November PAD Challenge 2021: Ankle Soup

 

Image by kzeomdceswk on Unsplash

running out of time as the money drips in and the reserves dry up

there is still no triumph as I trot through pelting dust to my grave

my brain has too many tabs open in place of morning papers and still I wonder why

my engine is running down, my wings have been clipped, but I can never be free 

the truth is, the price for striving to own the newest shiny object is too high

you are my witness as I split myself down the middle, leaving one half of me to slow down and make ankle soup from the pork hock in my freezer

~ornery owl~

prompts

https://godoggocafe.com/2021/10/23/brave-recklesss-november-creativity-prompt-challenge-autumnblings/

https://thesaxophoneplayerswife.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/blogtober2021writingprompts.jpg

Prompt: Money

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2021-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-28

Prompt: Write a "slow down" poem

http://www.octpowrimo.com/2021/10/day-14-rain.html

https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2021/11/25/reenas-xploration-challenge-209/

Prompt: The picture

https://girlieontheedge1.wordpress.com/2021/11/28/sundays-six-sentence-story-word-prompt-188/

Prompt: Reserve

https://sundaywhirl.wordpress.com/2021/11/28/wordle-529/

I hope that's all of them. It's so irritating when I have to come back and add one in after publishing.

Here's the cool 70s prog rock soundtrack that I was listening to while writing this poem.

Here's the link in case you can't see the video.

https://odysee.com/@TerminalPassage:c/sahara-subject-esq-%281972%29-sunrise-%281974%29:9?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

The Icky, Sticky, Nit-Picky Legalese If You Please (Or Don't Please)

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November PAD Challenge 2021: Autumnblings and All That

 

Image by dandelion_tea from Pixabay

This piece is as heavy as a Chevy and contains potentially triggering subject matter. If you would prefer not to read such poetry, this is your warning to give it a miss.

💧

I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in and found myself in a mess once again.

I wasn't blue this morning, but I am now, in spite of autumnblings and things I love. 

I don't mind taking steps down a meandering path, exploring nature in an introspective way; I'm just tired of the blues, the reds, and the pinks, and spending afternoons wrapped in a blanket of melancholy and remorse, my breath swaddled in a stabbing ache that spreads throughout my chest; I haven't a clue as to why I am an icy legend, never as light as a feather.

If I could alleviate this ache in my heart of stone by drinking an effervescent brew and setting a few enchanted candles alight, I would be fine every day.

As a morose teenager, I admonished myself that because my family life didn't consist of daily beatings leaving my body wrapped in a dark rainbow of bruises, and I wasn't being used as a blow-up doll by male relatives, and no one directly called me stupid or untalented or said in so many words that I was damaged goods or a waste of oxygen that I wasn't being abused and was a selfish brat for feeling unhappy when so many people had lives so much worse than mine.

The spectre of sadness, discouragement, and mistreatment unresolved refuses to acknowledge me; I look in the mirror and see a repulsive, broken husk laden with wasted potential. 

~ornery owl has spoken~

notes

Once again, the poem is autobiographical. Poetry is cheaper than therapy and I don't have to drive anywhere to do it. I just have to sit my ass down at my workstation, aka on my hard-earned adjustable bed, in front of my computer screen, and bleed from my heart.

Maybe this doesn't happen as much anymore, but there was a trend a few years back for people to begin comments on works such as this one with "I hope this isn't autobiographical..." and it really pissed me off.

Of course, nobody but a sadist wants other people to have experienced awful things. But beginning a comment on a work where the author has poured out their heart and soul with "I hope this isn't autobiographical" comes off as meaning "I hope you aren't going to upset anybody, and by anybody, I mean me, by writing something like this and having it be true." This admonition has the effect of making the author feel guilty for sharing their truth, thus shaming them into silence.

In my opinion, poetry must be allowed to bleed. Sure, I write silly poems and gratitude poems sometimes. But if I can't bleed out the darkness, it remains inside me and festers. It will come out somehow. Hemorrhaging it out through writing allows its release as opposed to self-medicating or self-harm, which was my means of dealing with the trauma within for two decades.

prompts

https://godoggocafe.com/2021/10/23/brave-recklesss-november-creativity-prompt-challenge-autumnblings/

https://thesaxophoneplayerswife.com/

Prompt: Family life

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2021/11/12/just-dropped-in-to-see-what-condition-my-condition-was-in-challenge-195/

Prompt: Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2021-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-14

Prompt: Write a (Blank) That poem

http://www.octpowrimo.com/2021/10/octpowrimo-day-5.html

Prompt: Write a prose poem

https://girlieontheedge1.wordpress.com/2021/11/14/sundays-six-sentence-story-word-prompt-186/

Prompt: Blanket

https://sundaywhirl.wordpress.com/2021/11/14/wordle-527/

The Icky, Sticky, Nit-Picky Legalese If You Please (Or Don't Please)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This work is the intellectual property of Naughty Netherworld Press/Poetry of the Netherworld.

Reblogging is acceptable on platforms that allow it. Odysee’s reblog function is called repost, which makes things confusing since reposting is considered a no-no on most platforms. It’s fine to share the post using the repost function on Odysee. It is not okay to copy-paste the material into a new post.

Sharing a link to the post is acceptable.

Quoting portions of the post for educational or review purposes is acceptable if proper credit is given.

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November PAD Challenge 2021: Stolen Words

Kivas of Gran Quivira

Photo by New Mexico National Park Service

sometimes I sit alone and consider

family expeditions of spent years

thanks to a secret wanderlust within

my father liked to travel far and wide

once upon a time in New Mexico

he took us on a journey to a place

the Gran Quivira, home of a lost tribe

the Pueblo Indians of an era past

with the blink of eyes, now gone forever

seeing shadows of a time forgotten

contemplating the mournful, strangled farewell

of those whose light was dimmed, their words silenced

their sacred meeting place lay long-buried

deep beneath the mud upon the mesa

I can't recall my age, six or seven

on that day I gazed far into the past

without even a spyglass to aid me

without an easel to paint a picture

I took no sample when we beat it home

sometimes I sit in bed with all my books

sometimes tap out a rhythm on my desk

I miss you, Dad, but the lessons you taught

are forever within my mind and soul

~ornery owl~

prompts

https://godoggocafe.com/2021/10/23/brave-recklesss-november-creativity-prompt-challenge-autumnblings/

https://dversepoets.com/2021/11/09/poetics-in-the-light-of-other-days/

Prompt: Write a poem about a memory. The poem should not be mournful like an elegy. If possible, write it in the blank verse form.

I did well adhering to ten syllables per line but my iambic pentameter may be shaky. It came to the point where it was all starting to sound like blah-blah-blah, so I just concentrated on getting the right number of syllables.

Poetry Soup's syllable counter has been given the sack. I discovered the following syllable counter while Poetry Soup's website was down and I greatly prefer it.

https://syllablecounter.net/count

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2021-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-10

Prompt:

Write a nature poem. The Gran Quivira ruins show how the Pueblo Indians built their homes in harmony with nature.

 https://www.legendsofamerica.com/gran-quivira-new-mexico/

http://www.octpowrimo.com/2021/10/octpowrimo-2021-begins.html

Prompt Theme:

Explore

https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2021/11/04/reenas-xploration-challenge-206/

Prompt:

Light

https://sundaywhirl.wordpress.com/2021/11/07/wordle-526/

https://sundayswhirligig.blogspot.com/2021/11/whirligig-344.html

The Icky, Sticky, Nit-Picky Legalese If You Please (Or Don't Please)

Creative Commons License

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Reblogging is acceptable on platforms that allow it. Odysee’s reblog function is called repost, which makes things confusing since reposting is considered a no-no on most platforms. It’s fine to share the post using the repost function on Odysee. It is not okay to copy-paste the material into a new post.

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Quoting portions of the post for educational or review purposes is acceptable if proper credit is given.

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November PAD Challenge 2021 Day 3: As Fall Leaves Fall

 

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

as fall leaves fall

in this season of contemplation

I reflect on summer's fading song

a ghoulish trick of light challenges me to consider

the voices of those who have been and gone

the laughter of spirits gives me no fright

so long as they come to heal my wounds

I welcome them into the scarlet ring drawn on the floor of my dwelling

at damp dusk the ceremony begins

the clock chimes and the truth is on trial

will I embrace the belief that upon the demise of my body

my soul will fly free like a bat from its cave

soaring over dark mountains

until the sun once again shines on the cornfields

and bees emerge from the hive to spread pollen far and wide

or were the spirits I have seen in my time only a mirage?

~Ornery Owl~

https://godoggocafe.com/2021/10/23/brave-recklesss-november-creativity-prompt-challenge-autumnblings/

Prompt: Fall Leaves Fall

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2021-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-3

Prompt: Write an As (blank) poem

http://www.octpowrimo.com/2021/10/octpowrimo-2021-begins.html

Prompt: contemplation

Style: Free Verse

https://sundaywhirl.wordpress.com/2021/10/31/wordle-525-2/

https://sundayswhirligig.blogspot.com/2021/11/whirligig-343.html

The Icky, Sticky, Nit-Picky Legalese If You Please (Or Don't Please)

Creative Commons License

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This work is the intellectual property of Naughty Netherworld Press/Poetry of the Netherworld.

Reblogging is acceptable on platforms that allow it. Odysee’s reblog function is called repost, which makes things confusing since reposting is considered a no-no on most platforms. It’s fine to share the post using the repost function on Odysee. It is not okay to copy-paste the material into a new post.

Sharing a link to the post is acceptable.

Quoting portions of the post for educational or review purposes is acceptable if proper credit is given.

Want more poetry?

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Appointment With an Epidemic

 

Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

The rat ran and she chased, the plague chased and she ran

kisses can serve as vectors for

disease and more

love is a rat

caught in a trap

kisses can spread disease, you know

the way things go

heavens above

the worst is love

bubonic plague can cause a scare

but can't compare

to betrayal

of hearts so frail

I fell too easily under the spell of his

long eyelashes and Bohemian rhapsody

his naughty rhymes raised in me the deepest desire

only to plummet me to the depths of despair

my specious attraction to his colorful way

made me act reckless and flit about like a fly

he prowled like a jaguar to my home each night

he was a rat who addicted me like powder

I clung onto his arm like a tattoo design

feared his desire would flicker like a dying flame

he would drift away from my hearth when spring blew in

he was a virus infecting my wounded soul

pressure to maintain impossible perfection

always drove me to hate my flawed self even more

he only saw women as collapsible dolls

why the hell did it take me so long to say no?

I suffered so long trying to make him love me

but he hadn't an inkling of love in his mind

better off with him gone to try and recover

the last tattered vestiges of my self-respect

I now see my mistakes made a lot of mistakes

did your dick fall out of your pants when you cheated?

gravity made you fall on me when you raped me?

oops, I was clumsy, I walked into a door

abusive men are worse than rats or viruses

I should no longer insult rats and viruses

by comparing them to my abusive partners

the way I was treated makes COVID look pretty

~cie~

Day 23: Write an "Appointment" poem

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2021-april-pad-challenge-day-23

Day 24: Write a question poem.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2021-april-pad-challenge-day-24

The question is, why did I allow myself to be abused by horrible men? 

This poem isn't about one specific man or relationship. It is about the string of abusive relationships that I was involved in over the years.

Write a poem using anapestic tetrameter.

https://dversepoets.com/2021/04/22/mtb-hopscotch-with-anapestic-tetrameter/

we have two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed. da-da-DAM.

you can do it with rhymes or without. You can break up your 12 syllable lines, and add little flaws. It can be funny or stark, but listen to the hopscotch rhythm and after a while you’ll be hooked.

I honestly don't feel like I did very well with the meter aspect. I tried, but my brain started to twist around itself. I did adhere to the 12-syllable line rule, except for the three eight-syllable lines.

First Line Friday: The rat ran and he chased. 

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2021/04/23/first-line-friday-april-23-2021/

I changed "he" to "she."

Wordle

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2021/04/19/wordle-237-and-please-read-all/

Kiss

Eyelashes

Long

Bohemian

Raise

Deepest

Plummet

Reckless

Jaguar

Specious- superficially plausible, but actually wrong

Collapsible

Colorful

Write a "minute" poem.

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2021/04/24/lucky-dip-saturday-mix-24-april-2021/

The Minute Poem is rhyming verse form consisting of 12 lines of 60 syllables written in strict iambic meter. The poem is formatted into 3 stanzas of 8,4,4,4; 8,4,4,4; 8,4,4,4 syllables. The rhyme scheme is as follows: aabb, ccdd, eeff.

I incorporated the Minute Poem into the metered free-verse poem.

Day 23: 

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-twenty-three-7/

write a poem that responds, in some way, to another. This could be as simple as using a line or image from another poem as a jumping-off point, or it could be a more formal poetic response to the argument or ideas raised in another poem. 

This poem is a response to the collective prompts.

Day 24:

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-twenty-four-7/

Today’s (optional) prompt is a fun one. Find a factual article about an animal. A Wikipedia article or something from National Geographic would do nicely – just make sure it repeats the name of the animal a lot. Now, go back through the text and replace the name of the animal with something else – it could be something very abstract, like “sadness” or “my heart,” or something more concrete, like “the streetlight outside my window that won’t stop blinking.” You should wind up with some very funny and even touching combinations, which you can then rearrange and edit into a poem.

I sort of did this. The animal I used was a rat.

http://fishypoets.blogspot.com

https://lindaghill.com/2021/04/23/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-24-2021/

Use the sound "oop" somewhere in your work.

https://sundaywhirl.wordpress.com/2021/04/18/wordle-499/

arm

design

drift

flicker

fly

hearth

night

powder

pressure

prowl

spring

virus

https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2021/04/24/three-things-challenge-578/

GONE

HAND

NO

I used this prompt, but they prefer family-friendly posts and mine went in a sweary direction, so I'm not going to share this poem with them.

The Icky, Sticky, Nit-Picky Legalese If You Please (Or Don't Please)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This work is the intellectual property of Naughty Netherworld Press/Poetry of the Netherworld.

Reblogging is acceptable on platforms that allow it. Odysee’s reblog function is called repost, which makes things confusing since reposting is considered a no-no on most platforms. It’s fine to share the post using the repost function on Odysee. It is not okay to copy-paste the material into a new post.

Sharing a link to the post is acceptable.

Quoting portions of the post for educational or review purposes is acceptable if proper credit is given.

Want more poetry?

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