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Apr 10
Hello!
“I challenge you to write a sea shanty” said Maureen at the NaPo site for Day 10, so off I went.
I imagined one sailor singing the first verse, all the crew joining in on the “chorus” in italics, then a different sailor taking up the second verse, and the crew roaring the chorus together again. So, remember to put on your best pirate accents in your head when you read it 😉
Yo, ho, ho!
I stubbed my toe,
I’m out of rum and feeling glum.
Boo, hoo, hoo
Foot’s turnin’ blue,
Metal bed frames are all to blame.
With an: Ar Ar Aye!
I say goodbye
To all the chores I do deplore.
With a hearty laugh
I fill the bath,
Set sail my cares and linger there…
Ignore the dirty dishes,
Damn all those filthy clothes,
No cleaning up the messes
From the menfolk anymore!
I’m done with clutter busting,
And I’m done with dusting too,
If it all gets disgusting
Then I’m blaming it on you…
So: douse yourself in soapy suds,
And marinate in bubbles;
The water takes our toil away,
And dissolves all our troubles.
You’ll emerge like a mermaid lass,
With fins all fresh and new;
So flick your tail, and quickly bail,
The sea’s a-calling you.
Oooooh…
Ignore the dirty dishes,
Damn all those filthy clothes;
No cleaning up the messes
From the menfolk anymore!
I’m done with clutter busting,
And I’m done with dusting too,
If it all gets disgusting
Then I’m blaming it on you…
😀 that was fun to write! We have been getting work done on the house, so having lived in a mass of jumbled and displaced possessions for over a month now, with all my usual routines up in the air, you can tell my brain is rebelling mightily!
‘See’ you soon for Day 11’s offering.
Monty X
[Image by u_wfbzqegh from Pixabay]
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Copyright © 2023 Montaffera All Rights Reserved
Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!
Apr 10
Good morrow, dear reader!
I did write in response to Day 9’s prompt, but I didn’t leave enough time for me to compose this post and get it up on the blog. Better late than never though, eh?
Day 9’s prompt was:
“Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own sonnet. Incorporate tradition as much or as little as you like – while keeping in general to the theme of “love.”” [from here]
I decided to keep the easier rhyming scheme of abab,cdcd,efef,gg and the ten beats/syllables to a line.
I write my love a note upon the pad,
He answers by editing what I’ve said,
So then, attempting not to feel too bad,
I tussle with our diff’rences in bed.
A pillow is the perfect place to pose
A question to the better half of me;
He sighs, only pretending there to dose,
As he adds weight to all my fantasies.
His whispers shape the ink of wordplay wrought
‘Tween motherhood and wifely life combined,
He teases out experience and thought,
Untethers folds that strive to make me blind.
His airy presence keeps me sane and strange,
Our shared dreamscapes the only things that change.
As I often do, I was thinking about the way I write, and the conversational poem with my Muse that I started my blogging adventures with. Hopefully that is somewhat clear in my Sonnet, for I often feel like I am sneaking off to indulge in creativity, and that it wants to abduct me like some jealous lover I have never been able to resist 😉 and yes, I will happily sit for hours, propped up by pillows, scribbling, tapping, or crafting away in my PJs if left to my own devices. I am a transient table user in these days of having my own family to tend to.
If you want to look at any other poems I’ve written in the Sonnet form, you can see them here (which is another study of being pulled towards creativity, incidentally) and here. Hopefully I’ll be back later today for Day 10’s poetic ponderings!
Take care,
Monty X
[Image by Tannetje Riek from Pixabay ]
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Copyright © 2023 Montaffera All Rights Reserved
Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!
Apr 08
Hello!
Today’s was a HUGELY complicated prompt, but I enjoyed it despite only reading down the list of requirements out of morbid interest (because I’d already decided I did NOT have enough time today to complete it…) 😉
This is how Maureen Thorson from the NaPo site set today’s challenge up:
“The prompt is called the “Twenty Little Poetry Projects,” and was originally developed by Jim Simmerman. And here are the twenty little projects themselves — the challenge is to use them all in one poem:
1. Begin the poem with a metaphor.
2. Say something specific but utterly preposterous.
3. Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem.
4. Use one example of synesthesia (mixing the senses).
5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.
6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.
7. Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.
8. Use a word (slang?) you’ve never seen in a poem.
9. Use an example of false cause-effect logic.
10. Use a piece of talk you’ve actually heard (preferably in dialect and/or which you don’t understand).
11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: “The (adjective) (concrete noun) of (abstract noun) . . .”
12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative qualities.
13. Make the persona or character in the poem do something he or she could not do in “real life.”
14. Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.
15. Write in the future tense, such that part of the poem seems to be a prediction.
16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.
17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.
18. Use a phrase from a language other than English.
19. Make a non-human object say or do something human (personification).
20. Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but that “echoes” an image from earlier in the poem.”
See what I mean?!! This was the (veering heavily towards the nonsense) poem I came up with:
The rabbit in my hat has died.
Probably my fault,
I looked for it;
And through said observation
(Of course)
Even nine-lived creatures may expire.
I become the bunny.
Addicted to succulent shoots of success,
My blue pelt ripe for the snuggliest mittens
Or to envelope
A precious baby boy’s feet.
I run at the first whiff of danger,
Tempted back by the heady pull
Of a watery glance or warm smile.
Savour the aroma of my slow-cooked rump
And my high-pitched screams,
Until you’re a bit blue, but I am colourless,
Nose no longer twitching,
The magic leeching from my pores.
(Then voice your doubts,
I’m naturally all ears)
Montaffera Lucy Mini-Rex,
Queen of her lonely Rabbit Island,
Is growing immune to your repeated
Floccinaucinihilipilification
Thank you very much.
(Flocc off)
Your lies make my teeth hurt.
“She’s an awfy quean”
Susan, the braying donkey of self doubt, exclaims
From across the water.
Helicoptering my ears,
I thistledown skyward
To rain a subtle plague.
In time, you’ll see this madness
Was logic all along;
Deliciously depressed
I do all my best planning.
جحور الأرانب *
Stretch for miles.
My feet are feeling lucky
Tipping their own hats to fate,
And making a move.
*‘Rabbit burrows’ (in Arabic)
Was it the proximity to Easter that made me think of rabbits? Or just the ever-cheeky presence of Mr Bunny calling through to me from Eldest’s room? Whatever the reason, I enjoyed messing about with all the connections and connotations associated with the creature. I do need to go catch up on all the other stuff I was meant to accomplish today too now, though!
Take care and I’ll ‘see’ you tomorrow for Day 9 🙂
Monty X
[Image by Pexels from Pixabay ]
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Copyright © 2023 Montaffera All Rights Reserved
Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!
Apr 07
Hi!
“Start by reading James Tate’s poem “The List of Famous Hats.” Now, write a poem that plays with the idea of a list” prompted Maureen for Day 7.
I have at least 4 “list” poems from previous NaPo years, here, here, here and here. But I came back to a pet peeve of mine to write a list about today 😉
I suck at making pillows plump,
Sheet ironing? I slack,
A laundry mountain makes me slump
Line-hanging hurts my back.
I hate the faff of wall-dusting,
Brisk window-cleaning too;
It takes me hours to psych myself
To go and bleach a loo!
I’d rather read my Kindle books
Or poetry-prompt wrangle,
I’m not cut out for “housewifing”
My brain’s too bored to handle!
Sorry I am getting this up on the blog so late, it’s been a lovely sunshiney day here, and we ate out for breakfast and lunch, as it was Eldest’s thirteenth birthday. Eldest seemed to enjoy himself, and it was fab getting to spend the day hanging out with him, his brother and hubby on this Easter Friday. Hubby has been off all week, so the kids have had lots of outings and time with him. I love that all my menfolk like being together so much.
Hopefully I’ll come back a little earlier tomorrow for Day 8!
Take care,
Monty X
[Image by congerdesign from Pixabay ]
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Copyright © 2023 Montaffera All Rights Reserved
Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!
Apr 06
Good Day!
Welcome to my Day 6 attempt at meeting the NaPo prompt. Well…my FIFTH attempt at meeting this prompt, actually! Let me explain what I was asked to do…
“Take a look around Poetry International for a poem in a language you don’t know… Now, read the poem to yourself, thinking about the sound and shape of the words, and the degree to which they remind you of words in your own language. Use those correspondences as the basis for a new poem.” [from here]
So I tried poems from a few languages, but then decided to go with this Dutch poem by Eva Gerlach. What came out was not what I usually would advocate! I blame this violent turn on the fact that my newly-ten year old was playing a beat-em-up game on the opposite side of the table from me! (plus ‘het’ repeatedly appeared in the original poem, of course…)
I’ve screenshot the original poem below:
One can hit from habit and hit
With heft or as if green. Hit
Not at all or with attitude
To mar or just warn away
Hope. He is nothing.
The hit times the hitter’s goals. Mar
Some in calm violence, like you’re being hit still,
The stand I know I took means nothing, opt
To tip toe when you come. Grief. It nicks,
Making all beg for tangible reckoning.
(Goals can’t redeem us while they wane)
A hit is virtuous.
I don’t know if it even works as a poem, but I must confess that after trying to make five other poems bend to my will, off and on for hours, I am TIRED 😉 I don’t remember the writing being this hard the last time I tackled a similar prompt but having read the ramble around that poem, it seems I did find it a bit daunting after all!
Anyway, see you tomorrow for Day 7 where I’ll be trying to write around our Eldest celebrating becoming a teenager! We now have two kids sporting double figures – and increasing attitude – eeek! 😉
Monty X
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Copyright © 2023 Montaffera All Rights Reserved
Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!
Apr 05
Hi there 🙂
So there were no rhyme or syllable restrictions in Maureen’s NaPo prompt today:
“Begin by reading Charles Simic’s poem The Melon…The poem illuminates the juxtaposition between grief and joy, sorrow and reprieve. For today’s challenge, write a poem in which laughter comes at what might otherwise seem an inappropriate moment – or one that the poem invites the reader to think of as inappropriate.” [from here]
I’m just not sure I can go on, Deirdre. 
I know you’re always telling me to play more,
Relax a little, “enjoy any patch of sunshine” –
But it’s just feeling so hard these days, you know?
Deirdre yawns fanged boredom,
Prods her paws into the lap of her luxury;
While a seagull cackles,
Sharing a joke with the wind.
Another short one today 🙂 Meet you back here for Day 6!
Monty X
[Image by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay ]
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Copyright © 2023 Montaffera All Rights Reserved
Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!
Apr 04
Hiya 😊
“Today, let’s try writing triolets. A triolet is an eight-line poem. All the lines are in iambic tetrameter (for a total of eight syllables per line), and the first, fourth, and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines. This means that the poem begins and ends with the same couplet. Beyond this, there is a tight rhyme scheme (helped along by the repetition of lines) — ABaAabAB.” [From here on the NaPo site]
This year’s prompts are all ones that have popped up in other years. I last wrote a poem in this style about Covid lockdown back in 2020. I decided to pick a pic from Pixabay and write my triolet from there 😉
Get back! Don’t move! I have some fruit!
Potassium explodes, you know!
Fill this bag now with all your loot –
Get BACK! DON’T move! I have some FRUIT!!! –
Throw in some choc’late bars to boot.
Get off! I’m not ready to goooo…
Get baaaack…don’t moooove…I have some fruit?
POTASSIUM EXPLODES YOU KNOOOOOW!!
That’ll do me, I think!
See you soon for Day 5 😊
Monty X
[Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay]
Come visit the Facebook page and follow @ComfyRestless on Twitter
Copyright © 2023 Montaffera All Rights Reserved
Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!
Apr 03
How Do?!
Today’s was a fun prompt!
“Find a shortish poem that you like, and rewrite each line, replacing each word (or as many words as you can) with words that mean the opposite” [from here]
The sun is shining today so I thought I would turn Philip Larkin’s This Be The Verse on its head and write a positive poem! I kept the syllable count for each line and also the rhyming scheme, but it did end up sounding very different in tone to the original 😉
They set one straight, hand-picked non-fam,
Intentionally geared for good.
They siphon off all virtues’ shams,
Just leave one feeling understood.
And they are raised up all the time,
By wisdom in new age attire –
Full advocates, partners in crime,
Calm masterminds when one aspires.
Humans disperse joy through the world,
Can lighten up the greyest skies;
Participate, wings full unfurled,
Accept each other, harmonise.
The more I read of Larkin, the more I think he really needed the company of more zany friends to shake him out of his doldrums 😉
Catch you tomorrow for Day 4! Ta-ra for now!
Monty X
[Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay]
Come visit the Facebook page and follow @ComfyRestless on Twitter
Copyright © 2023 Montaffera All Rights Reserved
Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!
Apr 02
Hi!
Again I have not had a lot of time to invest in today’s prompt. I did end up with a weirdly poetic-sounding stack of five lines, however. Maureen over at www.napowrimo.com asked us to pick 5-10 words from her suggestions, fashion a question using each of them, answer the questions, then put those answers together as our poem. (It is explained fully here).
So this is the poem I was left with:
A moonlit killer with a wise glint in his eye,
A pure vessel cracked by the weight of its purpose.
Our turmoils always hark back to the sea,
Roots and thirsts tether all things:
A feather’s lost upon a lowing beast.
After answering these questions that I made up from five of the offered words:
What is an Owl?
Who uses a Generator to write?
Are any of us worth our Salt?
Am I an Acorn?
What is a cowbird?
Not quite sure what the poem means (if anything!) but I don’t hate it 😉
I wonder what Day Three will have me tinkering with?! You’ll have to come back and find out!
Monty X
[pic is from here]
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Copyright © 2023 Montaffera All Rights Reserved
Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!
Apr 01
Hello! How are you?!
It’s day 1 of NaPo agaaaain! Yaaay!
Apparently it is the 20th year of this poetry challenge (and I think it is my…sixth?…time participating in it?) so I hopped over to Maureen Thorson’s site as soon as I got up, and read the first prompt:
“They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but they never said you can’t try to write a poem based on a book cover — and that’s your challenge for today! Take a look through Public Domain Review’s article on “The Art of Book Covers.”… With any luck, one or more of these will catch your fancy, and open your mind to some poetic insights.”
I zoomed down the pictures and alighted on this one:
Then my brain put together a story for the woman throughout the rest of the day…
She fanned the flames of discontent,
An eye for detail always bent
On foraging a social scene
For fodder, so she could be mean.
Natur’lly tall and slim was she,
Formidable and uppity –
She sneered at, then looked down on, most
Smiled for (but despised) her hosts.
Influential, old-moneyed,
Dismissive around those in need;
She could not countenance do-gooders,
And dodged obsequious new ‘suitors’.
Dancing, singing, art or craft,
To this closed woman all was chaff;
She had the skill but not the inkling
For poetry or iv’ry tinkling.
Her gifts horticulturally,
Served her in society,
For people came from miles around
To wander in her estate’s grounds.
With unguessed generosity
Her household would provide the tea,
And many tables would be set
For contemplation, tete-a-tete.
She’d transform in those hallowed beds –
Pruning, wat’ring, deading heads –
Skirts all muddied, boots fair caked,
She planted, dug – dreamed as she raked.
Her flowers were her source of pride:
With others’ children by her side
She’d give free lessons, proffer Latin,
As sim’lar ladies discuss satin.
Many kind schemes she let take place
Enveloped in her work’s embrace;
However inadvertently
Benevolent she came to be.
And when at last, care-worn and grey,
The Good Lord took her far away,
The vicar was then inundated
With eulogies for the belated.
Adults with children of their own
Reminisced about the things they’d grown
When that ‘sweet lady’ held their hand
Gave time to help them understand.
Her passion scattered smiles and seeds –
Enthusiasm roots and breeds –
Although oft adults peaked her ire
Children thrived around her fire.
I had meant to ease myself into the first prompt (as I am pretty busy this weekend), but obviously that is not what happened 😉 I even got a bit emotional about this fictional character, haha!
Take care, and I hope to catch you tomorrow!
Monty X
Come visit the Facebook page and follow @ComfyRestless on Twitter
Copyright © 2023 Montaffera All Rights Reserved
Please do not use any of my content (posts, pictures, poetry etc) without my permission, but feel free to link back to my blog if something catches your eye. Thank you!
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