Category Archives: napowrimo

April 5, 2019

slaughtered history – NaPoWriMo #5

By Kat Myrman

slaughtered history

it was the age of foolishness¹that’s what the history books will say
all this happened, more or less²

they’ll paint us crazy, dupes at best,
the folks who lost their minds and way
it was the age of foolishness¹

mistreatment of the poor, oppressed,
innocents lost, locked away
all this happened, more or less²

our frozen hearts put to the test
found wanting, as we vowed to pray
it was the age of foolishness¹

leaving future kin to guess
how we, so easily were swayed
all this happened, more or less²

leaving them a bloody mess
with astronomical debt to pay
it was the age of foolishness¹all this happened, more or less²

~kat

Not my favorite form, though I might have liked it better if not for so many added restraints on the form. Still I managed to pen a villanelle: A¹bA² abA¹ abA² abA¹ abA² abA¹A² where letters (“a” and “b”) indicate the two rhyme sounds, upper case indicates a refrain (“A”), and superscript numerals (¹ and ²) indicate Refrain 1 and Refrain 2, for NaPoWritMo #5 Prompt: write a poem that incorporates at least one of the following: (1) the villanelle form, (2) lines taken from an outside text, and/or (3) phrases that oppose each other in some way.

Outside Verse References:
¹-Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
²-Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

20 Comments | tags: NaPoWriMo2019, Poetry, poetry challenge, poetry month, Villanelle | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, napowrimo, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Social Issues, Villanelle

April 4, 2019

photographs – NaPoWriMo #4

By Kat Myrman

photographs

my walls are covered with photographs
milestones of my life, of family
silly, happy smiles that make me laugh
precious moments, captured memories
if you visit you’ll notice them all
framed in glass, prominently displayed
in hopes their subjects might come to call
and know they’re with me every day
faded images, collecting dust
it’s been several years since they’ve been by
i’ve haunted social media sites just
to see what’s new in their busy lives
time moves on, it’s memories that last
my walls are covered with photographs

~kat

A sonnet of sorts…rhyming with 14 lines in response to today NaPoWriMo Challenge Prompt: write your own sad poem, that achieves sadness through simplicity. Playing with the sonnet form may help you – its very compactness can compel you to be straightforward, using plain, small words.

14 Comments | tags: 14 lines, challenge prompt, NaPoWriMo2019, Poetry, poetry challenge, rhyme, Sonnet Variation | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, napowrimo, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Sonnet Variation

April 3, 2019

It’s Been Three Weeks, But Who’s Counting? – NaPoWriMo #3

By Kat Myrman

Just Three Weeks, But Who’s Counting

it’s been three weeks, actually,
19 days, 6 hours and 27 minutes since
the spot made its villainous appearance,
19 days, 6 hours and 29 minutes since
“your doctor will be calling you,” the
technician said, careful not to spoil
the surprise…but she knew…she knew

what a wonderful day it was, it will
be etched in my memory forever, one
day I’ll say I knew her when…my
granddaughter, she was magnificent
in her school play…it wasn’t a speaking
part, mind you, but her portrayal of a
tree in the wind…it was breathtaking. I cried.

it was a voicemail on my phone,
a nurse, “doctor so and so would like you
to come in to the office this afternoon”…not
unexpected, the technician had warned
me, she had such a nice smile, kind eyes,
around my age, I’m thinking, we talked
about smart phones as she tugged my
floppy breasts onto an ice-cold plate to be
smashed for their photo shoot, “hold your
breath, 3…2…1” …funny how communication
has changed over the years…

the meeting is at 9:30 tomorrow,
I’ll assemble all the slides for the deck,
clean them up and send them to the
team for a final walk-through…btw…
I need to take a few hours this afternoon
I’ll have my phone with me if anyone
needs to reach me…

“nothing to be alarmed about just yet, but
we’ll want to run a few more tests, an
ultrasound, we can do it in the office today”

an ultrasound…I had those
when I was pregnant…now they’re
doing them in 3-D, you know. It’s like
a snapshot, well, a weird sort of
snapshot, where body parts are
sometimes elongated into distorted
shapes, but so much more advanced
than those first cloudy pictures…even so
two heads were easy to make out when
I found out I was having twins, with
a toddler and an infant already at home
I remember lying there in the dark, crying.

“We’d like you to see a specialist. Tomorrow, 9:30.
Here’s the address. They already know you’re coming.”

I’m going to miss the presentation. Maybe
we can reschedule. Although, they don’t really
need me there. Someone else can present it. No
one is irreplaceable, that’s a fact. I’ll get my
assistant to brief me on the take-aways
tomorrow afternoon. Should be able to keep
my lunch date with mom. Need to remember
to pack that book I told her she could borrow.
Great book, a really great book.

it’s been 19 days, 6 hours and 43 minutes
no news is good news, right? I keep telling myself that.
no news is good news when you’re waiting for bad news
19 days, 7 hours and 2 minutes, a message pinged from
the voice mailbox on my smart phone … doctor so and so’s
office, the nurse again, “no need to come to the office, nothing
to worry about, scar tissue was all it was”…who was worrying?

~kat
NaPoWriMo #3 Prompt: Meandering…to write something that involves a story or action that unfolds over an appreciable length of time. Perhaps, as you do, you can focus on imagery, or sound, or emotional content (or all three!)

22 Comments | tags: free form poetry, free verse, meandering, NaPoWriMo2019, poetry challenge, poetry month | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, free verse, napowrimo, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings

April 2, 2019

Wouldn’t You? – NaPoWriMo #2

By Kat Myrman

Wouldn’t You?

how can it be? fluffy clouds
swirling past my outstretched
arms, the sky so crystalline
blue, I’m squinting, cool breeze
tossing my hair, sun rays,
warm on my back…flying,
I’m not sure quite how, lost,
my aversion to heights, here,
to take in the sights, a bird’s
eye view, where the niggling
every day is blurred into
a beautiful sea of green and
blue, wet, shiny rooftops,
and the shimmer of leaves
topping the trees…floating,
soaring…bUgs IN My teETth,
tOO cloSe, toO CLosE to the SUN…

SHIT!

WHAT TIME IS IT? I’M LATE! shit, shit, SHIT! Glasses, where are my…
teeth, brush my teeth, take a piss, bad hair day, bad, bad, bad, damn alarm…
damn fucking alarm…

Need to text work, tell them I’ll be…
SICK, taking a sick day…phone on mute,
going back to my soft, warm bed, back,
back to my lovely dream, it’s the
only sensible thing to do, don’t you agree?
Wouldn’t you do the same if you were me?

~kat

NaPoWriMo #2 Prompt: To write a poem that similarly resists closure by ending on a question, inviting the reader to continue the process of reading (and, in some ways, writing) the poem even after the poem ends.

24 Comments | tags: challenge prompt, free form poetry, free verse, NaPoWriMo2019, Poetry | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, free verse, napowrimo, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings

April 1, 2019

offspring – NaPoWriMo 2019 #1

By Kat Myrman

Photo courtesy of barskefranck at pixabay.com

offspring

they don’t come with
instructions, and yet
we pop them out as if
life depended on it
(…well, it sort of does)
smelly, demanding,
helpless, tugging at our
raw breasts, depriving
us of sleep, sometimes
for years, testing our
patience, breaking our
hearts…if you’ve loved
one, you know what
I mean…and we do
our best to keep them
safe, to keep from offing
them ourselves when
they challenge us, no,
they don’t come with
instructions, and yet
somehow we manage
to survive the decades
until it is time for them
to leave the nest, literally,
(have you seen a teenager’s
room?) taking a piece of
our heart with them

~kat

NaPoWriMo Day 1: write poems that provide the reader with instructions on how to do something. It can be a sort of recipe, like O’Neil’s poem. Or you could try to play on the notorious unreliability of instructional manuals (if you’ve ever tried to put IKEA furniture together, you know what I mean). You could even write a dis-instruction poem, that tells the reader how not to do something.