Tag Archives: Poetry

April 5, 2019

slaughtered history – NaPoWriMo #5

By Kat Myrman

slaughtered history

it was the age of foolishness1
that’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 foolishness1
all 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.

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20 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | 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.
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14 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, napowrimo, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Sonnet Variation

April 2, 2019

Wouldn’t You? – NaPoWriMo #2

By Kat Myrman

clock

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.

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24 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | 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. 

14 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, free verse, napowrimo, Poetry

March 31, 2019

Self Portrait as Gaia – NaPoWriMo – Early-Bird

By Kat Myrman

Here we go! An early-bird challenge on the eve of National Poetry Month. Today’s challenge for NaPoWriMo: to write a poetic self-portrait. And specifically, we’d like you to write a poem in which you portray yourself in the guise of a historical or mythical figure.

Self Portrait as Gaia

born of Chaos, the gaping
void; she who always was
and is, who in primordial
confusion, fashioned me
from the ooze, greening,
mountains rising from the
seas, caressing the shore
to fields a-flowering amidst
cool springs bubbling into
streams that swell into
rivers…I sigh and a million
stars light the sky as
darkness cloaks the
gloaming, come the dawn

~kat

16 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in free verse, napowrimo, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings