Author Archives: Kat Myrman

NaPoWriMo 2021 – Day 4 – promises, promises

photo courtesy of @SpaceLiminalBot
promises, promises

they never returned, even with faces
masked, big screens, media rooms and sound
bars had saved them from having to cram
themselves into uncomfortable seats, elbow
to elbow with strangers, potentially
dangerous, infested with deadly viruses
or worse, brandishing assault rifles,
the noisy demons in their heads begging
to be slaughtered in the bloodletting
of innocents...no, they weren’t going back.
renovations could not disinfect the crazy,
protect them from the madness, for they
had grown comfortable in their shelters,
unwilling to risk contact with deplorables, cult
crazed zombies, veins boiling with infection and hate...
it’s been years now, since these doors
were shuttered, renovations teased on
a tattered marquee, the people had long grown
weary of promises, promises impossible to keep

~kat

NaPoWriMo2021 - Day 4 Challenge: Select a photograph from the perpetually disconcerting @SpaceLiminalBot, and write a poem inspired by one of these odd, in-transition spaces.

				

NaPoWriMo 2021 – Day 3 – old tree

old tree

on the forest floor
lies the shell of an old tree
stubbly roots exposed, its core
now heartless, empty
grist for grubs, in death humility

~kat

For NaPoWriMo 2021 - Day 3...Off topic, but I promise to work on my personal deck. It seems like a worthwhile project to inspire future poetry. For today...a Horatiodet (my own short version of the Horatian Ode...a Form i came up with when i was doing daily micropoetry.) A Horatiodet is a total of 5 lines, syllable count: 5-7-7-5-9 / rhyme scheme: ababb. In other words, it is a short Horatian Ode (only one stanza), a form based on the style of Horace, Quintus Horatius Flaccus (December 8, 65 BC – November 27, 8 BC), the leading Roman lyric poet.

Haikus & Senryus

muddy
ecstasy
spring rain

lingering
winter, frosted gloam
peepers mum

fair dandelion
golden face turned toward the sun
to frost at dawn fades


footprints
rain remnants
to mop

such stillness
peepers choked by frost
in hiding

only to be nipped
by latent cold snaps at dawn
first flowers still rise

~kat

For Tanka Tuesday Challenge to explore the haiku and the senryu, a handful of each in various metered forms: 2/3/2, 3/5/3, 5/7/5 . I love writing little poems!


NaPoWriMo 2021 – Day 2 – in retrospect

Two variations of the Rhupunt...

Broken into Lines:


in retrospect

when I was young and still unsung, with dreams far-flung, nothing but time
life’s harsh demands spoilt all my plans, setting my hands to earn a dime
my family kept me busy, no longer free with no downtime
in just a blink here on the brink, no time to think regret, I find
in retrospect my thoughts reflect a life, perfect, ev’ry choice mine

Broken into Stanzas:

in retrospect

when I was young
and still unsung
with dreams far-flung
nothing but time

life’s harsh demands
spoilt all my plans
setting my hands
to earn a dime

soon family
kept me busy
no longer free
with no downtime

in just a blink
here on the brink
no time to think
regret, I find

in retrospect
my thoughts reflect
a life, perfect
ev’ry choice mine

~kat



Tried a new form, the Rhupunt, for Napowrimo 2021 Day 2 Challenge: Today’s (optional) prompt. In the world of well-known poems, maybe there’s no gem quite so hoary as Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about your own road not taken – about a choice of yours that has “made all the difference,” and what might have happened had you made a different choice.

The rhupunt, a Welsh poetic form, has some variability to it, but also some rigid rules as well.
Here are the guidelines for the rhupunt:
· The form can be broken down into lines or stanzas
· Each line or stanza contains 3 to 5 sections
· Each section has 4 syllables
· All but the final section rhyme with each other
· The final section of each line or stanza rhymes with the final section of the other lines or stanzas


NaPoWriMo – Day 1 – Chaos

exquisite chaos
dissonance
bound in symmetry

~kat


Catching up on my NaPoWriMo challenge – Day 1. This is no way to start the month, but yesterday was UTTER chaos! I am using the Lune (The Lune is a short form: 5/3/5 – no other rules, may rhyme, any topic) as my form of choice in response to the challenge:
Daily prompt (optional, as always)! Sometimes, writing poetry is a matter of getting outside of your own head, and learning to see the world in a new way. To an extent, you have to “derange” yourself – make the world strange, and see it as a stranger might. To help you do that, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem inspired by this animated version of “Seductive Fantasy” by Sun Ra and his Arkestra. If you don’t feel after watching it a little bit like the top of your head’s been taken off, and your thoughts given a good stir – well, maybe you are already living in a state of heightened poetic awareness!