What’s the one thing or place everyone hates dealing with the most? Going out on a limb here: perhaps the DMV? It’s certainly got to be in your top-fine anyway. Well, my miserable week has been made extra-miserable by them; I reckon that means they have accomplished their job – or purpose in life?
Nonetheless, today’s prompt for OctPoWriMo gives me a chance to vent – creatively even!
Frustrated
World is against me
Help not found
When needed
Bureaucracy strangles me
For the people – Ha!
Pretty much explains itself.
Not feeling it t’day
Long week behind and ahead
Maybe tomorrow
But at least I’ve not blown OctPoWriMo – yet.
In the middle of the chaos
The talking-heads rhetoric is a bandage
We tune it out and think we are freeLooking around at the world
I see where we stand
In the middle of the chaosThe people seek answers
What they receive are speeches
The talking-heads rhetoric is a bandageWe find no comfort from that
How the do we respond to this
We tune it out and think we are free
Inspired by OctPoWriMo day 17 prompt words and style; click HERE for more.
A difficult task is an understatement for today’s assignment for OctPoWriMo! Using two of the prompt phrases, I composed what I think is a Paradelle; I know it’s supposed to be, I’m just not positive I got it all right!
Her light footsteps sounding with a crunch
Her light footsteps sounding with a crunch
As she slipped along through the thick forest
As she slipped along through the thick forest
Her footsteps sounding through the forest
Crunch lightly as she slipped alongIn her shadow he followed at a distance
In her shadow he followed at a distance
Evading her sight as he lurked behind
Evading her sight as he lurked behind
Behind her he lurked in the distance
A shadow he followed her evading sightHe moves watching her from afar
He moves watching her from afar
Somewhere hiding in the dense cover
Somewhere hiding in the dense cover
Hiding from her watching somewhere
From the dense cover afar he movesWith thick cover he slipped along
Evading her sight as a shadow
Footsteps sounding a light crunch behind
He lurked watching somewhere from afar
He followed at a distance hiding
In through the forest dense she moves
During the first half of this event I’ve tried many new things; this has to be the hardest of them yet! I encourage you to give it a go if you haven’t yet. While I’m glad I made the attempt here, I doubt this form will be one you’ll see from me regularly, if ever again! (If you read the description of the form you’ll understand why I feel the joke was definitely on me LOL)
The 15th day of OctPoWriMo brings us the thought of a perfect day: no limits, nothing out of bounds, what would your day be like? I pondered on this idea for quite a while, with many ideas playing around in my head. When I finally set out to write I thought I would use the trimeric form … but the best laid plans … and all that jazz.
As I wrote the story began to unfold in front of me, going to a different “day” and events than I’d planned. The trimeric I’d planned on using morphed into, something else: a quadmetric maybe, a whole new poetry form? Probably just a happy accident, as I’m pretty happy with the end-result.
The perfect day for me: what would it be?
I’d want my father back for a day;
There’s so much I’d like to say.
There’s maybe more I’d ask him.
Would that really be a perfect day?I’d want my father back for a day
Nearly 40 years since he passed
Three quarters of my life he missedThere’s so much I’d like to say,
Tell him all about my life,
My kids, his grandson, and my wife.There’s maybe more I’d ask him,
So much of what I have is faded memory.
And would he be proud of me?Would that really be a perfect day?
Because I don’t know what we’d say.
What I have now I will treasure; forget “what ifs” forever.
What is on the bridge between yesterday and tomorrow? That is the question posed today for the OctPoWriMo prompt #14, along with a few suggestions and prompt words.
The quote our host shared, “Trust is the bridge from yesterday to tomorrow, built with planks of thanks.” ― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, was my real inspiration I think for today’s poem: a modern Tanaga, which is yet another new form for me and my first try at it.
yesterday to tomorrow
holds many things we will face
pain happiness smiles sorrows
line the path to that new place
What do we fear? How honest are we with ourselves in evaluating our lives, be it as a hobbyist, professional, parent, or any other part of our being? That is the thought I took away from today’s installment of OctPoWriMo. The emphasis is on our writing – go figure, right – for this prompt. But as I said above, it can apply to any piece of our lives.
The prompt suggestions are in the post; I decided to write a Shadorma using the three suggested words rather than the Blitz.
Honesty,
Rarely left to chance.
We fear truth,
Raw reviews.
We feel we are too exposed-
So we just hold back
I have to say I’m really enjoying these challenging daily prompts, many of which push me out of my comfort zone and have gotten me to explore new writing styles. I didn’t really think I’d stay with the 31-day challenge but now that I’m into it, I’m pretty certain I’ll make it through to the end.
I had a rather busy day today so it was quite late before I even looked at today’s prompt for OctPoWriMo; I apologize for getting the poem published so late, but it couldn’t be helped.
This challenge was quite different for me; I like writing in “outlined” or set forms but I’ve never tried anything even close to this! The prompt was to write a poem 26 lines long, using each letter of the alphabet to start a line – and a challenge it was. But it was also a ball to do!
I basically took 26 lines, the alphabet in order, and began to free-write, making sure I had some rhyming going on and changing into (sort of) stanzas as I went; the way I did it the stanzas aren’t even but I think it worked okay. For better or worse, this is what I composed.
As another day comes to an end,
Busy times wrap themselves up.
Couldn’t have been more productive I pretend.
Do we always measure
Each day the way our time we spend?First things first,
Goals must certainly be met!
How do we reach for the moon
If the top of a telephone pole is what we get?
Just one more task to complete
Kicking and screaming, the goal won’t be met!Lowering our lofty expectations
May be how we move forward.
No, that isn’t how we laid our foundations.
Onwards we shall press,
Perusing our original aspirations.Quite the task before us we’ve laid
Really quite a monumental one.
Still these objectives must be made!
To what end will be the cost?
Ultimately we won’t allow ourselves to be delayed!Vicariously we all really live
What we wish reality to be.
Xeroxed copies of efforts we give
Yet exciting new things we anticipate.
Zero innovative concepts, we end none creative.
When I sat down this afternoon to see what (hopefully less difficult) prompt OctPoWriMo had in store for me today I was a little apprehensive; if you read yesterday’s post you know I had some difficulty with it. Today I was pleasantly surprised to find a thought that gave me no difficulty in finding inspiration for! You see, I would be writing what is basically my story in poetry form.
The idea was to capture a moment that you were proud of or shocked that worked out. I can tell you without hesitation I have nothing to be proud of on my end; I am only bearing witness to what happened to me over the course of a couple of years in my life. If you’re interested, you can read more on my About and Maybe I Should Have Started Here pages.
Numb
I’m stunned
Did I hear that right?
I would never walk again
DazedGod
Please help me
I can’t live this way
Have mercy, prove them all wrong
PleaseTime
Passes
Waiting, beseeching
Faith that this isn’t His will
PraySlow
Progress starts
Unsteady movements
God is listening to us
PleadHe
Has answered
Supplications made
I can walk; thanks be to God
Praise
I can and will not try to take credit for the healing touch I received from God. I am merely thankful that I received it.
(This is a “Crowned Oddquain”, a form I just learned {thank you, Sister J and Paloma}of and wanted to try out. You can read more about the form HERE.)
Looking at the prompt for today’s OctPoWriMo (elements) I could think only of smoke and fire and how they go hand-in-hand; I’ve taught my grandson since he was a wee-lad that “wherever there’s smoke there always fire” as we drive around seeing the smoke from brush fires and people burning their yard waste. It’s actually quite cute to hear him say, “Look Papaw, smoke! And where’s there’s smoke there’s fire.”
But today’s prompt includes the idea that there is a duality in the many elements, which I agree. And I could think of no better idea, for me, to show this than in the description of our prayers.
Incense burns
Petitions are made
A sweet scent
To The One
Who savors
With love each and every oneFlame consumes
The gift offered up
Smoke rises
Heavenward
As the folks solemnly pray
I waffled on which stanza to lead with and think I prefer the Shadorma in this order; you may read it in reverse and prefer that, which is fine, too.
Psalm 141:2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
Revelation 8:3-4 “And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.”
Potholes in the Road of Life 