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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April 28th, 2023 at 7:24 am
Brilliantly done, from the first line to the last.
April 28th, 2023 at 8:17 am
Thank you! It informed my Day 27 poem too (which hopefully I’ll get around to posting today 🙈 loads going on here, distracting me, but I do write the poems in time 😉) thank you for your mega-readathon of my blog today!
April 28th, 2023 at 8:42 pm
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