Hiya 🙂

The last day of NaPoWriMo has dawned again…*sniff*

I have really enjoyed it this year – a trip down memory lane with the prompts, and the humour that has brought up for me – thank you to Maureen Thorson at the site for twenty years of this community and for giving me a challenge that definitely gets me thinking every April!

This was our final prompt:

“Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a palinode – a poem in which you retract a view or sentiment expressed in an earlier poem. For example, you might pick a poem you drafted earlier in the month and write a poem that contradicts or troubles it. This could be an interesting way to start working on a series of related poems. Alternatively, you could play around with the idea of a palinode by writing a poem in which the speaker says something like “I take it back” or otherwise abandons a prior position within the single poem.” [From here]

I looked back at some of my poetry from 2018 (my first NaPo ever) and came across this one about two brothers:

https://acomfykindofrestless.com/cross-words-napowrimo-2/

The younger brother in the above poem was grateful to his sibling, and looked up to him.  I then wondered how things would progress as they grew (now we’re six years down the line, and everything).

I take it back, Jake’s NOT my friend

He pokes and prods me with no end!

I used to love being his bro

He always had my back – no more!

He’ll tell you I’M annoying, but

I can’t do nuffin’, or he tuts!

Like High School’s cool and he’s the King –

I work harder and everything!

He never lets me use his stuff

Or join his games – I’ve had enough!

I’ve a good mind to tell that Jo

he wants her phone number! And oh

the things I know! The dirt I keep!

Jake should be losing major sleep.

I swear to God I’m past my limit

One pic on Snapchat….

drop him in it…

And that’s a wrap, folks!! 30 poems written in a month (even if I didn’t always manage to get them up on my blog within the allotted days…) it always feels a bit weird when I leave April behind. 

Thank to to all those who have been on the journey with me this year, I’ve enjoyed your comments and encouragement, and of course the poetry I have read from other participants, as always 😊

Usually I write something here about hoping to be back on my blog in the next week etc – then somehow manage to toddle off into the sunset and only return for April poetry month again…so I’m not making any promises this year.  What I will say, however, is that I wrote a very ambitious plan for this year and writing (plus drawing) was definitely heavily featured for the darker months, so I’m optimistic 😉 I’ve also paid up this blog’s hosting etc until December 2024, so that’s also a good wee incentive!

Look after yourselves, keep doing what makes your heart happy, and I will endeavor to find my way back here before the year is out! (Subscribe to the blog if you want to be notified when I do wander past 😉)

Big hugs! Take care!

Monty X

[Image by Luisella Planeta LOVE PEACE 💛💙 from Pixabay ]

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Hi 🙂

It’s Day 19 of NaPoWriMo and I didn’t have to think too deeply for the answer to this prompt:

“For this challenge, start by reading Marlanda Dekine’s poem “My Grandma Told Stories or Cautionary Tales.” One common feature of childhood is the monsters. The ones under the bed or in the closet; the odd local monsters that other kids swear roam the creek at night, or that parents say wait to steal away naughty children that don’t go to bed on time. Now, cast your mind back to your own childhood and write a poem about something that scared you – or was used to scare you – and which still haunts you (if only a little bit) today.” [from here]

I spent my first few years in a multi-generational household 😉

When I was young

I sucked my thumb.

Not seen

then

as sensory input,

or self-soothing,

my Great Grandmother would

shout “MUSH!!”:

to remind me that said thumb

was saliva-soluble

past a certain

(undefined, but always close)

point.

Cobwebs congregated in my nostrils too,

apparently.

Luckily, I didn’t

dwell

on that image too much

until later in life.

(They were probably left

by the arachnids accused

of messing up my tresses

every time I’d woken

from deep sleep.)

Below are three pictures of my Great Grandmother (my maternal grandmother’s mum…).  The first is from circa the early 1920s with her family (two sisters, two brothers and her parents) she’s second from the left. The next picture would have been taken in late 1933/ early 1934 (if we assume the baby in her lap is my maternal Grandmother) and the third picture is as I knew her; it must have been taken in the early 1980s as we moved from that house in the summer of 1986, when I was 8 and a half, but she lived into her (and the early 19-)90s so I visited her into my teens.

I am glad there has been much more research into how we can build our children up so they are less ruled by fears, doubts about their appearance, and shame around honoring their own needs and interests that mean they may take longer than their peers to achieve milestones; or just may have diverse functional abilities in certain areas that they will need to work with for the rest of their lives. 

Child development and how our perceptions of ‘normal’ have evolved through the centuries is an area I never really tire of reading/hearing about.  It’s fascinating…but can also be very overwhelming, especially as a parent currently at the teen/tween stages (feeling like she is the receptacle for many generations’ first-hand accounts and child rearing examples) who ‘should’ know the best way to deal with any given situation by now, but inevitably fails a lot 😉 The more I parent, the more it becomes infinitely clear that there is no one-size-fits-all strategy, because each child is an individual – even in the womb! – and I am still growing and evolving, as is the society in which we live.

Annnyyyywaaay – catch you for Day 20!

Monty X

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Hi 😊

Here we are on the second last day of Maureen’s poetry prompts, again!  My fifth year of writing a poem a day for the month of April is nearly at an end…I really do think it goes by faster every year.

“Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem in which you muse on the gifts you received at birth — whether they are actual presents, like a teddy bear, or talents – like a good singing voice – or circumstances – like a kind older brother, as well as a “curse” you’ve lived with (your grandmother’s insistence on giving you a new and completely creepy porcelain doll for every birthday, a bad singing voice, etc.).” [ https://www.napowrimo.net/day-twenty-nine-8/]

Being in my mid-forties, and addled by hormones as I almost-permanently feel at the moment, I’m not sure these are very wise probes into how I think about my life.  But I tried to keep the poem from extending into several pages 😉

An innocent, taken to heart

Such a safe, auspicious start:

Many adults to flow between,

Her cute appeal seemed evergreen.

But all good roses have their thorns,

School and life can leave you torn

And, through the holes, we sometimes see

A darker core reality.

Though blessed with blonde and bouncy curls,

And soon creative bent unfurled;

So too did she often possess

Bottomless grief, hard to express.

This melancholy in her soul

Liked whit’ling at her hopes and goals;

Haunted this pretty, lively girl

And kept ‘potential’ in a whirl…

Last day of NaPoWriMo for 2022 tomorrow, meet you back here for that!

Take care, all 🙂

Monty X

[pic is from here]

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Hi!

So, we are somehow on the 19^th day of NaPoWriMo!!

“Today’s challenge is to write a poem that starts with a command.”  Day Nineteen (napowrimo.net)

Just wear it!

You walk with me, and I think you are a goddess.

I love the twirl of the skirt,

the way that you float more

just crossing the street.

Hold my hand tight and let me marvel in your glow!

Let me study your patterns from my trolley perch,

As you flit back n forth,

Browsing supermarket shelves.

Let me see how sticky fingers add

my own unique designs.

Let me curl into the fabric,

as sleep

flutters at my lids.

Let me gently stroke the bodice in my dreams.

Let me revel in how skin and cotton meet at your shoulder

as you carry me to an early dinner

from the cocoon of my carseat;

and later to the bubbles in the bath,

and teddy on my pillow.

Let my last looks of the day

fall on you, in my favourite dress,

being all that you are.

Let your swirly skirt waft the remnants of your perfume

as you close my bedroom door,

and listen protectively for me through the night.

I’m feeling the need to dig out my copy of R. L. Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses again 😉

Take care, and I’ll come ‘see’ you all again tomorrow.

Monty X

[pic is from here]

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Hello!

“Today, I’d like to challenge you to write your own poem that provides five answers to the same question – without ever specifically identifying the question that is being answered.” [From: Day Eighteen (napowrimo.net)]

I am asked a specific question a lot in my role as mum and homemaker and general nostalgic/romantic/sentimental peep, so that is the one I chose.

I

It’s part of me,

Part of the before-yous,

It knows that after here

The plot lines started being rewritten

By all the not-me characters.

It’s original, and curling in on itself,

The way I should have done.

It’s a beacon,

It’s an anchor,

It’s worth more than its sum.

II

We’ve all sat on an older knee

With patterned cloth we still can see

Inside our cosiest of dreams;

And sang a favoured song, or three.

A childhood sense of peace and glee

Is found in traditions, for me.

III

Hello children

Please do tell

The news of yonder

Hill and dell;

Delight me with your warm embraces,

Funny lines and shiny faces

Fill my head with grit and glory,

My ears are yours for thrilling stories!

Never will you be this young

And I am aging faster,

So let me wrap you in my arms

And tend your wounds with plasters.

IV

See here, the faint whiff of memory clings

To the curly letters of my name.

I will never receive new samples

Of this particular swirl

Upon my sunny doormat.

Will never again prompt those postal hugs

By saying something slightly melancholy

Down a phone attached to a wall.

V

You’re walking,

Or changing the radio station,

Or just rolling your eyes

At the ‘neediness’

And refusing to turn.

But I’m still up here, waving,

Til your back,

Or the car,

Is well out of sight.

I love you 😊

This morning was very special because Youngest came in to see me after his breakfast just before 9am (Hubby had just got up, I had gone to bed very late and was awake but still in that lazy frame of mind) then snuggled in beside me, gave me a big cuddle and promptly fell asleep!  Well, this rarely happens these days with the boys getting older and usually having a fuller agenda, so I got comfy and went back to sleep, too!  It was a lovely way to mark the last day of the Easter holidays 🙂 

I hope you’ve all had a fab Easter weekend, and I’ll be back here tomorrow for Day 19!

Monty X

[Pic is from here]

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Hello!

From napowrimo.net:

Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that argues against, or somehow questions, a proverb or saying.

As it is Eldest’s birthday today, I went for a couple about age [Source: https://proverbicals.com/age]

I have read, on that tome called the internet,

“Grey hair is a sign of age, not of wisdom”.

And to think I was quite looking forward

To my Nana Coco days:  more little hands,

Trusting and sticky, wrapped round a rock bun

My gnarling digits had helped them to make;

Dreaming wistfully of reading picture books

To listening littlies, answering questions

About the good old days and explaining

Why dictionaries, landlines, and cassettes

Had their place in the world when I was young,

To more wide-eyed wonder than their fathers’!

Germans apparently say a lot that:

“Old age is no protection against foolishness”

And this one seems to pan out, as I am

Already facing my mid forties and

My newly 9 and 12 year olds do claim

My idiocy gleams daily.  I know

They roll their eyes at the fuss and hug quotient

I deem as gifts.  They educate me on

‘Proper’ behaviour more frequently than

I remember doing for my elders.

My schooling’s not a match to their native

Digital genius.  I’m chopped liver.

And yet many a soggy shoulder or

Wakeful night worrying’s to come, I feel.

I would suspect, hair dyed or no, I’ll play my part

And maybe earn some respect on the way…?

Eldest woke up a few minutes before his time of birth this morning, and I got to hold his hand as he turned 12.  I also managed not to cry!! This meant he was bargaining for YouTube by about 7.05am but hey, he did show me some of his friends’ channels and also had a laugh with me over random videos about elephants messing about, so it was a nice start to the morning!

Eldest opened his presents and then we all watched Iron Man 2 on Amazon Prime together.  Afterwards, it was on to making buttercream icing and adorning the spongecake the boys and I made together yesterday morning.  There is a tradition here of poking chocolate mini eggs into the icing, as we have Spring ‘babies’ (Youngest did the same for his cake 8 days ago, see above!) but Eldest decided he and his brother would also add some sprinkles.  No complaints here!

We got a Domino’s pizzas in for dinner before we cut and sampled the cake.  It was a good meal!

Eldest’s birthday sponge

How on EARTH do we have a pre-teen in the house, though?! He hit double figures at the start of the Pandemic and time has just seemed to do crazy stuff since then.  Feels so weird looking at this kid, who is only a head shorter than me now, and thinking through all the transitions he and I have gone through to get here.  He’s definitely been one of my greatest teachers, this firstborn rascal of ours 😉

Anyway, I’d better go and watch some Dr Who with the kids before bedtime (as always requested) and save this draft until I have time to put the pics on it! Take care, and I’ll return for Day 8.

Monty X

 [pics are my own]

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Hi!

The prompt from napowrimo.net for Day 2 said:

Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on a word featured in a tweet from Haggard Hawks, an account devoted to obscure and interesting English words.

So I chose from the below:

To GLACITATE is to honk like a goose.
To CROCITATE is to caw like a raven.
To CUCUBATE is to hoot like an owl.
To PUPILLATE is to cry like a peacock.
To CUCURIATE is to call like a rooster.
To CHELIDONIZE is to chirp like a swallow.
To GLOCIDATE is to cluck like a hen. pic.twitter.com/cDS5Afs2EA

— Haggard Hawks (@HaggardHawks) April 1, 2022

and wrote –

I glocidate

To educate,

(I cluck to underline)

My care of you’s

Sincere and true;

I’m so glad you are ‘mine’.

See you on Day 3! 😉

Monty X

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Hi!

Hope you are all ok?

It is after Midnight and I haven’t got this post out yet because I’ve been reading about our Skye holiday on the blog!!

The prompt on napowrimo.net for Day 29 was to:

Imagine a window looking into a place or onto a particular scene.

So I thought about this pic and then just had to read all the surrounding text, and subsequent  other posts…

I did then write a poem, though 😉

Ah, Skye…

Our children in raptures

at the sight of so much sea

from multiple windows.

Boats and people

to make up narratives for.

A ponder or two about

a ‘staring’ red phone box.

How different the world felt then,

and yet we didn’t know

that even the small amount of exploration we managed

would be a wealth of freedom

to our ‘20s selves.

The air!

The clouds!

The beach trips!

Sunsets that stretched around bridges

that lead out

and joined others to us.

3 and two thirds years later

those views speak volumes,

whilst Eldest and I

tackle fractions,

praying for a reprieve.

Eldest was 7 and Youngest was 4 back in July 2017.  How did time move so quickly?! Eldest is now staring down the summer before his last year of Primary School!

Which windows would you rather be looking out of right now?

Take care and I’ll meet you here tomorrow for the last poem of NaPoWriMo 2021!

Monty X

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Coo-eee!

Welcome back, and have a wee virtual hug from me 🙂

I was tasked with writing a parody today:

Besides being fun, writing parodies can be a great way to hone your poetic skills – particularly your sense of rhyme and sound, as you try to mimic the form of an existing poem while changing the content. Just find a poem – or a song – that has always annoyed you, and write an altered, silly version of it. 

[from napowrimo.net]

Well, the song I chose doesn’t annoy me as such, it just has been parodied a lot and gets earwormy after a while 😉 I chose “Let It Go” from the Disney film Frozen.  Here is a version with the original lyrics if you want to follow along with my take on it in a different tab or something. 

Hubby did suggest that I uploaded a clip of me singing the below, but I doubt I’d get through it without laughing as I attempted to hit some of the ambitious notes 😉

I’m out of fight and I’m holding him tight,

Eldest’s bunny is a dream;

Our friend through all isolations

Cutest face you’ve ever seen.

My mind is howling like a twister got inside

Couldn’t keep it in, heaven knows I’ve tried…

Don’t let them in,

Don’t let them see,

Eat secret choc’late in the lavatory;

Banana peels,

Oh heaven knows

This mess just blows…

Feeling low?

Feeling low!

Pick your stuff up off the floor,

Feeling low?

Feeling low!

Don’t you dare slam that door!

You’ll soon care:

Fortnite’s going away.

Let the kids rage on

They weren’t gonna get V-bucks anyway.

It’s funny how home-schooling

Makes you a big stress ball

And peers through the controller

Can drive you up the wall!

It’s time to come off that X-box

You’ve tested limits lots and lots,

For right and wrong there’s rules you see

Trust meeeeee…

Feeling low?

Feeling low!

No more emotes can you buy,

Feeling low?

Feeling low!

Now don’t you start to cry!

Here I stand

And here I’ll stay,

Let the kids rage on…

My patience fluctuates until your butt I’ll ground,

My life is spiralling, some pieces of me can’t be found;

Why are your arguments so whiney, lame and crass?

If your pal hopped off a cliff, would you follow his path?!

Feeling low?

Feeling low!

Why’d you rise at the break of dawn?!

Feeling low?

Feeling low!

Where’s all the Oatibix gone?!

Here I stand, in the light of day,

Let the kids rage oooooonnnnnn

They’re not buying more V-bucks anyway.

Obviously the above makes more sense if you live with kids who play Fortnite!  V-bucks are the currency in the game that they buy things like ‘emotes’ with, and V-bucks cost real money.  So basically, Epic Games (who tout Fortnite as a free-to-own game) want demented parents shelling out silly amounts of money every month due to ‘pester power’.  Not too keen on that!

Don’t worry though, I try not to eat between meals so there’s no secret chocolate stash in our loo.  That was just poetic licence.  Honest… 😉

Well, Day 26 is now done! Take care and I’ll catch you tomorrow.

Monty X

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Hello!

My prompt was: today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that responds, in some way, to another.

I went onto Instagram and looked up ‘#poetry’.  The below was the one that spoke to me first

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Aditya Deepak (@being.lovestruck)

here’s my reply:

Maybe the rhythm

still soothes that part of you

sick with responsibility.

Maybe my warmth

can quash your frantic thoughts

for another year.

Maybe the fact I’m still willing

to sit and listen –

ignore all the ‘pressing’ stuff,

just feel your growing body

sag a little

into these aging arms –

means quite a lot to you.

Maybe, no matter how hard it gets,

I’ll gain strength from the trust in your eyes.

It’s another late posting I’m afraid, sorry!  April always ends up being such a busy month 😉

Take care and I’ll catch you for Day 24 tomorrow 😉

Monty X

[pic is from here]

Come visit the Facebook page and follow @ComfyRestless on Twitter

Copyright © 2021  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!