For NaPoWriMo Day 20, the prompt is: “to write a poem about a handmade or homemade gift that you have received. It could be a friendship bracelet made for you by a grade-school classmate, an itchy sweater from your Aunt Louisa, a plateful of cinnamon toast from your grandmother, a mix-tape from an old girlfriend.”
For NaPoWriMo Day 22 the Prompt is: ” to take one of the following statements of something impossible, and then write a poem in which the impossible thing happens: ‘The clock can’t strike thirteen.‘”
I’m combining with Michael from MindLoveMisery’s Menagerie Tale Weaver Prompt #166 on the theme of “exploring the sensations of being lost, not knowing where you are and realizing you are wandering aimlessly. How and/or who do you ask for help?”
Credit: Mara Eastern. Used with Permission for MindLoveMisery’s Menagerie.
The clock can’t strike thirteen
Thirteens the witching hour dim
Dim as the black soundless night
Dim as every street’s the same
Same as the last and same as the next
Same figures leering in an unfathomable maze
Maze where I don’t know where here is
Maze where each turn is the wrong way
Way down cobblestone paths
Way down roads with naught but silence
Silence without comfort
Silence that hastens quivering
Quivering and deciding to go back
Quivering as I wander in circles
Circles towards the same stuccoed shops
Circles to windows with signs reading, “Closed”
Closed as midnight has long passed chimed
Closed no matter my banging on houses
Houses red-bricked, idyllic in day
House white-fenced unhearing of strangers
Strangers as I, but I am no harm
Strangers as they who follow and whisper
Whisper that I’m lost and cannot escape
Whisper of this hours unholiness
Unholiness as the demons mock my steps
Unholiness as the graveyard headstones crack
Crack as stones splits with moaning
Crack as hands reach, bloodied and fragile
Fragile as my skin sweating and chilled
Fragile as heels broken — left in bare-feet
Bare-feet blackened from putrid streets
Bare-feet cut by pebbles with each step
Step here, step there, no where leads home
Step into the inescapable hour trapped
Trapped as the chants drew me far
Trapped as I bewitched scampered
Scampered away from the party’s delights
Scampered into the sudden mist further
Further into the labyrinth, a sweet dream in daylight
Further into the hour my grandmother warned
Warned of those of dark intent who wander
Warned of the hour so few remember
Remember the creatures who frighten
Remember the creatures who chase
Chase in the thirteenth hour’s delusions
Chase me, knowing I knew better
Better despite my heart’s rapid fluttering
Delusions fade, a light burns — the wicked-hour passes
Thanks to MindLoveMisery’s Menagerie for hosting last weekend’s writing prompt. From the choices of titles I have chosen a reaccuring dream. As well as the terms orchid, silk tearing, and inscrutable. I’m writing a poem so no names needed. ——–
Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt is poem type called an elegy – a poem that mourns or honors someone dead or something gone by. Center the elegy on an unusual fact about the person or thing being mourned. ” An elegy generally combines three stages of loss: first there is grief, then praise of the dead one, and finally consolation.” Please see Literary Devices for more information.
I’ve paired this prompt with The A to Z Challenge quote, having the author/quoter’s name begin with the letter C.
———
Credit: Danika and Peter via UnSplash
——— “We are all the pieces of what we remember. We hold in ourselves the hopes and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss.” ― CassandraClare, City of Heavenly Fire
——-
Here we gather, today it finally hit —
Me, you won’t be coming back; such grit —
You displayed, at the crux, as death grew near.
There was no “going gently” for you dear.
I always admired that you were strong,
At the finish you groaned your last song.
The pain was so great, it hurt us to see,
A candle flame who flared, flickering free.
Death was not easy, nor was your young life.
But you always shouldered through the strife.
A kind, giving person — philanthropist,
With death, you became a minimalist.
Objects hold memories, the Stone’s song we know —
well: “You Can’t Take It With You When You Go.”
As we remember, we wonder why —
Three-years ago you left, disappeared wide —
Across the world, sending postcards to —
Us all, as you adventured across through —
Every country you could see with no —
Face Time, Skype; we were scared you wouldn’t come —
And last, but not least, our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that incorporates a call and response. Calls-and-responses are used in many sermons and hymns (and also in sea chanties!), in which the preacher or singer asks a question or makes an exclamation, and the audience responds with a specific, pre-determined response. (Think: Can I get an amen?, to which the response is AMEN!.). You might think of the response as a sort of refrain or chorus that comes up repeatedly, while the call can vary slightly each time it is used. Here’s a sea chanty example:
The Mirrored Refrain is rhyming verse form constructed by Stephanie Repnyek. The poem is formed by three or more quatrains where two lines within the quatrain are the “mirrored refrain” or alternating refrain.The rhyme scheme is as follows: xaBA, xbAB, xaBA, xbAB, etc.. x represents the only lines that do not rhyme within the poem. A and B represent the refrain. The first four stanzas of the example poem are labeled for better understanding.
Please see Shadow Poetry for more information on this poetry type.
There was a day that upon your shoulders you took me ofF
I had to stand and be the fighteR
You left with me skills, never left without giving me a plethorA
Of sage like wisdom, grace, so I never did LaG
Compared to many I was strong, the life had I
And all this I gained at the hand of your help, faithfulness above alL
Yet, I learned to trust and trust came stuttered way of breathE
Despite all this I learned to be strong one must remain FRAGILE
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