poem

NaPoWriMo – Day 13 (Familiar Phrase)

~ Unwrithings ~ 2 Comments

Today’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) prompt is: We challenge you to write a poem in which the words or meaning of a familiar phrase get up-ended. 

Idiom: Close, but No Cigar

A story hangs on your shoulders,
thick in the air.
The words catch at your fingertips,
you know the story is there.

Percolating, circulating, accelerating—
Until,

There is a spark,
that ignites the stick,
that writes the story,
that sets the paper on fire.

Idiom: To Hit Rock Bottom

The only bottom I’m reachin’
Is in this bottle I’m drinkin’
And I’m thinkin’
That’s not what you’re meanin’

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NaPoWriMo – Day 11 (Future)

~ Unwrithings ~ 5 Comments

Today’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) prompt is: Write a poem that addresses the future, answering the questions “What does y(our) future provide? What is your future state of mind? If you are a citizen of the “union” that is your body, what is your future “state of the union” address?”

Your tears, will create an ocean,
in which you will want to stay,
but your strength, will build a boat,
to sail away.

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NaPoWriMo – Day 10 (Simultaneity)

~ Unwrithings ~ 3 Comments

Today’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) prompt is: We’d like to challenge you to write a poem of simultaneity – in which multiple things are happening at once.

I bounced down the stairs carefree,
one morning around 8:30,
to find no one where they’d normally be.

My brother watching news on TV.
My mom in the kitchen calling Aunt Rosie (in New York City).
My dad pacing angrily,
The newscaster talking about a tragedy.

Then I see, the twin towers fall,
and nothing is the same at all.

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NaPoWriMo – Day 9 (Small Meets Big)

~ Unwrithings ~ 1 Comment

Today’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) prompt is: We challenge you today to write a poem in which something big and something small come together.

Ahh it’s been a busy day so just dropping some quick lines here before it hits midnight!

From a distance,
they are but only ants,
two hikers,
zigzagging up,
the great, expanse.

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NaPoWriMo – Day 7 (Identity)

~ Unwrithings ~ 4 Comments

Woohoo made it through week one of National Writing Poetry Month (NaPoWriMo)! I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience so far. Although it is challenging to share poems I think I otherwise would have left as unpublished drafts, putting myself out there has allowed me to connect more with others. I’ve also loved seeing all the different ways everyone responds to the prompts, definitely inspiring. I am forever grateful for all the great interactions I’ve had so far by participating in this challenge!

Anyway, today’s NaPoWriMo prompt is: Write out a list of all of your different layers of identity. These are all ways you could be described or lenses you could be viewed through. Now divide all of those things into lists of what makes you feel powerful and what makes you feel vulnerable. Now write a poem in which one of the identities from the first list contends or talks with an identity from the second list.

I liked today’s prompt. In writing my lists, I realized that much of what makes me feel “powerful” also makes me feel “vulnerable” and vice versa. Anyway here’s my drafty draft take on the prompt, focusing mostly on my “identities” as an editor at work and as a generally anxious person:

I edit, I type, I rewrite,
I catch, typos that almost look wright right,
Passive voice,
Wrong word choice,
Misconnections,
Bad directions,
Out-of-order sections,
Too long of lines,
and phrases used too many times.

They say
I “have an eye for error,”
“A skilled repairer,” I “make thoughts clearer,”
“A revisor of letters,” I “make drafts better,”
“A great communicator, translator, parer…”

But my doubts are always greater,
Did I make the right call?
Did I improve anything at all?
As my stomach fills with knots,
I’ll wish, I could put a period to my thoughts.

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NaPoWriMo – Day 6 (Line Breaks)

~ Unwrithings ~ 1 Comment

Today’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) prompt is: We’d like to challenge you to write a poem that stretches your comfort zone with line breaks. 

I really had fun with this prompt! I’ve already got other poems swirling in my head so it definitely got me inspired.

Hope.
Is like catnip on a rope.

It,
dangling,
    swinging,
nearly being.

You,
wanting,
    snatching,
    almost catching.

But,
It.
Is.
Always.
In.
Someone.
Else’s.
Hands.

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NaPoWriMo – Day 5 (Photo/Language)

~ Unwrithings ~ 1 Comment

Today’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) prompt is: We’d like to challenge you to write a poem that reacts both to photography and to words in a language not your own.

I picked a poem by Italian author Dario de Judicibus since I am Italian! Despite the neat combination of the beautiful photo and words, nothing totally original came to me. I ended up reworking a poem I wrote previously that I thought jibed well with the photo and Italian poem.

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ALBA

Il cielo è un acquarello
di pallidi rosa e persi azzurri
mentre il vento scivola
tra l’umido verde brillare nel sole
a rapire dall’aria
un fresco odore di vita
e portarlo al mio cuore.

LEAVES

Loving you is as easy
as the breeze
rustling through the leaves
touching you and me
Like leaves in the fall,
we pick each other off
floating lost.

NaPoWriMo – Day 4 (Abstract)

~ Unwrithings ~ 14 Comments

Today’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) prompt is: We challenge you to write a poem that is about something abstract – perhaps an ideal like “beauty” or “justice,” but which discusses or describes that abstraction in the form of relentlessly concrete nouns. Adjectives are fine too! 

I don’t feel I really accomplished the “concrete” nouns, but unfortunately, I don’t have more time to work on this piece! Hoping to play with this more at a later date to get it more descriptive.

Panic

Wide eyes, hypnotized,
relentless butterflies,
twisted hands, tongue-tied,
soothing lies, gun-shy.
Jumping veins,
and thought trains,
dragging chains,
with my remains.

oldbridge

 

NaPoWriMo – Day 3 (List Poem)

~ Unwrithings ~ 9 Comments

Today’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) prompt is: We challenge you to write a list poem in which all the items are made-up names.

I decided to make a list of items related to reading (so not totally made-up names), but it’s what came to my mind as an editor! This is…not the best, but it’s my first stab at list poetry at least, or something like it!

I read

Bus signs while commuting,
in between lines while disputing,
and PowerPoints while doodling.

I read

Different takes on history,
but based on facts preferably,
and unsolved mysteries,
that make me sleep uneasily.

I read

Books about dogs who can think and speak,
magical creatures and fantastical freaks,
long hikes that inspire,
and complex science-y stuff that makes my brain tired.

I read

To learn about other lives,
wondrous sites,
writers I like,
and facts for trivia night.

I read

With a pen to mark up words,
with my eyes tired and hurt,
until all the lines blur,
but at least I caught the ‘he’ that should be a ‘her.’

I read

To study, to grow, and to hopefully be,
someone who others will want to read.

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NaPoWriMo – Day 2 (Dialogue)

~ Unwrithings ~ 2 Comments

Today’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) prompt is: We’d like to challenge you to write a poem that plays with voice.

– Him – 
I remember all your jokes,
you’d look at me like I was your only hope,
I wanted to be your everything
and that’s what I tried to do,
but I failed you, but I failed you.

I always knew, we were on borrowed time,
I just thought, I’d be just fine
until I fell in love,
I couldn’t give you up, I couldn’t give you up

– Her – 
We don’t know what we don’t know,
So let it go, so let it go.
We’re so young, but our love’s too old
So let it go, so let it go.

I didn’t know, what to say,
when you let me down that day,
so I pushed you away,
just to make you cave, just to make you cave

You never see, what I really mean
If it were me, I’d never leave,
but it’s too late,
It was my mistake, it was my mistake

– Him –
We don’t know what we don’t know
So let it go, so let it go
We’re so young, but our love’s too old
So let it go, so let it go.

I should have never, walked away,
Where would we be, if I had stayed?
Step by step, I live with this regret
You were my best, you were my best.

I can’t be, what you need
no amount of make believe
could change that
we’re suffering, we’re suffering.

We loved as best as we could
but we never should, but we never should.

– Her – 
We don’t know what we don’t know,
so let it go, so let it go
We’re so young, but our love’s too old
so let it go, so let it go

I give you, every reason for peace,
you don’t owe me, anything,
Just find a way, to be happy again,
my dearest friend,
this isn’t the end, this isn’t the end.

because we don’t know what we don’t know
and maybe when, we let this go
we could find, a better home,
so let it go, so let it go.

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