“A poem that makes reference to one or more myths, legends, or other well-known stories, that features wordplay (including rhyme), mixes formal and informal language, and contains multiple sections that play with a theme. Try also to incorporate at least one abstract concept – for example, desire or sorrow or pride or whimsy.” (https://www.napowrimo.net/day-twelve-13/)

I
Is it trite to say I identify most with Orpheus?
Such an overworked character! So often overidentified with.
We all relate to his impulsiveness,
the difficulty of trust, our fear at the pith
of our stomach.

For me, though, it’s his lyre, the lair of art,
the liar of storytelling set to music. The ego
of the creative act, a journey into the mystery of our minds,
wresting a treasured largo
amidst the hustling hassle.

II
Nick Cave has the right of it:
Orpheus the Rock God!
Orpheus as the origin story of Beautiful Noise!
Music, art, as rebellion against
the certainty of death!

III
His tragedy: the loss of Eurydice.
Our tragedy: the loss of music.
Is it worth the price of knowing?

“Write a poem that incorporates song lyrics.” (https://www.napowrimo.net/day-eleven-13/)

I may never see the light
again. It’s a darkness
filling, brimming, overtaking
me. I saw a drawing once:
a figure bent and crushed,
huddled under clouds of violent
black lines, chaotic and heavy.
I thought: I know this.
I know what it is to
feel this. The end of
feeling. The snuffing
of light. The towering,
suffocating dark.
I know this.
I know what it is
to feel yourself
unfeeling.

I used this day’s prompt rather loosely. (https://www.napowrimo.net/day-ten-13/)

I hate the word “crepuscular”.
I refuse to accept that it means
What it means.

It attaches to images of rays
of sunlight, piercing through clouds,
the light of life, of creation,
so often used as a metaphor
for the light of god.

Such an ugly word for such
a beautiful thing! Such a
muscular sound for so
delicate a thing. Such a
stuffy word for so
spiritual a thing.

It’s the wrong word
For what it is.

“A poem … that uses rhyme, but without adhering to specific line lengths. For extra credit, reference a very specific sound.” (https://www.napowrimo.net/day-nine-11/)

There’s a certain quality
of air
that carries sound
far and fair,
the rattle of trains
intimate and near,
riding tracks five miles away,
Abrupt and clear.
It’s a rhythm almost in time:
Juddering, shuddering,
a mechanical syncopation.
The air changes, sundering
sound, a heavy thick mass,
trains now distant,
now unheard.

“Write a … self-portrait poem, in which you explain why you are not a particular piece of art.” (https://www.napowrimo.net/day-seven-11/)

It would be pedantic to say,
I’m not this painting. I’m not
paint, I’m not canvas, I’m literally
Not this painting. I am me.

It’s more true to say,
These shapes, these colors, this
kinetic energy rendered in stillness,
Is not me. It does not capture
My essence. I am me,
Not this painting.

This painting is this painting.
Tautology is pedantry. Is there
Any way to speak to the truth
Of this painting without devolving
Into shallow comparisons?

A vision from a mind so unlike my own,
yet a mind that feels so familiar.
A vision that lets me become
someone else, for a moment.
The personal brought into contact
With our universal humanity.

The man standing next to me scoffs:
It’s just a bunch of paint splattered around.
I could do that!

I think: Yes, but you didn’t.

Another chart-based prompt: a flavor plus two words to describe it. My words were: Watermelon, sweet, mocking. (https://www.napowrimo.net/day-six-12/)

Sugary red pulp,
Mocking the red of my tongue.
A splash of sweet juice.

Pick one from a list of odd musical notations, a music genre, and a word. I chose: “Like you’ve been hit by an arrow,” interstitial, bones. (https://www.napowrimo.net/day-five-12/)

What makes you move? I ask.
Imagine you’re dodging an arrow.
Fluid grace, balance and flow.
An alignment of bones,
The melting of tension,

Strength through relaxation.

The in-between moments,
Strung together, leading on
To bring you into oneness.

Movement. Breath. Mind.

“Write your own poem about living with a piece of art.” (https://www.napowrimo.net/day-four-13/)

There’s a moment when stone comes to life:
It breathes, pulses, warm and supple.
Such an extraordinary thing for stone to do.

How many chisel strokes are required
To imbue life into inert marble?
Ten? One hundred? Hundreds of thousands?

Some say math exterminates the magic.
Kandinsky filled his notebooks with precise geometries,
And on his canvas, chaos reigned.

“Write a poem that obliquely explains why you are a poet and not some other kind of artist.” (https://www.napowrimo.net/day-three-11/)

If I were to name what I am
I would say I’m a punnerist
Far more than a poet.
Puns, like poems, play
With language. The distance
Between them closer than
Some imagine. Poems, like puns,
Come at the world simultaneously
Sideways and direct. Face on,
Askance. There’s joy in playing
With meaning, with space, with
Tone, with expectations. There’s
Far less distance between poems
And puns and painting and
Art is how we see the world

Differently

“Write a poem that directly addresses someone, and that includes a made-up word, an odd/unusual simile, a statement of ‘fact,’ and something that seems out of place in time” (https://www.napowrimo.net/day-two-12/)

I didn’t include all of these, but that’s OK. This was inspired by an image of Georgia O’Keeffe’s kitchen mixing bowl from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

You owned the same mixing bowl as my grandmother:
Plain, glass, perfect function with no concern for aesthetics.
So utterly in contrast with the beauty of your work.

Maybe you were always more like my grandmother
Than I realized. She lived a life of function
But yearned to create beauty.

The vibe doesn’t match, a frisson of expectations,
Ideals abutting reality, the humanization of you,
The idealization of her. Nested potentialities.

Would you have been her, had your life shunted
Onto a different path? Would she have been you,
Had her treasured dreams come true?

I would have liked to meet the her-that-was-you.
Beauty and function, dreams deferred and dreams fulfilled.
What is, what was, what could have been.