D is a door

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D is a door

D is a door
opening it slowly
leaves marks the floor
closing it fast
will leave even more

D is a door
slightly unhinged
guarding the ictionary
unlocking the secrets
of our vocabulary

D is a door
the contested entrance
to start oing or on’t
desire and resistance
will you or won’t

D is a door
the prevailing exit
when the present gets tense
just add an e
to be sure you make sense

D is a door
it oftens get shut
its desire and resistance
leave marks on the floor
add an n to the e – closure per instance

The en

The prompt at napowrimo.net was to “to write a poem about a particular letter of the alphabet”. Since it’s also #ThursdaDoors today, the choice of letter was an easy one.

If you like doors, Thursday doors is a great place to check out every Thursday. People gather there to share doors, which makes it a beautiful window into the outside world. Not to mention the great community, with people from several countries, who only met because of… doors. One of the things I love about the internet 🙂

The best of no worlds

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“It’s raining cats and frogs!”

The British invasion of ancient Egypt
brought unexpected plagues

Mummies mumbled ‘”mummy”
as tartaned pharaohs took tea
with Amon Elisabeth, The Sun Goddess

“Once bitten, twice a snake”, she told Cleopatra
“Do unto onto your House of Commons
as you would have them do unto you”

“Don’t put all your scarabs in one basket”
Nefertiti mimed, “they’ll make you pay through my nose
“Take my advice, never waste perfect sandstorm”

“I have bigger crocodiles to fry”
She let the cat out of the canopic jar
And put this colonialist dream on ice

Hieroglyphs with stiff upper lips?
We’ll cross that sphinx when we find it

Poem caused by this prompt at napowrimo.net:

Our (optional) prompt for the day asks you to engage with different languages and cultures through the lens of proverbs and idiomatic phrases.

Ferns before sunrise

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Lust
conquers me
reducing me to gravy

The smell of fish
often still wet
you prepare before drying

No one
so far
quenches my thirst

Ferns
before sunrise
plucked from your kitchen window

Coated
laser thick
in trout eyes

Chance
covering skin
until it’s too late

Today is a perfect day to feature Ileea, a fellow participant who writes in a language most of us don’t understand. But, like she wrote last year: Google is your friend, and you can still enjoy her poems even when Google takes some liberties in translating them.
I hadn’t read Ileea yet this year, but it was on my wish list. Today I first worked with one of her poems for the prompt. My next step will be to read her other poems and have Google translate them from Swedish to English. Then, and only then, I will check out what the original poem was about. I’ll enjoy he suspense for a while!

If you hop over to the Ileea blog, may I recomend her day 13? It’s rather great.

Ljuset
väcker mig
redan halv sju
Fiskmåsarna
har vaknat
tjuter utanför fönstret
Någon
sover tungt
vid min sida
Vårens
första soluppgång
genom skitiga köksfönster
Jag
läser dikter
med trötta ögon
Kanske
jag ska
sova lite till

On my watch

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Anger
Devouring me
Limb by limb
This has to end
NOW

“Today, in gratitude for making it to Day 20, our (optional) prompt asks you to write a poem about a handmade or homemade gift that you have received.” Safe to say that with this #elevenie I digressed from the prompt at napowrimo.net today. The day brought fights, stress, anger, sadness, powerlessness, unsolvable technical problems, a really good conversation and some hugs.

STEADFAST

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WHEREIAMHEREIAMW
A______________A
L______________L
L______________L
S______________S
T______________T
O______________O
T______________T
H______________H
E______ME______E
L______________R
E______________I
F______________G
T______________H
O______________T
F______________O
M______________F
E______________M
STUCKINTHEMIDDLE

To my own surprise I made a concrete poem today, which was the prompt for day 9 on napowrimo.net: to write a “concrete” poem – a poem in which the lines and words are organized to take a shape that reflects in some way the theme of the poem.

Today’s prompy, on day 19, was to write a “walking archive” – the physical instantiation of a walk. Where I live, I’m lucky enough that I coould have gone out for a real walk (and I did, albeit a short one). But last year I spent about six months being immobile due a a broken foot (long story). So I mainly saw my own walls for a long time.

I never knew the song that inspired the poem had an official video. But here it is:

Delivery from the future

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Your connection [encrypted] has sent you the following downloadable experiences:

1. Get out of bed unassisted *
2. Breathe unpolluted air **
3. Chew food ***
4. Stroke a living being ****
5. Experience the embrace of a past lover *****
6. Smell fresh bread ******
7. Hear your father/mother say the words you’ve always wanted to hear *******

* No extra installer needed
** Only works if your virus scanner is up to date
*** Install dentures plug-in if needed
**** After accepting the download, you can choose human or animal
***** Satisfaction not guaranteed
****** May contain traces of nuts and milk
******* No person received payment or anything of value, in exchange for their cooperation

Your download will expire in 23 hours. To be able to deliver we need access to all your files, peripheral devices, apps, programs, and full registry. This message will be deleted when you try to forward it.

Somehow this poem was inspired by the prompt at napowrimo.net: to write an ode to life’s small pleasures. It made me think of a friend of mine who suffers from MND (ALS) who wrote these words this week, straight from the heart:

“I am locked in bed until I am rescued at seven you lucky bastards that don’t depend on others to move or drink.”

I’d sooner call her a hippy than a rebel riot, so you hopefully understand that her choice of words was a cry of frustration. I made me realise how many simple joys we don’t notice, because we think they are normal and will be there forever.

 

Who else?

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Who else has been named both widow and maiden?
Who else has served kings and queens alike??
Who else was known as humane but cruel?
Who else? Tell me.
Who else?

Who else has been named both fanlight and razor?
Who else has served criminals and heroes alike?
Who else was a well known remedy to good and bad fortune?
Who else? Tell me?
Who else?

Who else has been used both as razor and neck tie?
Who else has served justice/injustice alike?
Who else was famed to be quick and painless?
Who else? Tell me?
Who else?

The prompt at napowrimo.net: “Today, I challenge you to write a poem that features forgotten technology.”. I’m happy that this technology isn’t used any more, and was surprised to learn that it was once considered humane. This technology was used from the middle ages until after the second world war. You can read about its (gruesome) history here.

Concord

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Today’s poetry

was life itself

it needed no words

only my presence

The prompt today at napowrimo.net: “Rather than encouraging minimalism, today we challenge you to write a poem of over-the-top compliments.” Seems I ended up contrary, even though I WAS thinking about the prompt when this came to me. Sometimes using little words is the biggest compliment I guess…

Comfort

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Sunshine
Caressing me
On the sofa
I absorb its touch
Comfort

I had a day filled with frustration and anger. I didn’t want to write about it and I had no inspiration for today’s music prompt. So an off prompt #elevenie it is for now.

April 14, inspire me

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April 14th, inspire me

scattered everywhere take two

the ghost of I’m not good enough

you won’t like it

you won’t like it

lost property, prompt not included

fracture strength to the none

April 14th, inspired me

The prompt at napowrimo.net today was “to write a poem that deals with the poems, poets, and other people who inspired you to write poems.” After ample consideration, I realised that my biggest inspiration is #NaPoWriMo, and specifically the prompts and community at napowrimo.net.

The poem combines some of the things I learned and developed during 7 years of National Poetry Writing Month:
– The lines are a compilation of titles of poems (in this case all of them published on napowrimo day 14)
– The formatting is a table
– The poem is a cleave poem

Just to be clear: I’m not claiming that I am my biggest inspiration 🙂 I’m just celebrating today’s prompt by leaning into 7 years of napowrimo inspired writing. I was surprised to find out that some of my favourite ones (The ghost of I’m not good enough, Fracture Strength and You Won’t Like It) were born on this very day.