NaBloPoMo: August 2011

While making my way through my daily poetry reading recently, I noticed that one the bloggers was participating in NaBloPoMo. National Blog Posting Month is sponsored by BlogHer.com, a website which aggregates blogs written by and for women. NaBloPoMo was started in November 2006. Since, it has become so popular that BlogHer hosts a theme for each month of the year. Novembers still receive the most attention and hoopla.

What does this have to do with me and my poetry? I've noticed that I've not been writing or posting as much lately as I'd really like to be doing. I let summer time and vacations get me lazy. Having a goal will help keep me posting and writing daily, so I thought I'd give NaBloPoMo a shot this month. The theme for August is fiction. This doesn't mean all of my poetry has to be fiction, but the prompts provided M-F by BlogHer will be fiction related.

Wish me luck!

Only Playing

The banter between them
was getting personal.

Mutual friends
did not make them friends.

Tolerant, but barely.

Yesterday, Kris was seen
kissing 
Val's recent ex
(who, it was hoped, 
would return).


"It's quite silly to think
that people are naturally kind."

   "Of course, the unkind among us
   would be the cynic.
   Blame nature for your behavior."

"Are you suggesting
I stole Alex?
You fumbled that play.
Should've gone to bed sooner.
Or do you not know the game?"

   "Love ought not to be a game.
   For you, it's merely a word
   you use to explain
   your salacious actions."

"And you think any stranger's glance
in your direction
means love.
Pathetic."

      Stop it right now 
      or you'll both leave, 
      the hostess warns.

"We're only playing.
Right, dear?"

   "Of course."
   She smiles gently.
   "When's dinner?"

Part of Three Word Wednesday CCLI

Our Everyday Life

In my head I paint a picture
of our everyday life together.

Knick-knacks filling shelves
Dog toys on the floor
Laundry and dishes
variously done and needing doing
Books tucked under the couch

In my head I compose the melody
of our everyday life together.

Video games' rapports
Classical and college radio
Keyboard clicking
and computers' thinking-whirrings
'Hello' 'Goodbye' 'I love you'

In my head I create the perfume
of our everyday life together.

Incense softly dissipating
Wet dog after a bath
Ghee melting in the pan
filling the house with 'fried'
Aftershave and deodorant

In my head I taste the variety
of our everyday life together.

Mexican, Chinese, Pizza
Hazelnut in chocolate
Onion tomato masala
as the base for every other meal
Garlic, for flavor and joint health

In my head I feel the moments
of our everyday life together.

Soapy, hot, wet dishes
Smooth dog's ears
Soft and yet also scratchy
beard rubbing my face during
Strong yet gentle hugs

I love
our everyday life together.




First line prompted by:
Carry on Tuesday #115
Amy Winehouse - Valerie

Borrower of My Heart

Neither the beauty of the moon 
nor a flower in full bloom
   compare to you,
borrower of my heart.
Nor could I ever part
   from my love: you.
A hope springs up: you'll see me,
lender of heart and love, and want me
   to be with you.

Carry On Tuesday #114

"Neither a borrow nor a lender be" - Polonius, from Hamlet, by Shakespeare
Included in Jingle Poetry Potluck Week 46

Typewriter's Eruption

I pulled the curtains.

When I leaned
over the typewriter,
sparks burnt round holes
in my shirt,
and fire
singed a sleeve.

I dragged the rug away
from the sparks.

In the kitchen
I filled a bucket with water
and returned to the erupting
typewriter.

The typewriter did not seem to be
flying apart,
only erupting.

On my face and hands
I felt the heat
from the caldera.

The yellow fire made
a fast, roaring noise.

The typewriter itself made
rumbling, grinding noise;

the table pitched.

Nothing seemed to require
my bucket of water.

The table surface was ruined,
of course,
but not aflame.

After twenty minutes or so,
the eruption subsided.



Words found here: The Writing Life - Annie Dillard
Prompted by The Found Poetry Review

High-Seas Plastic

Fishermen had lost them

every year

for half a century.

Killing everything in its path.

Three months in the Pacific,

a net thirty feet across.

Island: estimated

six thousand more tons.

Still greater danger. 

Words from one page of the book:

Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them 

By Donovan Hohn

The selected words describe lost plastic fishing nets which harm and kill sea creatures for decades (so far) after they're lost by the fishermen. Also, there are unfathomable amounts of plastic floating out in the ocean causing all sorts of trouble and even creating islands of trash!

Is that all there is, Mommy?

Is that all there is, Mommy?
    Yes, sweetie, I'm sorry.
    Mommy can't find work.
    Try to be grateful
    we found anything
    at all.

Is that all there is to do?
    I'm afraid we have to wait
    and keep hoping
    I find something,
    anything,
    soon.

If that's all there is
let's say blessing
so we can eat.
I'm really hungry.
    Thank you, universe,
    for this. 

My friends at school 
want to know why
I don't bring lunch
anymore. I said, 
"No reason. Lay off,
stupid."

    Then let's keep eating. 
    You'll get breakfast, too, 
    from school if you take 
    these forms in. 
What about you?
    Nope.

Dancing. Let's go near
a coffee shop that has
a live band. Listen from
outside, and dance.
Can we please?
    Yes. Eat. 

    'Break out the booze and
    get drunk' my friends said
    when dancing. But, you're
    too young, and I feel too 
    old for that kind of
    party.  

'Have a ball' my teacher said
when we had a pizza party
for good attendance.
     We can have a ball
     at the coffee shop.
     Let's go.

Part of Carry On Tuesday #111
Word from Peggy Lee's 'Is that all there is?'

"Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is"