Tag Archives: NaPoWriMo 2021

Martian Ladies: The Lost Lines

 

There's a place on Mars/Where the ladies smoke cigars
Every puff they take/Is enough to kill a snake
When the snake is dead/They plant roses in its head
When the roses die/They put diamonds in its eye 
When the diamonds crack/They put mustard down its back
When the mustard dries/It attracts the Martian flies
When the flies get stomped/It becomes a Martian prompt
When the prompt gets writ/Then the Martians have a fit
When the fit is tight/Martian snakes begin to bite
If they bite your face/You become a Martian case
But your case won't close/Till your poems decompose

 

 


PROMPT #21:

Write a poem that, like a Nursery rhyme, uses lines that have a repetitive set-up.

 

 

Jough: Po Mo

But why have a “National Poetry Month”?
The mainstream and popular activities in American culture don’t have, or need, a “national month.” You won’t see a “National Watch TV Month,” or a “National Football Month” because those are activities that people engage in without encouragement or convincing.
“Black History” and “Women’s History” months represent a subjugated sub-culture of American life. Never mind that women make up more than fifty percent of the American population and are therefore a majority. The fact is that the histories of these two groups was probably under- appreciated at some time, at least enough for someone to think that it may help to make a “Month” for their groups.
Poetry too is a ghettoized genre of American reading. It seems that most people respect poetry, are perhaps a little afraid of it, think that it’s beyond them, it’s boring, etcetera. So in order to sell more books of poetry, the AAP created “National Poetry Month” to bring poetry into the National Spotlight of the Under-Appreciated. It’s too bad that most of the poetry that they promote is of the vaguest and most unappealing kind being written. It’s necessary, though, when listening from their local shopping mall, for people to be able to fully understand a poem by hearing it only once. Any poems that require deeper readings to unlock their hidden treasures would be unsuited to the task of providing background noise while people pound down Big Macs in the food court.

National Schmational: Do We Really Need A “National Poetry Month”?

Copyright © by Jough Dempsey, 4/4/02, http://www.plagiarist.com 

Day 7: Shadorma followed by a Fib

The shadorma is a six-line, 26-syllable poem (or a stanza – you can write a poem that is made of multiple shadorma stanzas). The syllable count by line is 3/5/3/3/7/5.

 

  Lyrical Sow

As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, 
So is a lovely woman who lacks discretion.
                                                   Proverbs 11:22

Bang that thing:

Angry piano,

All black keys,

Sharps and flats;

Pull that ring out of your snout

And POUND that thing.

 

Then, that ring:

take it, melt it down,

make a mold,

cast a god,

and bow before your idol

(a vicious poem).

 

The Fib is a six-line form. But now, the syllable count is based off the Fibonacci sequence of 1/1/2/3/5/8. You can  link multiple Fibs together into a multi-stanza poem, or even start going backwards after your first six lines, with syllable counts of 8/5/3/2/1/1. 

 

Émigrée

You

left

your home

for this land

and now you live here

and complain like a hypocrite.

You rail against America

while you suck her tit:

your new mom,

this land,

your

life.

 

 

 

 

 

White Magic

 

Militant poetess, dark ingrate
From what black hole did you emigrate?
From what strange galaxy of spite
Did you slither forth to curse and bite?
What absent father spawned your soul
to spread such vicious vitriol
And bring bad vibes wherever you go
In your bitter black feminist minstrel show?

 

Dark matter could be white dwarfs, the remnants of cores of dead small-to medium-size stars. Or dark matter could be neutron stars or black holes, the remnants of large stars after they explode. The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope can detect high-energy gamma rays that may be emitted when dark matter particles collide.     
from: NASA.gov

 

PROMPT #6:  Go to a book you love. Find a short line that strikes you.
Make that line the title of your poem. Write a poem inspired by the line.
Then, after you’ve finished, change the title completely.