NaPoWriMo -19 Day-24 : Dictionary Illustration

Day 24 Prompt: Write a poem that, like “Dictionary Illustrations,” is inspired by a reference book. Locate a dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia, open it at random, and consider the two pages in front of you to be your inspirational playground for the day. Maybe a strange word will catch your eye, or perhaps the mishmash of information will provide you with the germ of a poem.

The words that caught my attention on the pages of the dictionary have been highlighted in Bold letters. 

Resurgence

Seething unspoken emotions

Bursting at the seams

Across the seesaw of life

Seize, Select and separate

Letting them seep through

In soothing semantics

The seed of absolution

Sown within the self

To Salvage a semblance                                               

Of sobriety and serenity. 

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-23 : Poem about an animal

Day 23 Prompt: Write a poem about an animal.

There was a time when I was terrified of dogs, slowly I grew to respect the unconditional affection of dogs- and without my realising it- a way was being paved in my heart for them... and recently when a Boxer joined our family- the floodgates were yanked wide open! All credits to the little one- Ginger!

 Rambunctious Love                                                                              

There is this new surge

of love in my heart

A strange, unknown,                                              

spring of affection that
I never knew existed

Until she looked at me
with those liquid eyes 

She romps onto my lap

Like Royalty

And I all but melt

Into  mush and pulp…

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-22 : Ekphrastic poem

PC: Borrowed from the internet

Day 22 Prompt: Write a poem that engages with another art form –  to express something about another form of art.

Dance: Language of the Soul

Quivering bells on poised feet

Pounding Heart waiting in the wings
for the music to begin...

The beats began- the lyrics flowed

I sailed into the arc lights

My face, my eyes

My feet , my hands

My body, my soul

Sprung to life

My dream unfurled

 ******************

The tinkle of my anklets 
had become silent with time
And now a whiff from the past 
Stir sleeping memories
No anklets on my feet
And yet the chime resonates
There is no dais
And yet my feet they dance
to a soundless melody...

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-21 : Surreal Imagery

Day 21 Prompt: Write a poem that, incorporates wild, surreal images. Try to play around with writing that doesn’t make formal sense, but which engages all the senses and involves dream-logic.

Inferno of fear

PC: Borrowed from the internet

The wind was screeching

numbing sleet gnawed my limbs

as I plodded through the knotted creepers and purple lotuses

when a blood curdling bellow

imploded behind me 

I turned to look and a scream rose and

shattered down my throat

A gargantuan beast with dripping fur and slobbery tongue      

eyes like a million menacing daggers 

Pierced right through me

And then she moved ,in one giant leap 

she pinned me down

her nails and fangs

tracing scarlet creases

across my face, across my limbs

I saw her teeth drip slick crimson froth

sheer black terror gripped my heart

and yet I managed to give a mighty heave

staggering to my feet I bounded indoors

and closed the doors behind me

I stumbled across the hall through the corridor

Dragging my bloody knees

I could hear the lusty growls behind me

I crawled across the kitchen floor-

The growls still behind outside                 

I slumped down on the frosty tiles

I closed my eyes- icy terror racing

through my gory veins

suddenly I sensed a slimy fiery trail

snaking down my neck

I start and open my eyes to find

steely  menacing eyes slicing into me

fetid frothy breath and crimson dribble

splattered onto my face

I froze and the darkness swallowed me…

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-20 : Talking poem

Day 20 Prompt : Write a poem that “talks.” - based in spoken language, interspersed with the speaker/narrator’s own responses and thoughts. Try to write a poem grounded in language as it is spoken – not necessarily the grand, dramatic speech of a monologue or play, but the messy, fractured, slangy way people speak in real life. get away from formally “poetic” speech and into the way language tends to work out loud.

Oh- Never mind! 

Snap! There!

I release you!

Don’t listen ! Don’t understand!

I hardly saw it coming

You were always around

Anytime, anywhere

But now you’r always elsewhere

No, no I’m not jealous

No way!

PC: Borrowed from the internet

Ya, I know that

I know I just have to call out

But I don’t want to

I don’t want to wait,

Tap your shoulder

To remind you                                            

I’m still here

Very much here

You ought to have known

I mean how can you forget?

It’s ok

You move on

I have myself for company

The good, the bad, the sad

I’ll keep to myself

No, no I’m not whining

I don’t sulk

I’m fine, really I’m fine

You keep going…

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-19 : Abecedarian poem

Day 19 Prompt: Write an abecedarian poem – a poem in which the word choice follows the words/order of the alphabet. 

Onerous Errand

Arranging words

By the order of

Consecutive letters

Drafting meanings

Eloquent and elegant
Flourishing in finesse

Groping for ideas

High and low

Imagination fails me as I

Juggle my vocabulary

Kneading out expressions

Lucid and apt

Minting and churning

Nifty and neat

Ornate imagery

Packed with punch

Quaint and quippy

Ringing with rhyme

Sparkling with wit

Tricky task trying to

Unravel layers of

Vivid views and purport  

Weaving texture like in

Xylographic etches in

Yarns of text

Zingy and zesty!

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-18 : Elegy

Day 18 Prompt: Write an elegy of your own, one in which the abstraction of sadness is communicated not through abstract words, but physical detail. This may not be a “fun” prompt, but loss is one of the most universal and human experiences, and some of the world’s most moving art is an effort to understand and deal with it.


The Viscosity of Grief 

Coming to terms with reality…

Yesterday that which was full of vivacity,

 that which pulsated with vibrancy

is now still, mute- not even there?

Can’t comprehend…

When we laughed, and cried together

PC: Borrowed from the internet

Where were the lungs, kidneys & the liver

I knew them not..

and now because these floundered

Resonance with the mind, the thoughts ,

feelings and emotions came to a naught

Where do all those moments go to

It stings, it burns

It hurts…

Where?

Some place that cannot be seen,

heard or touched…

The pain is just viscous void

Sticky, murky layers

Soldered to the soul

What ‘was’ yesterday

Stopped being  ‘is’ today

Neither here nor there.

an ambiguous plateau for sure!

( Another one written along similar lines:)

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-17 : Unusual POV

Day 17 Prompt: Write a poem that presents a scene from an unusual point of view. 

A poem written from the POV of a pair of Bedroom slippers

Ready to Go! 

PC: Borrowed from the internet

We wait patiently

For the dawn to descend

Waiting for your lazy gaze

As you stretch in languor

We wait for your tender feet

To snuggle into our softened leather

Curved in dents to caress your soles

We are ready always

To help you gently tread

Across the tiles,

Across the stone walk

Across the dewy grass

Across the murky spills

Just slip in your feet

And we’re ready to go…

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-16 : List

Day 16 Prompt: Write a poem that uses the form of a list to defamiliarize the mundane. 


Finesse

Wrap not derision as humour

Relish not another’s chagrin

Humour is healthy

Humour is pleasant

Humour is kind

Humour is sensitive

Laughter is not an island

Laughter is a team

Laugh not at others

Laugh along with others

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-15: Dramatic Monologue

Day 15 Prompt: Write your own dramatic monologue. It doesn’t have to be quite as serious as Browning or Shakespeare, of course, but try to create a sort of specific voice or character that can act as the “speaker” of your poem, and that could be acted by someone reciting the poem.

Non- Judgmental

Repect! Respect!

Is it really so difficult?

To respect another

Even if I might not agree

Neither do I need to approve

But respect I can

Another’s idea or opinion

 Accept! Accept!

I want acceptance

So then why shouldn’t another expect

To be accepted

Isn’t it a two way lane?

Anyway I can’t walk alone

I need company

Empathy! Understand!

Is it indeed so difficult

To look kindly upon

Another’s idea or opinion

Do I have to always be right

And another wrong

It is all about

Accepting, respecting and Understanding

The others in me

And the me in others.

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-14 :Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms

Day 14 Prompt: Write a poem that incorporates homophones, homographs, and homonyms, or otherwise makes productive use of English’s ridiculously complex spelling rules and opportunities for mis-hearings and mis-readings.


Not an easy knot! 

There are certain things that we bear/ bare

and then some that we can barely  bear/bare

I know/no that it needs to be a no/know

There is no other go

It is just not easy- it gets you in a knot

One is wary that one has to wear a mask

One feels weary and tired

One has to become someone one is not

And I do not like that

It would be like putting on an act

It would mean

That one has to be mean and sly

And that  is just not fair

It would be such a tardy fare…

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-13 : Belief In Magic

Day 13 Prompt: Write a poem about something mysterious and spooky! Your poem could be about something that is mysterious and spooky in a bad way (like a witch), or mysterious and spooky in a good way (possibly also like a witch? It depends on the witch, I guess!) Or just the everyday, mysterious, spooky quality of being alive.


Magic Spell

I have with me words and language

And I know magic to 

PC: Borrowed from internet

use them any way I will

I can marinate words in

acerbic sauce of sarcasm

Toss it around my mouth

Stir it with my scalding tongue

And when I spew it forth

I can see the mucky vitriol splatter

sear and scorch the victim

But I don’t relish watching

another writhe in agony

I’d rather soak my words in

Empathy and compassion

Blend in dollops of tenderness and

top it with glazed generosity

And Voila! As I watch their face transform

Eyes sparkling with joy

Cheeks burnished with cheer

I too feel a fuzzy warmth

Seeping through my soul

Gratitude and serenity

saturates my being…

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-12 : Dull Vs Significant

Day 12- Prompt : Write a poem about a dull thing that you own, and why (and how) you love it. Alternatively, what would it mean to you to give away or destroy a significant object?

Resolve

Very staid, very steady

Anytime, any day trustworthy

It stands right there in its abiding wholeness

But not a second glance does it claim

But the other one there so bright , so zesty

Simply clamouring for attention

I deliberately turn away

I walk sedately, steeled and set

For doesn’t one know

of life’s regular dictum

Glitzy, cheery is fine

But screaming transience

Something today and until forever

Is just that plain, stolid stance…

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-11: Origins

Day 11- Prompt : Write a poem of origin. Where are you from? Not just geographically, but emotionally, physically, spiritually? Maybe you are from Vikings and the sea and diet coke and angry gulls in parking lots. Maybe you are from gentle hills and angry mothers and dust disappearing down an unpaved road. And having come from there, where are you now?

Let sleeping Memories lie...

Everything has changed

I had been gone too long

But fool that I was

I thought that

the memories in my heart

would keep the place alive

Everything has changed.. 

the smells, the sights

I deliberately tried to coerce

my sleeping memories alive.

I searched for familiar sights,  

I tried to breathe in familiar smells,

I tried to retrace my steps,

I closed my eyes, conjuring up images of the past.  

PC: borrowed from the internet

Everything has changed

I saw nothing, smelt nothing, felt nothing.

It was the same place and yet it was no longer.

I had grieved the passage of time,

yearned for lost moments.

I had come back but

found nothing that I thought I was seeking.

Is there a sense of loss?  No, not even that.

Just an emptiness and a numbness.

I have changed. Forever..
Everything has changed

That place in the depths of my heart

no longer exists outside.

I can now stop looking for it

every time I return.

Let sleeping memories lie...

NaPoWriMo -19 Day-10: Regional Phrase ( weather related)

Day 10- Prompt : Write a poem that starts from a regional phrase, particularly one to describe a weather phenomenon. 

There is a phrase in Malayalam related to the Monsoon showers: “Thullikkoru kudam pemari”… which means it is raining in such torrents that a single drop runs to fill up an urn…

Elysian Nuptials

Gigantic droplets  

PC: Borrowed from the internet

brimming into urns

Was that a cloudburst

Cascading in ebullient joy

Splashing  into gurgling puddles

The skies have descended

With splintering charm

The earth has risen in embrace

Melting into the Azure haze           

Soaked, soused and sated…

Thunder rumbled in murky echoes

Slivers of lightning

Shimmered in glory

The fumes of petrichor

Whirled up in swirls…