April PAD Challenge + NaPoWriMo 2024 Writing Prompts Day 7

 

My dear friend Kamidiox drew these pictures. If you use them, please make sure to give her proper credit. Here is the link to her website.

https://kamidiox.carrd.co/

I wasn't sure how personal I wanted to get with this prompt post, Poetry People. I'm feeling a bit vulnerable and also a bit sick. I woke up at 3 AM feeling like I was going to hurl. 

I guess my 59-year-old innards can no longer handle meals like the spicy southwestern ham and bean soup that I made with scraps from the leftover Easter ham. I also had a side plate of nachos courtesy of the giant bag of tortilla chips and Tostitos queso that we bought at Costco. I need to get it through my thick head that my stomach has aged along with the rest of me.

Enough about my crap digestive system. Here are today's prompts.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-7

The April PAD Challenge prompt asks participants to write a luck poem.

I was very lucky when my special friends came into my life.

I was very unlucky when I lost them. 

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-seven-10/

Today's NaPoWriMo prompt asks poets to write a Wish You Were Here poem.

Here's the best Wish You Were Here poem ever. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXdNnw99-Ic

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Image by Willgard Krause from Pixabay

April PAD Challenge + NaPoWriMo 2024 Writing Prompts: Day 6

 

Image by Hoa Luu from Pixabay

Happy Saturday, Poetry People! It's a windy one in this neck of the woods. Never mind that; let's get to it.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-6

The April PAD Challenge prompt suggests writing a minimum poem. 

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-six-11/

The NaPoWriMo prompt asks participants to write a poem rooted in “weird wisdom,” by which we mean something objectively odd that someone told you once, and that has stuck with you ever since. 

My Tanka (a brief or minimum poetry form) discusses the culinary technique of adding an opposing flavor to enhance a dish or food item. For instance, salted caramel or adding sugar to a sauce to enhance its savory flavor.

Today's post is also comparatively minimal.

I am debating whether to try the coffee cake bread pudding I just made now or wait until after dinner, which is still several hours away.

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Ornery Owl

Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors

"What do you think of my poem, Hangry?"

Hangry Wyrm

Free use image from Clker Free Vector Images

"Forget that moon-June-tune folderol, Ornery! Serve up the dang bread pudding!"

April PAD Challenge and NaPoWriMo 2024: Day 4 and 5

 

Image by bbbeti from Pixabay

Hello, poetry people! It seems to be working out for me to publish a double post every other day. I can't guarantee this format will stick, but let's roll with it for now.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-4

Today's April PAD Challenge prompt asked participants to pen a mistake poem. 

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-four-12/

Meanwhile, the NaPoWriMo prompt suggested poets take inspiration from The Strangest Things In The World, a book that shares brief descriptions of oddities. 

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/67223/pg67223-images.html

"Well, what the heck am I supposed to do with this?" I wondered while marveling at the weird wonders presented in the tome.

Then it came to me like a flash--like a vision! I just wrote it down. I can't share the poem here, but I will reveal the epic title.

My Most Magnificent Monody For My Many Favorite Mistakes.

It's a poem all about love and what it shouldn't feel like. If it feels like what I describe in these verses, it ain't love, it's limerence, and that's not good.

And now, on to Day 5.

Apparently, QuickWrite can't render old women, but the dog is cute, and the tulip is purty. 

I'm an old woman, but I'll do you the favor of not sharing pictures of me, seeing as they would break your computer monitor. Then you'd be mad at me.

And now, on with the show!

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-5

The April PAD Challenge prompt asks participants to create a Tell (Blank) poem.

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-five-11/

The NaPoWriMo prompt asks us to take inspiration from the poem The Blessing of the Old Woman, The Tulip, and the Dog.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53677/the-blessing-of-the-old-woman-the-tulip-and-the-dog

I needed one more element to kickstart my imagination, so I added...

Cicadas???

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2024/04/05/cicadas-are-coming/

Okay, sure, why not? 

The linked post contains all sorts of nifty information about the periodical life cycle of cicadas. I have to admit, at first I thought cicadas hadn't been seen in certain areas since 1913. That's a very long nap or gestation period or whatever. 

I hope you gather poetic inspiration from this post. If you do, please be sure to visit the linked blogs and let them know!

If you are inspired by the tremendous forthcoming swarm of cicadas, I suggest letting them know. Perhaps if we pay sufficient tribute to their mighty splendor, they will spare us.

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Image by Erik Karits from Pixabay

I couldn't find any pictures of owls and cicadas, so here's an owl and a glowing butterfly or moth.

April PAD Challenge and NaPoWriMo Prompts 2024 Days 2 and 3

 

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Greetings, poetry people! I got behind and lost my mind because that shit happens, but now I'm back to share prompts with you and wax philosophical on this poetical day.

I created a two-verse Senryu using the following prompts.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-2

The first Twofer Tuesday for this year's April PAD Challenge invites poets to create a sad poem and/or a happy poem. My poem was a bit of both because it honors a friend who is no longer of this world, but he still visits me in dreams. Believe that or don't. Any comments written with the intent of stirring the shit will be ignored.

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-two-11/

The April PAD Challenge prompt integrated nice like stir fry and rice with the NaPoWriMo prompt, which asks poets to write a platonic love poem. I love my phantom pal very much, and it's always been a platonic kind of love. I'm his kid sister from another mother. When you learn that I'm 59 and he would be 77 if he were still here, that may sound kind of funny. I say there are some people who can make you feel young no matter how old you are, and if you have one of those people on your team, they're an MVP. 

And now, on to Day 3.

Cactus Clem

Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors

"Hey Grover, I'm startin' a black metal band!"

Ghost Town Grover

Free use image from Clker Free Vector Images

"That's swell, Clem! What's it called?"

To understand more about why I think this is funny, read this.

https://www.nme.com/photos/31-illegible-black-metal-band-logos-1435801

This bit of humor isn't entirely original on my part. Someone once posted a photo of a pile of wood on Facebook stating it was going to be their new black metal band's name. 

Now, how in the world did I get started down this path?

Follow along if you dare.

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-three-10/

Today's prompt asks poets to pen a surreal prose poem. They suggest taking inspiration from a collection of Franz Kafka's parables. 

https://read.aimeepong.com/parables/0/

The first thing I saw when I got there was this image.

Image by Aimee Pong

The image rather reminded me of a black metal band logo. Combine that with the April PAD Challenge prompt, which asks participants to include a musical artist in their poem title, and my bad brain started working overtime.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-3

It's serendipity, I suppose, that I'd recently gone down a black metal rabbit hole while doing a bit of research to try and get back into writing the stuff I really love rather than spending most of my creation time trying to generate the elusive social currency. 

I'm not sure I managed to nail the surreal part. I decided to roll with a Haibun. It was speculative but not necessarily surreal. I dedicated it to this dude who used the stage name Dead during his brief life. He has been inspiring my work for a couple of decades now and still does.

Per Ohlin

16 January 1969 - 8 April 1991

He was a talented and creative person, although deeply troubled. I prefer sharing this photo over those in which he's wearing his stage attire. Too much has been made of his image. There is, unfortunately, a notorious photo of the aftermath of his suicide that is still in circulation today. I will repeat what his bandmates from Morbid had to say about that.

No thanks to the distributors and buyers of the post-mortem pic. Fuck you.

I will add this.

Show some damn respect.

Ornery Owl Has Spoken in a Grim and Frostbitten Voice

Image by chiplanay from Pixabay

You don't really want ole Ornery to make a black metal album.

Trust me on this.

April PAD Challenge and NaPoWriMo Prompts 2024 Day One

Image by vikki bilan from Pixabay

Hiya Class! As I do nearly every year, I am participating in the April PAD Challenge from Writers Digest and NaPoWriMo on the down-low. I will be submitting all or most of the poems I create this month to the Soul Ink 2 collection from Dragon Soul Press, and if I publish them before submission, they become ineligible. Le sigh.

If you'd like to submit poems for potential inclusion in Soul Ink 2, here's where you can find out what you've gotta do. If you have further questions, don't ask me. Ask Dragon Soul Press.

https://dragonsoulpress.com/poetrycalls/

I did not submit any poems for the 2023 November PAD Challenge chapbook contest this year because A) I forgot and B) I get the distinct feeling that the host ain't feeling my poetry. No big. 

Here are the prompts I used today.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-1

The April PAD Challenge prompt asked participants to pen an optimistic poem.

Yeah...I failed. My prose poem expressed outrage at a distressing social phenomenon rather than optimism.

https://www.napowrimo.net/here-we-go-2/

Today's prompt from NaPoWriMo petitioned poets to write – without consulting the book – a poem that recounts the plot, or some portion of the plot, of a novel that you remember having liked but that you haven’t read in a long time.

Did I succeed in this quest?

I think so, although I turned my brief summary of the maligned book into a protest against current Orwellian attitudes of unpersoning anyone suspected of standing even slightly in opposition to modern standards of hyper "wokeness", particularly when it's clear that the critic hasn't even opened the contentious tome to page one before calling for the cancellation of the story's deceased author. 

The house is currently being permeated by the mouthwatering scent of the homemade beef jerky I put in the food dehydrator some 45 minutes ago. I then chopped some tofu chunks into the remaining marinade and will use those in a stir fry tonight. 

Homemade jerky is vastly superior to store-bought. You should use tough cuts of meat, like round steak, which make better jerky than the pricier cuts. I have a small Magic Mill food dehydrator, which you can check out on Amazon. I will receive a small commission from any purchases made through this link.

https://amzn.to/3TIGMQg

Enjoy this concert from the Argentinian rock band Soda Stereo.

https://odysee.com/@Filip:f/Soda-Stereo---Estadio-Obras-86-Completo:3?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors

Grodes

 

Image by Else Siegel from Pixabay

Fair warning that the following post is chock-a-block with profanity.

If you're sensitive about that sort of thing, don't read it.

What if we replace

the word prejudice with Grodes--

could we see the truth?

I would like to suggest

we get rid of the Grodes,

rather than eradicate

those who are different,

either by physical means

or by enforced compliance.

I'm no fool, though.

I'm aware that some asshole would come along,

suggesting that the Grodes were the people

who didn't comply

rather than the prejudices

such people face.

They would take my suggestion

that we get rid of the Grodes.

They'd corrupt and pervert it

until it was unrecognizable.

In the end, I'd be blamed

While some motherfucker

who resembled donald tRump

or his idol Vladimir Putin

or some other corrupt dictator

with a cult of personality

would come along

and take all the credit

for getting rid of the Grodes.

Not once acknowledging

that I meant something entirely different. 

How many times, I wonder,

has history laid the blame on some nothing nobody

just trying to make things right,

while the pigs and rat bastards

party in the big house

or the White House,

making a mockery

of anyone who doesn't toe the party line.

I urge the pretty people

to pay close attention

to my cautionary tale.

Anyone can be a Grode

if they step out of line.

It isn't just us ugly fuckers

who wind up

on society's reject pile.

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Image by Emmie_Norfolk from Pixabay

https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2024/02/17/no-nonsense-saturday-mix-17-february-2024/

Ornery Owl's Post-Post Thoughts

The witch at the beginning of the post has a very similar appearance to yours truly, although I stopped dyeing my prematurely graying hair blonde twenty years ago. My hair is thick and resistant to most color formulas, so I have to bleach it first. That process made it brittle. It was coming out in clumps, so one day I said “fuck it.” That moment was freeing.

I will never understand why society treats people who aren’t conventionally attractive as if we’ve committed some sort of crime that we need to be punished for. Couldn’t you just leave us alone?

Fat.

Old.

Ugly.

So what?

No, you don't have permission to use my photo to ridicule me. Go fuck yourself.

https://amzn.to/3vz8uXw

Ornery Owl has a new poetry volume! It's free to borrow on Kindle Unlimited or just $1.99 to own.

Support weirdness! Buy Ornery!

Free use image by Gordon Johnson on Pixabay

Legal Eagle's Corner

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

 BY: credit must be given to the creator.

 NC: Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted.

 SA: Adaptations must be shared under the same terms.

If you have legitimate reason for wanting to use all or part of this work in a for-profit project, drop your email in the comments and I'll contact you. 

https://odysee.com/@Alex4History:8/Alice-Cooper---Love-It-to-Death-%281971%29--Full-Album-:6?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

Prodigal Moon Poem #WeWriWa

 

Genre:

Poetry plus a supernatural coming of age story (vampires). 

Buy Link:

https://amzn.to/3vz8uXw 

Publication Date:

February 15, 2024

Ebook Price:

$1.99 or free with Kindle Unlimited

Book Blurb:

The poems, story, and thoughts included in this brief volume were inspired by the independently produced album Wayward and Upward by Spinoza Gambit. The story Prodigal Moon and the poem 401 Rush were included in the Wayward and Upward anthology published by Off Topic Press.

I opted to publish this book on my 59th birthday. It would be a wonderful gift to learn that my work inspired you or led you to learn more about the Wayward and Upward album and anthology.

With love,

Ornery Owl

Book Length:

49 pages

Excerpt

About Prodigal Moon

I was inspired by the idea of something that disappears and returns on a predictable schedule (the visible moon) and something that cannot return (a lost love.)

Prodigal Moon 

Prodigal moon

You can spin me a silent tune

But you can’t return my love to me

I dare you to try

Catch him on the fly

Before he escapes ‘cross the sea

Author Bio

Ornery Owl is a wise old bird who seeks the truth behind the lies. She uses her observations to heal the wounded soul. In essence, she is the spirit of an odd little bird whose wings were clipped at a young age. She is at once a whimsical manifestation of poetic expression and a fierce protector of those targeted for derision by an angry and unsympathetic world. Depending on how you perceive her, she can be either a goddamned delight or your worst nightmare.   

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Ornery Owl's Mercifully Brief End of Post Rumination

No one:

“Gosh, I wonder how Ornery Owl deals with imposter syndrome.”

Me:

“Well, boy howdy, I’m glad you asked! Let me tell you all about that!”

The answer:

I still haven’t got that shit figured out.

I know I’m capable of writing between 1000 and 2000 words a day, no problem.

I take on multiple writing projects every month.

I complete at least one project every month.

I submit or self-publish something every month.

Yet I still find myself thinking “I just can’t do this” and sabotaging myself every month, waiting till the last minute to complete said project.

http://wewriwa.blogspot.com

Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors

Happy Valentine's Day aka Eat Chocolate Day and One Day Before Ornery Owl's Birthday aka Resting Bitch Face That Never Rests Day from the fiends at Naughty Netherworld Press.

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