The Poetry Marathon

Hour 13 – I defy your box

Stop trying to stuff me in your box
where I must conform to your expectations
when what I offer is a paradox
with expectations defiled by unintended wrongs

A nurse I am
but not a saint
I cannot reverse
your fatal complaint

An attorney I am
but not a saint
I cannot reverse
your moral constraint

I am an author
but not a saint
my stories are mine
with colorful paint

I'm a doctor of the mind
of psychology and how we think
with theories of old and new
and I transform not as a lunatic

I am a seeker of truth and hope 
that each person, despite trope,
can become their best and joyful self
and I advocate for your hope

Hour Thirteen: Stripes

Don’t laugh at my prison stripes

Look at the label on my ass

I’m strutting my stuff in a name brand

Making prison stripes look stylishly classy

Setting a new trend

For others to flatter me

With imitation

Code Talkers II

Code Talkers II

 

A part of history that is important

that needs to be shared

numerous times.

 

Several tribes from the Southwest

joined to form a platoon.

 

The military’s code

was constantly being broken,

decoded,

Everyone was clueless.

 

One soldier

from a small platoon

spoke of his language.

Together the tribes

came up with an

unbreakable, Indigenous based code.

 

The Indigenous language

is phonetic and descriptive,

like a story itself.

 

Throughout the war,

the code saved lives,

missions and cargo.

One line poem

holding the shape of his bunion grandpa’s moccasins

Hour 12 – The Ghost

The ghost has returned

At the window he shows

You believe him to be gone

He knows, he watched you grow

His patience not outmanoeuvered

He knows what you are thinking for tomorrow

He has to win each night

Beg to him, cry, he knows

You will give unto him

Until you find peace

Long after your tears and fears

He knows, he knows you enough.

(Hour 13) 10.30-11.30am. TEXT PROMPT: profession description, humorous x2

I enjoyed this prompt (after initially disliking the thought of it). It was supposed to be about *yourself* but I ended up doing one for each of my 2 main characters. Very satisfying.

 

Ryan: an abridged Resume

the woman : who seems to lead the campers : asked me : to tell her : a bit about myself : wow : how would i even do that ?

former High School student : OMG so boring : let me start again

Many Name Bearer : Ring Diver : Cruiser of Lands : Star Partner : Sky Hunter : Brother Discoverer : Pod Rider : Doggo Adopter : Bad Man Outsmarter : Orange Hater (the colour not the citrus) : Propulsion Ponderer : Dam Buster : & of course : Earth’s Only Hope Against Evil Invading Army Of Desert Loving Crustacean Creature Things

But also : 

Dust Dreamer : Despairer of Doors : Cracker Jack Yakker : Asker of Big Questions, Receiver of Nil Answers : Tequila Squealer : Drum Banger & Rumpus Maker : Pseudo Father : Hope Doubter : Perpetual Worry Wort : one the precious few Just Damn Lucky-To-Be-Alives 

 

Stella’s CV

Big sister
Abandoned Daughter
Archivist / chronicler
Daydreamer
Rememberer
Survivor
Water baby 

Ryan’s just seen my list
Says I need to mix it up more
Have more fun
I told him that wasn’t my style
He replied that wasn’t wasn’t your style
But the world’s born anew now
So who knows … or something like that

Okay fine: I’ll begin there then.

Born again cave girl
Dweller in silent places
Reluctant Guerrilla Fighter in a war I doubt we can win
Grandparent Seeker
Admirer of Many Dawns

This is kinda fun , not that I’ll tell him that

Moon Dreamer, Galaxy Contemplator
Mother-Hater (later edit: Mother-Craver)
Star Admirer, Cold Tin Soup Hater
Ryan EyeRoller (haha this is fun)

Till a sudden sonic boom stops my fun
& I’m immediately drawn back into
the dystopian hellscape that is now

Just another day

2023 Poem One

I had a bunch of tech issues this morning so I wrote a bunch of connected haikus while waiting for the router to reset

WIFI, why must you
foresee me like this in the
time I needed you most?

Laptop, why is now
the moment you decide to
do all your updates?

Why is it that all
tech knows when you need it most
and just stop working?

I would just take a
nap but, holy shit, that would
just be a full sleep.

10 PM – Leaving You (Thoughts on self love) Draft #2

My life shattered  began,

looking into the mirror.

Bits of glass in my fists,

reflection of all the false love you said you felt for me.

We called it love  a lie.

Leaving you, is was not a loss I mourn any longer.

The life we planned will cost me less than a new mirror.

 

 

POETRY MARATHON – HOUR ONE

She found us within our pasts,
memories enveloping us like cloaks.
Our complicated yet precious web of love and experiences had created a tapestry in our hearts.
In the stillness of the evening, she arrived to fulfill a longing,
her eyes holding a story, seeing through our façade and secrets.
As the years had left their mark on our youth,
her gaze held the essence of who we had become
– the joy, sorrow and struggles that had shaped us.
Her presence was like a beacon of light,
guiding us through the memories, dark and bright.
In that timeless moment, we were blessed by her grace,
for she reminded us that the past is not lost,
it lives within us like a timeless yoke.
This is how she found us,
with the past draped about us like a cloak.

 after Diana Khoi Nguyen 

Prompt for Hour Fourteen

Text Prompt

Redacting is the act of censoring or obscuring part of a text. Sometimes it is done by the author themselves, and more often it is done by someone else.

I want you to write a poem and then during or after writing the poem choose at least one, or ideally five or more words to redact from the poem. How is the poem changed by this simple act? This is not the same as a “black out” or erasure poem”. The words you are using are your own, and well over 50% of them should be visible.

When writing on physical paper, you can do this easily with a marker, ideally a black sharpie. If you are writing your poem in a Word document, you can use the highlight feature and set the highlight color to black, this creates a black box over the word or words. Or you can just write the word redacted in place of the word you wanted to use.

Image Prompt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Jon Tyson