NaPoWriMo Day 9

 Hello!

Today's poetry prompt is to write a poem in the form of a to-do list of an unusual person or character. Right away my mind jumped to Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson again since my poem yesterday was another character from that series.  Again ideas started to pop into my head for a to-do list for one of the main characters in that series, Kaladin.  He's one of my favourite characters so I thought I would honor him with a poem.  For those who are a fan of the series you'll notice his Windrunner oaths are included in here and also the items on the list are roughly in the order that the events happened to Kaladin through the books.  Hope you enjoy!

Kal's To Do List

Keep on living (don't give into the nothingness)
Stay strong (You got this, weakness be damned)
Enjoy the moment (it's all about the journey, not where this is going)

Meet with Bridge Four for dinner (we're probably having soup)

Protect those who cannot project themselves

Stop by the King's Guard training ground for a training session

Protect those I hate because it's the right thing to do

Visit family, spend time with little brother
Help father in his medical center

After dinner attend depression support group
Fight the voidbringer incursion

Accept that I cannot protect everyone

Tell Syl how much she means to me. 

Thanks for reading!

NaPoWriMo Day 8

 Hello!

The prompt for today is to use the Spoon River Anthology as a reference to write your own monologue of a dead person.  The trickiest part for me was deciding who to write about.  The prompt encouraged to write about someone not famous, so I thought about my grandparents or an old school teachers, but I couldn't think of what to write.  It just wasn't coming to me.  Then I thought about fictional characters.  I've had many beloved characters die in books that I've read so why not write about one of them?  Thinking about my favourite books I came to the Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson and thought of Eshonai. The words just started flowing then so here is what I created.  Enjoy!

Eshonai

In life I was a wanderer
My family wanted me to sit still
And learn the songs
Tend to the fields
Lead our people. 
But I could not. 
The horizon called me
In my travels I met the humans
Learned their ways and showed them ours
A peaceful partnership ensued
But the song of peace would not last
It turned to war.
My people crushed and cornered 
With my sister we find a new path
A new song.
One to bring us triumph!
With song and summoned storm we fight!
But my victory was not to be. 
My people have the upper hand but I am slain
My body kicked to the chasm
Left to rot away
Forgotten
Abandoned
What has become of my sister?
What has become of my people?

Thanks for reading!

NaPoWriMo Day 7

 Hello!

So today's prompt is to write poems based on the number of syllables in each line.  The haiku, one of my favourites, is a well known example, and today the prompt introduced me to two other styles.  The Shadorma with its 3/5/3/3/7/5 structure, and the Fib (based on the Fibonacci sequence) with its 1/1/2/3/5/8 structure.   While only one was required, I really love syllable structured poems so I tried both.   And being the nerd that I am I wrote the Shadorma poem about writing poems that use syllables, and the Fib poem about the Fibonacci sequence.  Not the most original, but it's so meta that I love it.  So here are today's poems.  Enjoy!

Syllables
Are a fun way to
Write poems
I love to
Count the ways I can use words
In a new sequence

Shells
Trees
Flowers
Galaxies
Fibonacci here
And also in this poem now

You'll probably see me using these syllable structured poems for future prompts as well.  It's awesome to have more options than just the haiku now.  <3

Thanks for reading!

NaPoWriMo Day 6

 Hello!

For today's poem the prompt is to take a line from a book, write a poem with that line as the title, then go back and change the title after the poem is written.  Right away I knew I wanted to use a line from one of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books.  There are so many iconic lines and so many good inspirations.  In the end I picked the line.... actually I'm not going to say.  If you are a Sanderson fan it should be pretty obvious what line I picked, or at least what the poem is about.  And if you're not a Sanderson fan, well you should be.  Go read his Cosmere books.  I recommend starting with the Mistborn trilogy, though Warbreaker is also a good book to start with. 😉 

Hope you enjoy today's poem!

The Paladin

Destroying evil is my purpose
My mission
My oath
My cause
I shall not rest until evil has bene purged from the lands.

My singular focus
The drive consumes me
My goal a world free from evil. 

I have travelled with many allies over the years
Each a new personality
To join me in my quest of cleansing the land of evil.

I do not waver in my devotion
I believe in my cause
Nothing will cause me to stray from the path. 

For until the Cosmere is rid of evil
I shall not rest.

Evil must be destroyed. 

Thanks for reading!

NaPoWriMo Day 5

 Hello!

So today was an interesting challenge for poem writing.  It was: "find a poem, and then write a new poem that has the shape of the original, and in which every line starts with the first letter of the corresponding line in the original poem".   The prompt writer mentioned a poem that they remembered from their school years and used that as an example.  That alone reminded me of a poem from my grade school years that I still have memorized so I decided to use it for the base poem for my prompt today.  It is Muddy Puddle by Dennis Lee.  Here it is:

While I do love this poem and it's imagery, part of me always cringes at the thought of sitting in a soggy wet muddy puddle and getting wet and gross and dirty.  *shutter*  So I decided to flip this poem around and write about a nice sunny summer morning.  The weather is rather nice here for spring so it helped with the writing.  lol   So here is my new poem.  Enjoy!

Summer Morning

I am standing
In the sunshine
Of a lovely
Monday morning
Wind is blowing
Flowers blooming
And the world here
Feels at peace.

Whistling birds
All around me
Greet the morning
Going on now
As I sit here
Softly humming
To the sweet sounds
Of their calls.

And I feel that
While I sit here
While the world goes
Revolving on
Time to be calm
Is a blessing
I shall enjoy this new day. 

Thanks for reading!

NaPoWriMo Day 4

 Hello!

Today's prompt is to take one of the photos from @SpaceLiminalBot on Twitter and write a poem about it.  There were a lot of interesting photos on there, but in the end here is the one I choose:

Lately I've been watching Star Trek and as soon as I saw this I thought about standing aboard the Enterprise looking out into space while everyone is asleep and the lounge is quiet.  I decided to make my poem the log of a science officer, though I made it rhyme which is something unique that you wouldn't normally think of in a Starfleet log.  Hope you enjoy!

Science Officer's Log, Stardate 55362.9

They say space is the final frontier
Our path is open, the way is clear

With the command of the captain we are on our way
Another planetary system, another day

On 10 Forward I stand looking out into space
The stars out the window shine onto my face

Tomorrow we arrive at a binary neutron star
To come here we have traveled far

My role to always gather scientific information
To learn about our universe's formation

Standing here alone I find some peace
Here after hours the noise has ceased

Startfeet officer my path in life
Of adventures through the stars my life is rife

Tomorrow will be another day of duty
But for now I stand here in the universe's beauty.

Thanks for reading!

NaPoWriMo Day 3

Hello!

So for today the prompt was to make  Personal Universal Deck and then use the word(s) randomly chosen from that deck to write a poem.  To be honest I didn't have the patience or paper to make this deck of works, so instead I spent the morning playing a type of Madlibs with myself and thinking about random words that came into my head.  After looking at a picture of Zelda in my office I thought of "Twilight" and "Bow" and then ran with that. 
I decided to go with a series of haikus today because it's my favourite poetry style and even though it has only been a few days the fact that I hadn't written a haiku yet surprised me. lol  So here is today's poem.

Twilight bow shoot true
Preceding coming darkness
Arrows that bring night

Bow of flame burn bright
Fiery inferno blaze
Here strike down my foes

Bow of winds blow strong
Winds carry your arrows far
Find targets beyond

Water bow flow straight
Cleansing waters purify
Destroy muck within

Earthen bow stand firm
Commanding earth to defend
None shall pass this line

Bow of light reveal
Light of truth strike my foes true
Save Hyrule today

Thanks for reading!

NaPoWriMo Day 2

 Hello!

Today's poetry prompt is to write about the "road not taken".  Basically to think about a choice that made all the difference in your life and perhaps how things could have been different if you have chosen differently.  For me a major choice has been on my mind and I decided to use it for today's poem.  Back in 2012 I left Ontario and moved to Alberta.  It was a big change and it changed my life in a big way, perfect inspiration for this poem. 
As for the writing of the poem the idea that I was "making the trek west" made me think of myself as some sort of pioneer living on the frontier.  Like someone panning for gold or looking for oil, or someone trying to make a life in a barren land.  So I used that idea for the overall tone of the poem. 
So here is today's poem.  Enjoy!

Cross Country Trek

Prospects are slim here
Living is hard
Workin' three part time jobs
And still going hungry

Had a few shiny nuggets come my way
But nothing solid
Nothing that lasts
Just one dead end and dry well after another

One relative encourages me to make the trek west
Join them in greener pastures
With my years of learnin' and skills
I could live like a princess

But my family and friends
This land is my home
I've traveled far before, but always returned
Can I really live it behind?

Time passes and hard times keep coming
It wears on my soul
I deserve so much better in life
So I pack my things and head west. 

Things start out slow
But at least I have a place to stay and a temporary job
Before too long I have a good job and money flows
Let the good times roll!

But it's not good forever
As I learn to live the high life hard times come to the green pasture
I need to tighten by belt
But things are still better than they were those years ago

Years pass and I miss home
But I've made a new life here in the west
And though times have been hard for those around me
I've managed to flourish like a desert rose

What would have become of me if I didn't make the trek?
The road not taken.
Could I have eventually thrived?
Or would I have been beaten down into the dust?

Thanks for reading!

NaPoWriMo Day 1

 Hello!

Time for the first official poem of NaPoWriMo 2021! Yay!

The prompt for today is to get outside your head and see the world in a new way.  The world can be very strange, and sometimes for poetry it's useful to see it that way.  Thinking about this prompt I am reminded of face pareidolia.  That's when our brains see faces in pattern or inanimate objects that don't actually have a face.  Things like houses, cars, even food like green peppers are well known to cause this effect.  It makes the world a strange and creepy place when you see all these faces around you.  It's something I try not to think too much about lest I get creeped out and feel like I'm always being watched and judged. 

Running with this idea I decided to use the triolet poem style that I learned last year with NaPoWriMo.  This poem style always feels very awkward to me; any poem written in this style feels uneasy or angry.  Perfect for the creepy feeling I want to convey of seeing faces all around you. 

So I hope you enjoy my poem today, and if you need to go hide under a blanket afterwards I won't judge. 

Faces

Faces everywhere watching me
The eyes unblinking, staring
The dwellings on my street and rolling down the road it's me they see
Faces everywhere watching me
Under the glare of the capsicum I want to flee
Expression so blank and uncaring
Faces everywhere watching me
The eyes unblinking, staring

Thanks for reading!

NaPoWriMo Day -1

 Hello!

So it's a day early for National Poetry Writing Month, but they have an early bird prompt up already so I thought I'd start a day early and get into this year's NaPoWriMo.  Yay!  I've been looking forward to this for the past couple months so here's to another year of participating.  Be sure to check back every day for another poem!

Today's prompt is to write about a piece of artwork.  When I read the prompt idea my first thought was of those Japanese pottery pieces that have been repaired so that they have veins of gold on them.  After going to google I learned it's called Kintsugi, the art of repairing broken pottery by mending the break with lacquer dusted with gold, silver, or platinum.  The idea is that is shows the history of the object which makes it more beautiful.  I've always thought these pottery pieces were so beautiful and it makes me think about how each of us are like those cups and dishes: we all have our own breaks but we put ourselves back together and when we find someone who loves us as we are, because of our golden veins, not despite it, then that is something truly special.   So here is my poem about a kintsugi cup heart and heartbreak and finding love again.

Kintsugi

My heart a perfect porcelain cup
Unblemished and pristine
The smooth painted surface a kaleidoscope of colour
Ready for love

I met a boy, I feel for him
He loves me in return
My porcelain heart is filled with the warm tea of love
But tea is not warm forever

Time passes. Our love cools. 
My cup still full, but he has no more in his
He takes my porcelain heart and breaks it in his hands
Scatters the pieces on the floor

I'm all alone.
Broken and crying I pick up the pieces of my heart
I feel I will never be whole again
But I know I'm stronger than that

My happy memories of love and the things I learned about myself
Veins of gold to fix my broken heart
Once more the porcelain cup is whole
But can anyone love this heart with golden scars?

I met a boy, I feel for him
He sees my porcelain heart with veins of gold
And loves me all the more
Once again warm tea of love fill my porcelain cup.

My kintsugi heart. 

Thanks for reading!