I learn by going
where I have to go
from place to place
until I get home
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NaPoWriMo April 24 prompt on one liner from a favorite poem—
I learn by going where I have to go. Theodore Roethke The Waking
Other Poets
I’m Somebody! Who are you?
I’m Somebody! Who are you?
Are you Somebody too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Tell everyone! They won’t advertise you know!
How exciting to be Nobody!
How hidden like a clam
To not tell one’s name
all of June
To an unadmirering blog!
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NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 3 prompt to write an opposite poem from one of your favorite poems. I did Emily Dickinson’s I’m Nobody! Who are you?
A Strange Wild Song
A strange wild song
echoes
the voice of the lobster
the walrus and the carpenter
the three voices
a strange wild song
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dVerse prompt to take poem titles of Lewis Carroll and create a new poem. Each line here is from a title. I think I will write more about this wild song of the lobster, the walrus and the carpenter, maybe tonight.
In Robert Bly’s Hometown
remember the sound of your voice
reading my poem to the class
here something happens
poetry is making something happen
don’t be content with just words
make them leap off the page
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dVerse prompt to write about or to a favorite poet. I visited Madison, Minnesota a few weeks ago and went to the little house where Robert Bly wrote and it contains much of his library.
Coming In
My daughter loved the book of poetry Where the Sidewalk Ends. She took it to bed. Nestled in those pages was the line “If you are a dreamer, come in.” by Shel Silverstein.
I remember the dreams I had for me and I remember the dreams I had for you. Not just ordinary ones like getting a good grade in school or going to a fine university, living in a two story house or taking a trip to Greenland. Not the dream to be a poet or magician or architect. My dreams concerned paradigms, broader in scope than world peacekeeping or disarmament. I dreamt contentment for us all, lack of greed and pride, love of the human race, coming in together.
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dVerse prosey prompt on Shel Silverstein quote from his poem Invitation.
On Carmel Point
To My Dear Robinson Jeffers,
When the fog rolls and the horn sounds
I will think of the stones you carried
up the hill on Carmel Point
to set a foundation for Tor House
You kept going higher and higher
until you met the hawk
the world expanding around you
your small window with a view of the Pacific
I want life and death to come as naturally
I want to thank you for placing stone
upon stone in such a way it formed
narrow pathway to the highest point
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Yes, my dear,
“Against the outcrop boulders of a
raised beach
We built our house when I and my
love were young.
Here long ago . . .
. . . all that we saw or heard
was beautiful.” Robinson Jeffers
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NaPoWriMo prompt on letter to a favorite historical figure and response by that person. One of my favorite poets. I visited his house and Tor House in Carmel one day while road tripping. Original take on this experience written in 2016.
Marriage
I took his road
dusty
against vibram soles
off trail
in windfall
over scree
hidden lakes
cathedral mountain
base camp
or canyons
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NaPoWriMo prompt on Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken
Subquishable
In their dreams
they sleep with the moon
by Mary Oliver from Death at Wind River
Subquishable wants to know where did you go; your background and foreground; lay of the line. Keep it personal, submittable, short and divine, but the words aren’t right because some have already been taken, so touché to cliche! Use them anyway. If structure is not your master, remember Cummings put a letter anywhere. When punctuation creeps into the fray, there is no rule that wants to stay. Hang those commas in the air; see them everywhere. Use the Dickinson dash without remorse. Watch out for song and rhyme because it just might make a poem subquishable.
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dVerse prompt on prosery combined with a line from Mary Oliver. This prose poem is definitely subquishable.
On Bees
great souls in little bodies—- Virgil Book 4
From the Library of W.E.B. DuBois
…..And Not to Yield
Daughters and Rebels
Along the Way
The Revolutionists
The Noble Voice
Along the Way
South of God
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dVerse prompt to write a poem with titles of books. This poem is written from some of the titles of the books of W.E.B. DuBois on the shelves of his home in Accra, Ghana.
wordshophop 