Four April centos: No. 4

We have reached the final, fourth cento made of our last April lines. Thank you most kindly for your words! Above all, I wish to congratulate every NaPoWriMo participant on reaching Day 30 and poem 30. See you again on another April 1st. Next, I apologise for not asking your permission in advance. I know

Day 30: No debate

Let’s finish off April with a (non)debateable poem, twenty images from where I wrote poems this month, and a guy I’d like you to meet. Prompt 30: Write a palinode – a poem in which you retract a view or sentiment expressed in an earlier poem. For example, you might pick a poem you drafted

Day 26: Meet Meta

Here is a portrait poem of someone you should really meet. Prompt 26: Write a portrait poem that focuses on or plays with the meaning of the subject’s name. This could be a self-portrait, a portrait of a family member or close friend, or even a portrait of a famous or historical person.  Meet Meta

Day 22: Editing Emily

Editing Emily Dickinson feels a little like editing Trump’s speeches. Not that the quality of the writing compares, it’s just something you always wanted to do. Prompt 22: 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

Day 21: Honesty

I chose to wrestle my eagerness to finish this month in the upbeat manner of self-help books. Prompt 21: Choose an abstract noun from the list (of 14 words), and then use that as the title for a poem that contains very short lines, and at least one invented word. I liked the 8:6 ratio

Day 20 & Thursday Doors 20/4/23: Aliens and little men

This prompt came just in time. I had a similar thought last week on my visit to Slovenia. But what was it that I saw? What spurred it on? Prompt 20: Have you ever heard someone wonder what future archaeologists, whether human or from alien civilization, will make of us? Today, I’d like to challenge

Day 19: A scary skiing haibun

This is not what a haibun was made for, but this memory came up and wished to stay in prose, until the final haiku. The graffiti above is translated at the bottom of this post. Prompt 19: One common feature of childhood is the monsters. The ones under the bed or in the closet; the

Day 18: Alphabet poems

Today more edible plants, including those dangly kumquats, and all the letters, twice. Prompt 18: Today, I’d like to challenge you to write an abecedarian poem – a poem in which the word choice follows the words/order of the alphabet. You could write a very strict abecedarian poem, in which there are twenty-six words in

Day 17: Igor is no longer here

Today I call a couple of vegetables and relatives by name and build a poem around them. Prompt 17: Begin by reading Sayuri Ayers’ poem “In the Season of Pink Ladies.” … Don’t say flower when you can say daisy. Don’t say bird when you mean a hawk. Today’s challenge asks you to write a

Day 16: A not song

I returned home yesterday after a week in Slovenia with a palm tree. I’m glad that I managed to post my poem on all days despite everything going on. On to the second half of the month with my not song. Prompt 16:  Today’s prompt is a poem of negation – yes (or maybe, no),