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Apr 05
Greetings!
Here we are on Day 5 of this year’s NaPo!
Maureen’s prompt said:
“Today, we’d like you to start by taking a look at Alicia Ostriker’s poem, “The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog.” Now try your hand at writing your own poem about how a pair or trio of very different things would perceive of a blessing or, alternatively, how these very different things would think of something else (luck, grief, happiness, etc).” [from here]
“A mug, you see’s,
Happiest when he
(Or she) is seen,
Treated carefully.
That rough machine
Just dulls my sheen –
Efficiency’s
Not kind to me:
My print gets worn,
My paint forlorn:
Identity
Stripped thoroughly.
I squeak and gleam –
But all that means…?
Conformity
Is leaching ‘ME’!”
The woman nodded, stepping back,
She knew too well that cruel attack!
“Arundel tomb” she whispered, (thinking:
Larkin’s oft-viewed couple’s linking!)
Her own bones squeaked and creaked, were ‘weird’
From too much grinding in ‘their’ gears;
Attempted washing of her mind
Had dulled her pure, creative line.
Her ‘handle’, too, felt weak and wrest,
Escape seemed fantastic at best…
“I’m sorry” said she, to the mug,
“I shall not place you in that fug,
I shall not throw you in the dark
And close the door. Machines embark
On sanitising all your quirks,
Making you feel like you held dirt
Inside your vessel. So, indeed!
I will, from now on, pay more heed
To how I treat you, unique clay.
I’ve learned a lesson, here, today.”
The mug sighed deep,
A tear did seep,
But uttered he nary a peep;
Just gestured to the waiting kettle
So he and she could both then settle.
Maybe the above is not quite what the prompt asked for, but it was at least inspired by it 😉
My poem went through a few incarnations, and I always seem to have the poems I studied at school and Uni bubbling up. The one I referred to today is here:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47594/an-arundel-tomb
and it was Larkin’s “washing at their identity” line, and the idea that what others see or remember won’t necessarily be who you are/were (as it is (usually) not you who ultimately gets to tell your story) that made me include it. I do think that Larkin’s conclusion is more upbeat than the way one may take the end of my poem, however!
But, dear reader, I’ll away – and leave this for posterity… 😉
Take care, and I’ll hopefully ‘see’ you back here tomorrow.
Monty X
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Copyright © 2024 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
Hiya 😉
Day three of #NaPoWriMo24 already!
The prompt said…
“Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a surreal prose poem. For inspiration, check out Franz Kafka’s collection of short parables (my favorite is “The Green Dragon”). [from here]
So, I wrote:
I watched a YouTube clip about a crow. A crow who had befriended a boy of about two. I was in duel minds, the poles divided between awe and bird-flu ‘risks’ (not to mention a sharp beak in eye sockets, or the sampling of succulent little digits, as if they were worms). Rambunctious toddler with a raucous Corvid, cawing and hopping, both looking happier than a fictitious Larry.
I soon started to smile.
The comments gave me other stories of crow companionship; crow-operation, if you will. My polarised mind started meeting once more, safe in the knowledge this new information would soon fall (in formation) into a conversation; accruing a crowing of my own.
I took my inspiration from the cuteness in this here short.
Caw-tch you guys later, for Day 4! 😉
Monty X
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Copyright © 2024 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
Good Day to you!
The second prompt of the month has been posted on the NaPoWriMo site to whet my noodled noggin:
“Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a platonic love poem. In other words, a poem not about a romantic partner, but some other kind of love – your love for your sister, or a friend, or even your love for a really good Chicago deep dish pizza. The poem should be written directly to the object of your affections (like a letter is written to “you”), and should describe at least three memories of you engaging with that person/thing.”
There are so many people…but an item of software stood on the desk of my mind and flung its hand the highest…
*shrugs*
An essay of three thousand words
starts with
a single forehead struck ‘gainst random keys.
Your cursoring can blink out whole thought-streams
ripe for the tweaking;
or freeze a hot love scene
indefinitely.
Wooooord, man!
How many nights have we wrapped ourselves in prayer,
and faced down a deadline –
as if hope alone
can skitter ‘cross the ‘board?
“Wrought writing: righting wrongs of the wright writer…”
(This wood pulp bends to thy print)
The whistles and grunts as you birthed dissertation reams,
The fun we’ve had…!
High-fiving each other as each Wonky 1k becomes shared history.
The way you’ve grown from bulky displays
to happily nestling in my trusting palm –
The overcast days you’ve been the only light in my eyes,
Beckoning forth my waning resolve.
You underlined my misspelt youth,
and continue to correct my courses to this day.
You hold the fonts to much knowledge,
and show affection writ large.
Yes, that’s correct: I know it has its annoying traits (as we all do) and its yearly fees are extortionate now, but I’ve had a fondness for Microsoft Word as a study/writing companion since Windows ’95 days 😉
How do you other writers out there organise your thoughts when you want to upgrade from the off-line scribblings, and make things more…legible? Have you a different digital tool that you find works best for you? Let me know in the comments!
Catch you tomorrow!
Monty X
[pic is from Pixabay, here]
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Copyright © 2024 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
Hellooooo there, my lovely readers!!
Another April has dawned: busy and in the school holidays… 😉 so I’ll jump right in with Maureen’s prompt from the NaPoWriMo site:
“Today, we’d like to challenge you to write – without consulting the book – a poem that recounts the plot, or some portion of the plot, of a novel that you remember having liked but that you haven’t read in a long time.”
One immediately sprang to mind, and said mind conjured a lot of images with it…I had flashes of the stairwell, for some reason, so I wonder if this book was made into a film I have watched, too? Or if the cover had a good picture on it…? Phrases and scenes also came back to me quickly… I really should re-read it!
As I give away the plot here, I will put the name of the book muuuuch further down, so only those who don’t mind spoilers can see it (and those who think they recognise it from my descriptions can check if they’re right!)
Making unlikely friends,
With soap-coping around bed bugs,
I live in a letter.
Cradling my growing belly
And my secrets;
Turning from the white coat death
Toward bravery.
No man can truly claim me.
These friends fortify –
I gather my offspring
(And my hope-spring)
To my heart.
All due to shared stories,
And trust forged through walls:
Je suis retournée chez mes parents
Who knew how this missive should end?
Sound familiar at all?!
Take care, and I’ll catch you tomorrow!
Monty X
[pic is from Pixabay, here]
Come visit the Facebook page and follow @ComfyRestless on Twitter
Copyright © 2024 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!
[Book: The L-shaped Room by Lynn Reid Banks]
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 ]
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 27
Boo! 😉
Almost 4 solid weeks of writing poetry have passed, now!
“Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a “duplex.” A “duplex” is a variation on the sonnet, developed by the poet Jericho Brown. Here’s one of his first “Duplex” poems, and here is a duplex written by the poet I.S. Jones. Like a typical sonnet, a duplex has fourteen lines. It’s organized into seven, two-line stanzas. The second line of the first stanza is echoed by (but not identical to) the first line of the second stanza, the second line of the second stanza is echoed by (but not identical to) the first line of the third stanza, and so on. The last line of the poem is the same as the first.” [from Day Twenty-Seven (napowrimo.net)]
Having looked into a few more of Brown’s poems, I see that he doesn’t always keep his line at the end identical to the first – see this poem. But, within that poem, he does make the repeated lines identical! So I decided to keep 10 syllables to each line, incorporate rough repeating lines, and make the last line pretty close to the first… 😉
So: what if I’d the sense to be so brave:
Not hatched some beautiful children at all?
Children I love enough to stem beauty
Filtering through me; unbidden, flowing.
My filtered flow would delight readership,
Of strangers – thousands unhugged by my arms;
Arms now stripped of hug hanker by Covid
Only filled by the children I have spawned,
Childish toys, now, my ring of makeshift friends,
Marooned upon an island flecked with gold.
My golden years a way off, green behind;
These settling, middling, comfy-restless days.
My unsettling, and beautiful, entwined!
I’m wondering: in which sense that’s not brave…?
This is definitely not the easiest of poetic forms! I’ve tweaked and tampered a lot with this one since I started it just after lunch. It was not a 15-minute wonder, that’s for sure. I’m posting it before midnight so that I don’t keep myself awake tapping at it into the small hours!
Only 3 more days of NaPo to go! Meet you here tomorrow 😉
Monty X
[pic is from here]
Come visit the Facebook page and follow @ComfyRestless on Twitter
Copyright © 2022 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 12
Hi! 😊
Yesterday, I challenged you to write a poem about a very large thing. Today, I’d like you to invert your inspiration, and write a poem about a very small thing. [Day Twelve (napowrimo.net)]
What I came up with was also smaller in length than some of my other poems!
I try to quell the eddies
When they start:
Smile a little brighter,
Ask another question
Of the extroverted ones.
Stuff a cake in my mouth
While others take their foot out of theirs.
Good China can rattle too loudly,
It draws attention.
Annnnd, onwards to Day 13!!
Take care 🙂
Monty X
[pic is from here]
Come visit the Facebook page and follow @ComfyRestless on Twitter
Copyright © 2022 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!
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:
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
Come visit the Facebook page and follow @ComfyRestless on Twitter
Copyright © 2022 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 26
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
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!
Apr 22
Hey 😊
Today I was busy with stuff in the house, so this is going to be up later than usual, but I hope you’ve all been feeling good?
The prompt said: today I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that invokes a specific object as a symbol of a particular time, era, or place. [from napowrimo.net]
Weirdly, I wrote ANOTHER rhyming poem. The syllable counts aren’t uniform, but they aren’t awful 😉
BRANCHING OUT
The toddler bed nestles
our couch-back, in parts;
I dismantled it
with an ache in my heart.
No toddlers now live here,
nor have for some time;
weight limit’s exceeded,
and this I know fine.
But memories plague me,
and tug at my hem
along with ‘near’ futures:
nest empty. Flown men.
Those dimply wee knuckles
tucked ‘neath sleeping faces
I spied through the bed guards
are gone. In their places
Are capable digits
and oft-furrowed brows
that puzzle at problems,
seem wisdom-endowed.
But that bed cushioned nightmares
and furthered kid freedom,
furnished the way for
new-grown arboretums.
There is something in my eye *fans face with her hand*.
The pic above is of Youngest from last year, with his usual myriad of fluffy friends – and his own topsy turvy take on sleeping conventions! The bed only recommended a kid of up to 50lbs slept in it, and at 8 years old Youngest has just crept over that figure.
He now has one of the single beds my mum had squirrelled away in the eves of her house, which Eldest helped me put together on Saturday. We must have done a reasonable job because that’s it stayed intact for most of a week!
Well, I’m off to watched an episode of Star Trek with the menfolk before the kids go down, so take care and I’ll catch you tomorrow 😊
Monty X
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!
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