poetry prompt

The Day 28 Prompt ~ NaPoWriMo

/ A. Gouedard / Leave a comment

The task today was to write and index poem. You could start with found language from an actual index, or you could invent an index.

Find a book and look in the index. You will find phrases. Make choices and use them in a poem.

I last used this method in 2015 and the resulting poem was published in Three Drops from the Cauldron (Issue 2). It was called ‘Journey in Ancient Hills.’

The index I used at that time was from ‘Welsh Folklore and Folk Customs’ by Thomas Gwynn-Jones. I will be using the same index today.

NaPoWriMo Day 23 ~ I like this prompt.

/ A. Gouedard / Leave a comment

Write a poem of your own that has multiple numbered sections. Attempt to have each section be in dialogue with the others, like a song where a different person sings each verse, giving a different point of view. Set the poem in a specific place that you used to spend a lot of time in, but don’t spend time in anymore.

~

I decided to write about a village I once lived in. A place I miss. I belong to the Facebook Group for the Village School we all went to for a while. I was there in the early 60’s. People share memories there. I have used my memories and theirs in the poem, and a few of their words.

NaPoWriMo ~ The poetry prompt for Day 22

/ A. Gouedard / Leave a comment

Copied from https://www.napowrimo.net/

As you may know, although Dickinson is now considered one of the most original and finest poets the United States has produced, she was not recognized in her own time. One reason her poems took a while to gain a favorable reception is their slippery, dash-filled lines. Those dashes baffled her readers so much that the 1924 edition of her complete poems replaced some with commas, and did away with others completely. Today’s exercise asks you to do something similar, but in the interests of creativity, rather than ill-conceived “correction.” Find an Emily Dickinson poem – preferably one you’ve never previously read – and take out all the dashes and line breaks. Make it just one big block of prose. Now, rebreak the lines. Add words where you want. Take out some words. Make your own poem out of it! (Not sure where to find some Dickinson poems? You’ll find oodles at the bottom of this page).

Today I used ‘A Bird Came Down the Walk’ as my inspiration.

NaPoWriMo Day 21 ~ Told to use a listed word, I used clever. We also had to invent a new word.

/ A. Gouedard / Leave a comment

~

Perceptipatient

~

He is always watching.

I watch him watching everyone.

I’m sure he knows I’m watching him.

He’s very clever.

His face, a mask, hides all

and only shows politeness.

He hides his thoughts so well.

He’s a sphynx I can’t decipher.

Did Buddha watch the world this way

and hide, revealing nothing?

Does he sit in judgement

or does he make internal notes

to populate a novel?

No words are new.

They’re only reinvented.

~

He looks at me and looks away.

I think he thinks I’m writing,

but I’m silent, drawing him

for a future painting.

I will mix my colours well.

He’ll be quietly captured.

~

When I carefully draw his eyes,

and flesh his mouth with pigments

I see he is contented.

He’s enjoying thinking.

© A.Chakir 2023

NapoWriMo Day 19 – cast your mind back to your own childhood and write a poem about something that scared you and which still haunts you today.

/ A. Gouedard / 1 Comment

Talking to a Spider

Fast moving invader,

squatting on my bedroom wall,

I swear you’re there to taunt me

with legs that move so wrongly

and pincers thrusting forward.

How I hate you spider.

I called my Dad when I was small,

who came to softly cradle you,

careful not to squash you,

cupped gently in his hands,

he casts you from my window.

How I hate you spider.

Lovers later tried so hard

to convince me of your beauty,

ingenuity, creativity and lack of any poison.

I know you bite and rest at night beside me on my pillow.

My cat drives you towards me. She’s a traitor.

How I hate you spider.

I’ve become your killer. If I see you, you will die.

I won’t cast a shadow as a warning

or send vibrations through the floor that scare you.

I’m the silent killer. My brutality, my mercy.

My boot will be your coup de grâce.

How I hate you spider.

And then one day a spider came hiding in a corner.

Only we lived in this room, and I found I liked you.

Little spider at your loom, I named you Frederick Dear.

My tiny brother, friend in quiet solitude.

We have a truce, a contract clear.

If you grow big, I’ll hate you.

© A.Chakir 2023

Day 13 ~ The Prompt

/ A. Gouedard / Leave a comment

Write a poem that follows the beats of a classic joke. Emphasize the interplay between the form of the poem – such as the line breaks – and the punchline.

I think I bent the rules a bit. But I like writing nonsense that has some logic. And I also like writing about The Mad Hatter and Alice (I have quite a series of them). If you put Hatter or Alice into my search box you will probably find all of them. They have an ongoing relationship.

NaPoWriMo Day 8 Prompt is long

/ A. Gouedard / Leave a comment

It’s complicated!

  • Begin the poem with a metaphor.
  • Say something specific but utterly preposterous.
  • Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem.
  • Use one example of synesthesia (mixing the senses).
  • Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.
  • Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.
  • Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.
  • Use a word (slang?) you’ve never seen in a poem.
  • Use an example of false cause-effect logic.
  • Use a piece of talk you’ve actually heard (preferably in dialect and/or which you don’t understand).
  • Create a metaphor using the following construction: “The (adjective) (concrete noun) of (abstract noun) . . .”
  • Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative qualities.
  • Make the persona or character in the poem do something he or she could not do in “real life.”
  • Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.
  • Write in the future tense, such that part of the poem seems to be a prediction.
  • Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.
  • Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.
  • Use a phrase from a language other than English.
  • Make a non-human object say or do something human (personification).
  • Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but that “echoes” an image from earlier in the poem.