/ Day 4
For the fourth day of NaPoWriMo I decided to have another go at one of my favourite forms of poetry, the triolet (I wrote another triolet for last year's NaPoWriMo as well, here). Why is it one of my favourite forms? I suspect I may have an unhealthy obsession with circularity and repetition in poems... …
Deceit/ NaPoWriMo Day 3
It's day three of NaPoWriMo and I feel like I'm starting to get into this, so today I've completely ignored all prompts and just went with the flow. Spinning poetry out of absolutely nothing sure is a messy business, but then again, what better way to celebrate Spring! [Poem currently under submission.]
Train Ride/ NaPoWriMo Day2
I have had a rather full and stressful day today, I'm afraid, so you must try to understand (and not judge too harshly) if my attempt at poetry for the day has come out slightly...flavourless, in spite of my best efforts. 😦 The NaPoWriMo prompt for today was to write "a poem that tells a lie", …
We Are the Ghosts/ NaPoWriMo Day 1
I realise I haven't posted anything on this blog in too long, but it seems rather fitting that my first update of the year should be a poem. In a moment of suicidal optimism I decided to jump on the NaPoWriMo bandwagon for the third year in a row, so there we go, I'm afraid there's no …
Coming Full Circle
A bit late, but here it is, the very last poem for this year's NaPoWriMo. It was fun while it lasted, so I decided to take on the last official prompt as a sort of homage to the project: Today’s prompt asks you to write a poem incorporating at least three “I remember” statements. This …
Of Bath-tubs and Card Games
I thought that for once I'd be able to do the NaPoWriMo challenge without missing a day, but apparently I was too quick to judge. So today I had to make up for yesterday, as well. I don't really mind it, though, it seems that a day's break from writing poetry did wonders for my …
A Matter of Standing Face to Face…
On day 27 of the writing challenge I was in the mood to write a pantoum, as I haven't done this in a very long time. And I made full use of my long-standing obsession with faces. Faces Flickering faces So old and worn Can at times be spotted In the winding river. So old …
Not-Quite-Mourning
The prompt for NaPoWriMo today was absolutely brilliant: For today, I challenge you to write an elegy. Classically, an elegy is a poem written in response to someone’s death, a poem of mourning and remembrance. Your elegy can be about a specific person, a group of people, a pet, a plant, even an idea. I …
More of Japanese Forms
A bastardisation of the dodoitsu form for today. Not very creative, but an interesting first, I suppose. Lips One by one, I read the lines Of your lips, in an attempt To find hidden tenderness. Desire smoothed them.
Encyclopaedia Vanitatum 