Category Archives: Challenges and Writing Prompts

things that i can’t forget

things that i can’t forget

i don’t remember when
the world turned blue
maybe it was when
the post-it notes on the ‘frig
lost their power to inspire me
or perhaps it was
when i stopped listening
to the nameless
portraits on the wall...
aren’t they just voices
in my own head after all,
me trying to preserve
my sanity is like using crazy glue
to stop a dam from bursting
i lost control of everything
that late spring into summer into...
the seasons are all a blur
here behind closed doors,
no hope left inside
locked, the key tossed
into the starry night,
into the beautiful purple haze,
that faded to grey, the darkness
in my soul changing hue, to blue
it’s all coming back to me now
like loose change in my pocket
i realize it’s the little things,
things that i can’t forget

~kat

NaPoWriMo2021 - Day 10 Prompt: 
First, find a song with which you are familiar – it could be a favorite song of yours, or one that just evokes memories of your past. Listen to the song and take notes as you do, without overthinking it or worrying about your notes making sense.
* Next, rifle through the objects in your junk drawer – or wherever you keep loose odds and ends that don’t have a place otherwise. (Mine contains picture-hanging wire, stamps, rubber bands, and two unfinished wooden spoons I started whittling four years ago after taking a spoon-making class). On a separate page from your song-notes page, write about the objects in the drawer, for as long as you care to.
* Now, bring your two pages of notes together and write a poem that weaves together your ideas and observations from both pages.

The Song:

Vincent

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy, linen land
Now, I understand what you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now
Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand
Now, I understand, what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now
For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you
Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget
Like the strangers that you've met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow
Now, I think I know what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will
Source: Music match
Songwriters: Don Mclean
Vincent lyrics © Songs Of Universal Inc., Benny Bird Co. Inc.

from the junk drawer
loose change
screw
batteries
checkbook
pen
paper clip
keys
pocket knife
screw driver
measuring tape
post it notes
crazy glue

greening

greening

the world is blooming
life bursting from the deep
buds to leaves while we sleep
dreaming in green

~kat

For Tanka Tuesday...catching up this weekend! A short one-stanza Abhanga.

The Abhanga is:
* stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains (4 line stanzas).
* syllabic, 6/6/6/4 syllables each
* rhymed L2 and L3 rhyme. Often internal rhyme is employed. End rhyme scheme x a a x , x being unrhymed.

island retirement

Hart Island, NY, USA
island retirement

always wanted to retire on an island,
not exactly what i had in mind but
gotta give it to this place, if disappearing
is the goal, it fits the bill, it’s a bit
crowded and noisy, but the city gave me
my own four walls, a fine pine box actually,
kinda’ reminds me of my first apartment,
damn, but we were cramped in that place,
walls thin as paper, no room to move,
the family packed in like sardines,
like this place where they stack us
three deep...some of the locals say
this place has been around for 150 years,
there’s folks here from 1918, the Spanish
Flu, from that Aids Crisis, and Yellow
Fever, this place has some history,
more than a million souls rest here they say
and now me, plopped here like a time capsule
from 2020, from COVID-19, whose time ran
out, a day past two weeks sprung from the
morgue to make room for more folks
with no one to claim ‘em, not that i don’t
have nobody, my people, they live out
of state, and i didn’t tell ‘em i was sick,
didn’t want to worry ‘em, you know
humph, wonder how long it will take
‘em to miss me, maybe they’ll find me,
maybe not, doesn’t matter much now,
peace out as they say and hey, wear a mask

~kat
For NaPoWriMo2021 Day 8 Prompt: Today, I’d like to challenge you to read a few of the poems from Spoon River Anthology, and then write your own poem in the form of a monologue delivered by someone who is dead. My subject is inspired by the Potter’s Field on Harts Island in NYC, now being used to bury the unclaimed victims of COVID-19. Read this NY Times article. 

yippee! it’s spring!

yippee! it’s spring!

when fleas make dogs itch
and pollen makes people sneeze
welcome to bloomin’ springtime

days of rain, incessant raining
spring is sprouting and i’m annoyed,
birdsong, bee-buzz, peepers, the noise
muddy mess, yes, i’m complaining
missing sleep from daylight saving
a favorite season for some folk
i’m not impressed and that’s no joke
wake me up when summer’s over
i’m averse to heat and clover
ignore me as i bloat and choke!

~kat

For Ronovan Writes Haiku (Prompt Words: Flea & Sneeze) and Décima (Prompt: NOISE in the B rhyme line) Challenges. 
Décima description: 10 lines, 8 syllable each, rhyme scheme: ABBAACCDDC OR two stanzas of ABBA/ACCDDC.

never you mind

Meme, courtesy of QuoteMaster.org
never you mind

do
tell
you seem
to know all,
everything and more
only your way is right, i know

but consider
if you will, other
ideas
opinions
you may learn something
or not...i forgot

your mind’s not open for business
is it that you fear
being wrong
or that
i’m
right

~kat

For today’s NaPoWriMo2021 Day 7 Challenge: pick from – the shadorma, and the Fib, a combo starting with a Fib followed by the Shadorma and ending with a Reverse Fib.

The shadorma is a six-line, 26-syllable poem (or a stanza – you can write a poem that is made of multiple shadorma stanzas). The syllable count by line is 3/5/3/3/7/5

The Fib is a six-line form. But now, the syllable count is based off the Fibonacci sequence of 1/1/2/3/5/8. You can link multiple Fibs together into a multi-stanza poem, or even start going backwards after your first six lines, with syllable counts of 8/5/3/2/1/1.