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)

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.

Come check out Readers Roost, the online book store featuring works by indie and small press authors. Discover your next great read at the Roost!

https://bit.ly/ReadersRoost

Want more poetry?

Get it here!

http://bit.ly/getmorepoetry

Buy me a coffee

http://bit.ly/NNPCoffee

Or buy me a coffee here

http://bit.ly/NNPKOFI

Join me on Odysee

https://bit.ly/POTNOdysee

Join me on Patreon!

Subscribe for as little as $1 per month.

http://bit.ly/NNPPatreon

Get the latest literary happenings and slices of life in your inbox!

http://bit.ly/NaughtyNetherworldNews

November PAD Challenge 2021: An Ode to Thanksgiving Night

 

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

I can still remember childhood thanksgivings

rising fresh in the morning full of hope

climbing from wrinkled sheets, up for breakfast

break the yolk of the egg to mop up with toast

appraising the voluptuous turkey

thawing in the sink, soon to begin roasting

spending the day with storybooks and games

bringing out the tablecloth and good plates

wanting to be first to dig into the feast

savoring the potatoes and rolls with gusto

sparkling apple cider for my brother and me

a little wine for my mother and father

there was more compassion in our voices

no obnoxious bluffing or phlegmatic masks

eating so much it felt like I swallowed

a flotation device or a bundle of rubber

none of us felt terribly Terpsichorian

we weren't even up to practicing philately

we swaddled in blankets on the couch

to watch a movie on television

decades later I memorialize

the luck I had being so very blessed

to be able to spend Thanksgiving night

with you, my family of origin

today is Thanksgiving and I have grown old

I will prepare dinner for my son and me

a smoked turkey breast we got from the butcher

some roasted potatoes and pumpkin squares

no eating till we feel stuffed, we don't enjoy it

I am grateful for the memories of splendor

equally grateful for the new simplicity

~ornery owl~

Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate it

prompts

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

https://dversepoets.com/2021/11/25/open-link-night-305/

https://earthweal.com/2021/11/22/earthweal-weekly-challenge-praising-is-what-matters/

https://amanpan.com/eugis-weekly-prompt-compassion-nov-25-2021/

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2021-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-25

Prompt: Write a Thankful poem

http://www.octpowrimo.com/2021/10/day-12-ode.html

Prompt: Write an Ode

https://poets.org/glossary/ode

I believe this is a Horatian ode, sort of.

https://sundayswhirligig.blogspot.com/2021/11/whirligig-346.html

https://myjustsostory.blogspot.com/2021/11/words-for-wednesday-24112021.html

I was listening to this cool acid jazz from 1973 while writing the poem, which probably influenced its rhythm.

https://odysee.com/@TerminalPassage:c/kollektiv-%E2%80%93-live-%281973%29:5?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

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?

Get it here!

http://bit.ly/getmorepoetry

Buy me a coffee

http://bit.ly/NNPCoffee

Or buy me a coffee here

http://bit.ly/NNPKOFI

Join me on Odysee

https://bit.ly/POTNOdysee

Join me on Patreon!

Subscribe for as little as $1 per month.

http://bit.ly/NNPPatreon

Get the latest literary happenings and slices of life in your inbox!

http://bit.ly/NaughtyNetherworldNews

November PAD Challenge Day 16: Skeletons at the Feast

 

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Humans marching like zombies towards the doors of extinction

Never taking the time to balance the scales

We don’t want to do anything that would inconvenience us

It is still within our power to change the end of our tales

Like vandals on Halloween, humans damage the Earth

Politicians are a species that no one can trust

It is still within our power to change the end of our tales

We don’t want to do anything that would inconvenience us

There are options before us, but still, we choose doom

Corporations enchanted by the prospect of sales

We don’t want to do anything that would inconvenience us

It is still within our power to change the end of our tales

Essential essentials and worn-out wigs

Meaningless trinkets for which humanity lusts

It is still within our power to change the end of our tales

We don’t want to do anything that would inconvenience us

~ornery owl~

Planning ahead like a mofo, I chose most of these prompts a day early!

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

I changed the title of the poem from strangers at the feast to skeletons at the feast as I found it more fitting.

https://earthweal.com/2021/11/15/earthweal-weekly-challenge-extinction-tales/

https://amanpan.com/?p=82944

Prompt: Enchanted

https://amanpan.com/?p=81447

Prompt: Halloween

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2021-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-16

Prompt: Write a Form or Anti-Form Poem

http://www.octpowrimo.com/2021/10/octpowrimo-day-7.html

Prompt: Write a Mirrored Refrain

xaBA, xbAB, xaBA, xbAB

http://puttingmyfeetinthedirt.com

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?

Get it here!

http://bit.ly/getmorepoetry

Buy me a coffee

http://bit.ly/NNPCoffee

Or buy me a coffee here

http://bit.ly/NNPKOFI

Join me on Odysee

https://bit.ly/POTNOdysee

Join me on Patreon!

Subscribe for as little as $1 per month.

http://bit.ly/NNPPatreon

Get the latest literary happenings and slices of life in your inbox!

http://bit.ly/NaughtyNetherworldNews

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.

Want more poetry?

Get it here!

http://bit.ly/getmorepoetry

Buy me a coffee

http://bit.ly/NNPCoffee

Or buy me a coffee here

http://bit.ly/NNPKOFI

Join me on Odysee

https://bit.ly/POTNOdysee

Join me on Patreon!

Subscribe for as little as $1 per month.

http://bit.ly/NNPPatreon

Get the latest literary happenings and slices of life in your inbox!

http://bit.ly/NaughtyNetherworldNews

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

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?

Get it here!

http://bit.ly/getmorepoetry

Buy me a coffee

http://bit.ly/NNPCoffee

Or buy me a coffee here

http://bit.ly/NNPKOFI

Join me on Odysee

https://bit.ly/POTNOdysee

Join me on Patreon!

Subscribe for as little as $1 per month.

http://bit.ly/NNPPatreon

Get the latest literary happenings and slices of life in your inbox!

http://bit.ly/NaughtyNetherworldNews