NaPoWriMo-DAY FOUR

NaPoWriMo PROMPT: Write a poem based on an image from a dream. We don’t always remember our dreams, but images or ideas from them often stick with us for a very long time. 

LOVE SONG 

Alfred seemed a little weird. He said things that were deep. 

He told me he heard mermaids when he walked down by the sea. 

So, one night without the moon, when my eyes wouldn’t sleep, 

I decided to go out and see if they would sing to me. 

Wearing just a t-shirt and my white pajama pants 

I stumbled out the door into the wild and windy dark. 

I think I was awake or maybe walking in a trance. 

I remember running from a dog--at least I heard him bark. 

The sand was cold between my toes. The wind tore through my hair. 

The sea was wild with crashing waves and white with foaming spray. 

Like tresses blown from horses manes they tossed into the air 

And then would thunder to the beach to hiss and fade away. 

I thought that I heard voices, maybe music, maybe screams 

Sea-girls wreathed in sea-weed rode the surf and called my name. 

I know it really happened. Or maybe it was dreams. 

Still, I heard mermaids singing in the darkness just the same.

NaPoWriMo-DAY THREE

NaPoWriMo PROMPT: First, make a list of ten words. You can generate this list however you’d like – pull a book off the shelf and find ten words you like, name ten things you can see from where you’re sitting, etc. Now, for each word, use Rhymezone to identify two to four similar-sounding or rhyming words. Once you’ve assembled your complete list, work on writing a poem using your new “word bank.”

It’s A Mystery 

Nigel is a pirate with an orange wooden leg. 

He’s not sure how it got that way. It started out as blue. 

Maybe when he bet his friends that he could drink a keg. 

Or perhaps the time he downed the grog in sandy Timbuktu. 

It could have been the week he spent in foggy Montreal, 

When he dared the guys to find a use for orange paint. 

It might have been the third pub on the evening of the crawl 

Where he soaked his leg in mango juice without the least complaint. 

He knows it wasn’t Paris where he didn’t tip the waiter, 

Or the night in Louisiana when he bought bones from a witch. 

But it could have been that time retreating from an alligator 

When he hid in sweet potatoes that were lying in a ditch. 

There was that day in Brisbane when he met the kangaroo. 

He fed it peas and carrots and a side of eggs and ham. 

Things were going well until it ate his only shoe. 

Nigel may have hit it with a plate of duck and yams. 

He’s tried to clean the orange off with lemon juice and toothpaste 

Which didn’t work, and neither did the Mr. Clean or soap. 

To try and scrub it down with rum would only be a booze waste. 

So Nigel just accepted it or probably lost hope.

NaPoWriMo--Day Two

NaPoWriMo PROMPT: write a poem about a specific place — a particular house or store or school or office. Try to incorporate concrete details, like street names, distances, the types of trees. Little details like this can really help the reader imagine not only the place, but its mood.

Maple Leaf School 

Report cards saved by his mother, 

Perfect attendance, high marks, 

First, Second and Third Grades 

In a three-room school 

In Tillamook, Oregon. 

Almost a hundred years later 

I found it, still standing. 

No longer housing children. 

Yet there lingered scents

Of oiled floors and crayons. 

No more shouting and singing 

In the school yard. 

No patient teachers 

Guiding young students 

Through lessons and texts. 

Now restored, open for visits 

Maple Leaf School 

Where Dad learned his numbers 

And his letters, 

In Tillamook, Oregon.

NaPoWriMo--Day One

NaPoWriMo Prompt:  I’d like to challenge you to write a self-portrait poem in which you make a specific action a metaphor for your life .

It Needs Something 

My life is a bad movie. 

Not much drama, 
Lacking in plot.

A lot of stale jokes, 

I do my own stunts. 

Then there’s an earthquake. 

It snows. 

And a moose wanders 

Though the yard. 

I need to get new writers.

NaPoWriMo --Early Bird

NaPoWriMo PROMPT:  And now, in the spirit of an early-bird prompt, I’d like to invite you to write a poem about your favorite bird.

Trumpeter Swans

Wedging their way

Across an ice blue sky,

Silvery trumpeters

Announce
 Approaching spring

With their clarion call.