NaPoWriMo PROMPT: “Twenty Little Poetry Projects,” The challenge is to use all on the list in the same poem. Of course, if you can’t fit all twenty projects into your poem, that is just fine too! (List follows poem).
AMUSEMENT RIDE
The moon was a balloon on the horizon
That evening I ate the roller coaster.
The air smelled pink and lime green.
Becky and I wandered through the Magic Kingdom.
Listening to the clash of carousel music and ride screams.
“Killer,” (she called me Killer ever since
I knocked out the giant girl with a basketball)
“We need to ride the ‘coaster before we go home.”
“Yes, I want to! But wait ‘til I finish my ‘dog.”
I didn’t want to. Not at all.
The roller coaster sighed into the dock.
Metal shrieked against metal.
Passengers departed in disarray on the left.
We scrambled in on the right.
Because my red shoes were cool I followed Becky.
We sank into the sticky, sweaty seats.
And were fastened down like marshmallows
On a stick over a fire. We were toast.
Behind us in another car I heard,
“It’s a good day to die, y’all!”
“Buen dia para morir!” cried someone else.
“TAWANDA!!” yelled Becky.
“We’re going to eat this ‘coaster for dinner!”
I could still taste mustard and pickle relish.
The death train jolted awake.
Was I hearing the clacking of the track?
Or my pounding heart?
We eased straight up the first hill. Then…
A moment of silence for those about to die.
Instantly the hungry earth was rushing toward me.
Suddenly the sky was swirling under my feet.
I shut my eyes and clenched my teeth
To prevent an out-of-body experience.
The coaster charged around a curve
Pinning me down like a displayed bug.
“Wow, fun, huh, Killer?” Screamed Becky.
I barfed a little in my mouth
But kept the hot dog from surfacing.
Two more hills and we headed for home.
Killer is not a killer now. Killer needs a new nick.
The air smelled brown and olive green.
Yeah, I ate up the roller coaster
But I didn’t spit it out.
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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.
