The Poetry Marathon

Poem No. 6 The Bougainvillaea Tree

Poem No. 5. A Qawwali Concert

A Qawwali Concert

Once I went to a Qawwali Concert
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and his Gharana
Sang Sufi music
The singers and music became one
They rocked, they danced, they clapped
Nodded their heads in unison
As they repeated the same refrain again and again.
They were possessed and mesmerised
The music reached such dizzy heights
With drumming and clapping and the tabla drum
We all became one – singers and listeners
In unison – dancing and swaying in unison
I stood up and danced, an eternal dance
The music took my soul to directions
I did not know. No I, was left we were all one
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan opened doors
To a world when all were equal and all were one
It was many years ago but I often wish
And long to go and enter the Sufi dancing world!!

————-

Gharana is a special set of music family who perform music together. *

Heatwave, shattering records in Canada! How’s everyone else doing?

My internet went down before I could post my last poem. I sent in the poem to the email for the marathon as soon as I saw it hadn’t been posted. Fortunately it was only the one poem because my area had a lot of power outages, even though many were brief. I had written to the marathon email the next day and I added it on the blog today (hopefully I’ll be counted as finished by the algorithm. I think I’ve taken part in every marathon except the very first one. I did last year’s but I didn’t find the link in time to register so I did offline. I was thinking of uploading the poems anyway because I found that I missed the community.
Doing the marathon on your own is a different experience too. There aren’t easy to access props and it takes a lot of willpower not to cheat just a little XD But I did it!
Whether or not I post last years poems here, I have enough poems to do another book of poetry and this will be my third book of poems that are just my poems! Marathons have been amazing, I have branched into writing more and more marathons including novels and a year of poems, all sorts of things. I’m grateful to the organizers for bringing this idea about and organizing it year after year; it’s a lot of work.
We are having a lot of power outages still and restaurants and grocery stores are closed because so much food has spoiled and equipment has been damaged by the power surges. I hope everyone is okay, It’s scary here!
I’ve been writing a yearly ‘Journal of a Plague Year’, this year was entitled, ‘Journal of a Year in Chaos’… and it has been more than living up to its name.
It’s supposed to get up to 49 degrees around here which is close to 120, I think. Fruit is cooking on the trees and it’s terrifying. I know it’s hotter in other places. but we’ve never seen weather like this here.
I’m still writing a poem a day since the marathon. How is everyone else doing since the marathon? What’s everyone up to?

Rolling blackout poem ‘addition’

Marathon
VCS

Waking Up
Is hard to do
With images dancing in my mind
Mingling into dreams
I should have a coffee
Or go for a walk
But right after this
I’m all done this run!
It’s called a marathon,
But it’s something else as well,
It’s reaching deep inside
And pulling out our minds ideas
Of heavens, hells and incidentals
Like a department store
Of hopes, dreams and fears
Writing a poetry marathon
Exposes more than just ‘feels’
I’m wide awake now
I want to do it again
But if it’s all just the same
I may sleep for the day
Every time I run
I want to do it again
It bursts all the blocks free
The words are never
Ones that I’ve planned
Now that we’re done
Pat myself on the back
Most of all
Write again after a nap!

The Internet hasn’t been great for the past few days. I was told it was okay to add this. It took me until now to get back online on my computer! All poems were finished on time and from what I can see all the others fortunately did upload (very fortunately because I only kept a duplicate of a few of these. This one has been in my clipboard ever since the marathon! Please note I was commenting right up until a few minutes before it was time to write last poem)

Voids: 1

When I’m bored.

I look into the void…

or voids.

 

What peers back

are 4 eyes

of pure curiosity,

of unconditional love

and…

 

a maniacal madness.

 

2 jade eyes

flicker back at me.

 

2 coal embers

appear from another void.

 

Both look at each other,

4 small triangles twitch to

unheard sounds.

 

Did they hear my

silent plea…

for entertainment?

 

“Hey, kiddos.”

 

Bottle green eyes

kid tilts his head to the left,

his partner in crime

tilts his head in the opposite direction.

 

“Meow.”

“Meeeeeoooow!”

 

At last all they wanted was food.

Did You Know?

Did you know

that the Earth can bleed too?

 

Did you know

just like us

the Earth can cries?

 

It cries like a mother

loosing her child in

a crowded event.

 

It bleeds

in a way you can’t tell.

When we dig for riches

that cause greed

and blood is spilled.

 

Those forgotten souls

with noting but

pain

comes back

to scream in the wind.

 

All this,

is a message.

That the Earth

is more than

money.

Untitled

23 fires.

23 birds of flames

23 dragons let loose.

 

Each blazing a path

as they devour everything

and leave a scorched trail.

 

People chased from homes

to take refuge in a nearby towns.

 

“Is this Hell?”

“AZ in Hell.”

These words were spelled to truth.

 

Now prayers are being said

to bring water.

We pray for rain in a time of drought

to quench the forest’s thirst.

 

As it does,

in small amounts

like someone accidently

tied a knot in the sky’s hose.

 

It came down

as it teased us,

like an older brother that

pretends to throw her sister in the water.

 

We cry,” where’s the rain!”

 

Finally our cries were heard.

A shower from Heaven came down,

as is God held back

all the rain

in a plant a waterer.

Hour 19 Poem 19

My hair I whip it,

Bonnet full of variance,

Curly, coily, braids.

Announcing the Winners of the 2021 Poetry Marathon

I am pleased to present the wonderful poets who successfully wrote 24 poems in 24 hours, a truly remarkable achievement.

The poets are not listed in any particular order, but they are all particularly impressive for the incredible feat of endurance and creativity they completed. Also, keep in mind that the counting may not be perfect. If I missed someone, please let me know by emailing poets@thepoetrymarathon.com

Included here are also those wonderful poets who successfully challenged themselves to write 12 poems in 12 hours; giving themselves a full day of creative endeavoring.

24 Hour Poetry Marathoners

12 Hour Poetry Marathoners

bjsteinshouer willjxn BlueMuse waldomaui TobeTT Shirl Sunraypeak plath2.0 TorriMBrown dextajean Kristynateach InkSpiller Simona KGBusch04 Kim Smart KerryValkyrieBaldockKelly Jill1980 MarkLucker KofiAcquah1 MHickok rranson@02 PropagandaPoet dwong BhashaDwivedi RarzackOlaegbe SarahJ Santosha katiedunne JaneAndFriends janis Susmita reenadoss novamarie Jess AnjanaSen jvstanley Baaaaa jarrodfouts Caitlin Thomson Impowerwriter Anne McMaster MelNeet poeticus SilverQuiver earth2joy SaraAnderson LaurieMcK obidity MaritzaM.Mejia BrettDyer RamonaElke vijaya NancyPagh AmiO factorjosh TeriHarroun akilday Elsalovesbooks megsat D2MOTIVATE AaronConklin dngai70 AngieMountain varenyas AceShannon36 Tessellation rainmaker sjduncan cynderh cinwhit AndaM lyajoy DSCoremans LinsT Wormy76 mavschick41 DocB jgershon1213 JLNash AutumnsOnlyone BloomingFire Sandraj631968 efellows LuvMiFreely JRTurek ChristinaSng Ivan Aygaius gmazul ofuma erinemerick45 KendraReynolds SandyLender prachishah Jazzgreensuds margpeg73 TheBootlegBodhisattva jonesy1922 PhilosophyMom blissfilledislandlife Enscriptor Ipsita PhilipV.Coombs HiralBagadia tarinprn OhulanCutash 13-Shenanigans Foxling KikaMan thryaksha MagSatPhD williamtatro Nandiya RajaniNair Valley2 amlcrabtree yeetthesystem mrsdkrebs Koso CoffeyWrites allisonshoe kimsmartauthor Cinzia joshidivyesh99 ErmelindaMakkimane bennerad alexaimeekist themorningreads wordsofbee virginiastark

afeathers Roxann Rebeli007 VidyaShankar Renae Ogle DPuterbaugh Carolyn Robinson MarinaZerdali mmesomafrancis justlei ChelleA poet556 RobbieWest Britton SundarWalker Amana Danielle Martin GitaBharath Melissa Linda Hallstrom 77poetess and Mitch JoyceB jnslwkshp sharonedge Bonnie Katzive rheakumar11 KJR-Kidder Stef Dvnmskm SolapeAdeyemi BritS mildandred CarolProst KathyPon PursuingPerfection AprilZoe Jacob Michellia jennifervera Harvey Schwartz itexner Laurak jwalker15 pgerber shloks89 EllaWagemakers meka jsweeder SheilaS SJHAWLEY naidanepascuasupnet leximagines storts denisehill dohamonde psarvasy kevinjoconner JadeIguana JaneR Kaili Aisha154 Friowords AnwarSuleman AlenaCasey EvelynElaineSmith jemarek ColleenSchwartz CristyWatson SmileyOne treal1971 Richardosler JohnnyG SarahW canyonwriter willowriver44 adriana.c.grant AnshuSikchi Annej supertina19 HuffPunkMatron TammiBelko JanaBrooke1987 kriscleage claycrane merryafoot authorHJ rachelmarcohavens @voldecurt jdgbp DesertDiane MrsLibertyRock jilowill Karen Rootedphoenix BarzeusMolen afarmer shivee41 MaryEugeneP.Flores kateadams mahimagiri Skay BlueHeronWrites JoaquinCapehart88 S.Azule VidhiAshar hundhg NgoziAndrew miggy najain Shjava sdhpdx AnanyaPanwar SabinahAdewole denisiarocks BrendaDeHaan BrianHasson Aishwarya13 debrathewriter RebeccaResinski christinatangbernas KarenMandell Nasiha.S weliveaswedream Meganwrites YuLan Nevermore74 maskofpoetry farahkaltz@gmail.com JoPangolin irislevin natarajng Raquel7 DaveHirsh Riley.Mcilveen oxmtch11 hgb123 Double-AA-battery katighe AlivePoetsSociety ManoshiBose MaxineWiseWrites TinaBlondino@gmail.com CWasemScott peaflowertea Mbsmitty75 bwayne elorandos Wilddog Bavishya dantighe KatrinaM Jareljennings mlougheed GentlemanBrute damoore943 punkhippypoet HannahGrace MWW522 THOMAS Farzana featherstonej Aishatonu

 

The following poets fell just short of 24 poems in 24 hours. Though they didn’t quite finish the full marathon, they deserve special recognition for more than completing the half, and coming so close to finishing the full marathon. (And if I somehow missed one of your poems, in my counting, please let me know!!!)

rachelmarcohavens
@voldecurt
jdgbp

One Small Step

A Senryu

 

One Small Step

 

Curiosity.

With just one step, you may find

destiny or death.