Receding future out of scope
Brim-full with harsh disappointment;
As excess empty sentiment
Drip-drops to the end of its rope
Hanging from a place without hope;
Cried-out lungs failing, gasping air,
Striving more than mortals may dare
To ‘scape the nightmare staid awake;
Silenced for insanity’s sake,
As shredded nerve-ends wear and tear.
Written following Ronovan’s Decima Challenge on RonovanWrites – “Hope”
Each day pens more detail
In the story of my life
Its ups and its downs
Its trivia and melodrama
Yet I hold no power
As an author’s quill does
No choice as the reader might exert
Unable to skip chapters
Or jump to the epilogue
I journey slowly through the story
Weary burdened traveller,
Stepping from page to page
Annotating the facts of the past
With no foresight of future lines
The NaPoWriMo.net challenge for Day 29 of Na/GloPoWriMo2017 was to take one of your favorite poems and find a very specific, concrete noun in it; then spend five minutes free-writing associations – other nouns, adjectives, etc. and use your original word and the results of your free-writing as the building blocks for a new poem.
I drew the word ‘traveller’ from one of my favourite poems, ‘The Listeners’ by Walter de la Mere.
Of history’s walls
None proved more ineffective
Save to rally mobs
Obsolete as built
Unfit for useful purpose
Divisive folly
The wall crumbles still
Allegorical symbol
Relic of its age
For Day 26 of Na/GloPoWriMo2017, NaPoWriMo.net challenges us to consider what future archaeologists, whether human or from alien civilization, will make of us? Today’s poems should seek answer that question, exploring a particular object or place from the point of view of some far-off, future scientist.
Made in God’s image
A likeness of life’s Author
Creative by Word
Sculptor of reality
Envisions eternity
a partner piece to my earlier response to the Day 25 Na/GloPoWriMo2017 prompt at NaPoWriMo.net
Inspired grey matter
Displays creative nature
By Divine design
written in response to today’s prompt at The Daily Post.
I’m English by the way. We spell it, “grey”.
All of time and space
Can exist within my mind
Imagination
Unbound creativity
Untold possibility
The Day 25 Na/GloPoWriMo NaPoWrimo.net challenge is to write a poem that explores a small, defined space – it could be your childhood bedroom, or the box where you keep old photos. It could be the inside of a coin purse or the recesses of an umbrella stand. Any space will do – so long as it is small, definite, and meaningful to you.
The most foul, cruel,
Bad-tempered rodents
Any knight ever set eyes upon;
These rabbits had a vicious streak a mile wide:
Born killers!
Baring huge, sharp . . . ,
Able to leap about . . . ,
Behold the strewn bones!
Enter their realm, trembling,
Besmirched with fear . . .
Then, run away!
Day 24 of Na/GloPoWriMo and today’s NaPoWriMo.net challenge is to write a poem of ekphrasis — that is, a poem inspired by a work of art. The additional challenge was to base the poem on a very particular kind of art – the marginalia of medieval manuscripts. This quadrille poem (44 words) draws on the images displayed which seem to have featured in the margins of bibles, and is inspired by the art of Terry Gilliam, and a scene from one of my favourite films of all time, Monty Python and The Holy Grail.
Ni.
George
No knight
Certainly not English
No slayer of dragons
Myth
George
A saint
Born in Lydda
Martyred for his faith
Truth
For Day 23 of Na/GloPoWriMo, Gloria Gonsalves provides the NaPoWriMo.net challenge – to write a double elevenie. It was suggested that it might be fun to try to write the double elevenie based on two nouns that are opposites, like sun and moon, or mountain and sea.
This second effort was inspired by today being the day we remember George, patron saint of England. You can read more about his story here.
An elevenie is an eleven-word poem of five lines, with each line performing a specific task in the poem. The first line is one word, a noun. The second line is two words that explain what the noun in the first line does, the third line explains where the noun is in three words, the fourth line provides further explanation in four words, and the fifth line concludes with one word that sums up the feeling or result of the first line’s noun being what it is and where it is. A double elevenie would have two stanzas of five lines each, and twenty-two words in all.
Fear
A thief
Accomplice of doubt
Stealing away from me
Resignation
Faith
A gift
Given by grace
Saving me from myself
Affirmation
For Day 23 of Na/GloPoWriMo, Gloria Gonsalves provides the NaPoWriMo.net challenge – to write a double elevenie. It was suggested that it might be fun to try to write the double elevenie based on two nouns that are opposites, like sun and moon, or mountain and sea.
An elevenie is an eleven-word poem of five lines, with each line performing a specific task in the poem. The first line is one word, a noun. The second line is two words that explain what the noun in the first line does, the third line explains where the noun is in three words, the fourth line provides further explanation in four words, and the fifth line concludes with one word that sums up the feeling or result of the first line’s noun being what it is and where it is. A double elevenie would have two stanzas of five lines each, and twenty-two words in all.
For six years sow your fields
and harvest the crops,
During the seventh
let them lie unploughed and unused;
Do the same with your vineyards
and your olive groves;
Then the poor among your people
may get food from it,
And the wild animals
may eat what is left;
For the seventh year is to be
a year of sabbath rest,
A sabbath to the Lord.
When you reap the harvest
of your land,
Do not reap to the very edges
of the field,
Nor gather the gleanings
of your harvest.
Do not go over your vineyard
a second time,
Nor pick up the grapes
that have fallen:
Leave them for the poor
and the foreigner.
I am the Lord your God.
The Na/GloPoWriMo Day 22 prompt at NaPoWriMo.net challenge us to write a georgic. The original georgic poem was written by Virgil, and while it was ostensibly a practical and instructional guide regarding agricultural concerns, it also offers political commentary on the use of land in the wake of war. The georgic was revived by British poets in the eighteenth century, when the use of land was changing both due to the increased use of enlightenment farming techniques and due to political realignments such as the union of England, Scotland, and Wales. The georgic can be a simple set of instructions on how to grow or care for something, but it could also incorporate larger themes as to how land should be used (or not used), or for what purposes.
The lines above draw inspiration from the laws given to Israel and recorded in the bible’s Old Testament books of Exodus and Leviticus.
Faith Unlocked 