The Poetry Marathon

(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

Brooklyn baby

A world between worlds,

encapsulated in so many films & series

over the years.

 

But what does it mean to so many people?

Hope

pleasure

joy

community.

 

That’s how we measure the worth of anything,

by what the huddled masses have to say,

a place like no other.

Days Begin and End

A

perfect way

to begin the

day, I pray to

GOD ALMIGHTY I extend my

arms and open my hands and

submit to the Man upstairs. It’s the

perfect way to end the day I pray

to GOD AlMIGHTY.

 

Little Boy

You amaze me little boy

with all the things you do

like an architect you build castles and space ships

like a painter you dabble in abstract forms and colors

like a race car driver you never give up till you win.

You amaze me little boy

with your kindness extraordinaire

given without any reason

with your laughter that booms out

of your young mouth

with your persistence to do things right.

You amaze me little boy

mostly because you are you

and I, yes I want to be like you.

Hour 5 Chugging Along With Writing

Woot woot getting some thoughts down!

 

Hour 5

 

Some days or maybe all days 

I feel like an option 

That everyone I love

Only sometimes asks for me

I’m like a side salad when they have fries

Or I’m peanuts on a sundae

They might add something 

But many people wouldn’t think to add them

And maybe that’s the pessimistic in me

Or maybe I need to make sure

I find people who ask for me

Really steamed (Prompt 13)

One of my high school students wrote an essay
about her older, in college sister
extolling the virtues of her sibling role model
she proclaimed the ‘most important’
aspect of positive modeling was her sister’s
adherence to ethics that boosted her
‘self of steam’

Reading the phrase aloud to grasp her intent
I asked her to explain herself
describing her sister’s insistence on keeping
her positive vibe at all times
reiterating verbally, ‘it’s her SELF. OF. STEAM.”
thus it remained – forever foggy.
We mist something

– Mark L. Lucker
© 2023
http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd