April Musings - 26. NaPoWriMo 2019 Week One

NaPoWriMo Week 1

Poem 1

April

Robin redbreast paints a song

As it hops along green stalks

Waiting to erupt into a replica of

Feathery rainbow iridescence.

Poem 2

When the last fires will wave to me

As they leap and dance in celebration

Around my funeral pyre

May my words live as legacy

and ash and dust return to loam

Poem 3

What is there beyond knowing

That keeps calling to me?

Urging me to write these characters’ story,

Type without conscious thought

As words spill onto the screen.

Stay away from this person,

They’re bad news.

Take a different route home,

Turn now to avoid the accident

Around the corner.

Dream this moment and remember

When it happens again.

Be at peace,

Knowing there’s more beyond.

Poem 4

Only one life to live.

What comes after?

Drawing Chinese cats in Heaven,

And laughing.

Poem 5

Janus Glass

One pane simultaneously

lashed by elements

and warmed by hearth fire

Allows what's in to see out

and what's out to peer in.

Poem 6

Pyrus

In spring, oval leaves form an opalescent rainbow.

Orange, red, purple, blue

Leaning branches jut from brown, prickly bark

Sharp, but not menacing

And bear green, delicious fruit

Tasting of lemonade

Sweet with a hint of sour

Perfect for dripping down chins

As fresh-picked delights are devoured

Or simmering on the stove with added sugar

And poured into a jar

Then spread on toast

When leafless branches bear the weight of winter.

Prompts used:

Poem 1: Write a poem of not too many words about April or perhaps a poem that simply praises spring.

Poem 2: W.S. Merwin died on March 15, 2019 at age 91. A beautiful soul indeed! Bounce off an idea or a line from one of his poems below or from any other of his poems. Try writing a poem without punctuation in the style of Merwin’s later poems. If you’re stuck for a subject, just write about a door.

Poem 3: While rereading Mary Oliver poems, I pulled out some lines that resonated with me that I thought we could use as jumpstarts or poem epigraphs.

Poem 4: Is an almost verbatim comment from one of my individuals during a therapy session.

Poem 5: Your poem will involve a window. As poet you may look into an interior through a window or look out through a window at an exterior vista. You might write an ode to a window or become the voice of a window speaking.

Poem 6: Write a poem to or about a tree you have loved in your lifetime, one that has meant more to you than most. Or write another sort of poem —a more general observation or imagination about a tree or trees. This particular poem is about a tree in the backyard of one of the individuals on my caseload, described by her, but embellished by me.

A huge thank you to Aditus for his input     And thanks to all for reading.