April PAD Challenge + NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 11

 

Image by Goran Horvat from Pixabay

Hey Poetry People! Today's April PAD Challenge asks participants to write a memory poem.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-11

Meanwhile, today's NaPoWriMo prompt asks participants to "honor the ones in the number eleven."

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

They suggest creating a monostitch (a one-line poem) or making a poem inspired by single lines. I took inspiration from the first line of the poem Lines For the Fortune Cookies.

https://allpoetry.com/Lines-For-The-Fortune-Cookies

The first line of this poem is I think you're wonderful and so does everyone else.

I can assure you, this is something no one ever said to me. I more often heard about everything I was doing wrong than anything I was doing right. Apparently, I was doing a whole lot of things wrong. This bothered me quite a bit for most of my life. I'm pretty resigned to it now. In any case, I wrote a Tanka about what a disappointment I was for my parents. They were expecting a sweet, well-behaved, adorable little girl, not the freakish fuckup they ended up with. So it goes. 

Stop by again tomorrow. I may have more poetry and thoughts to share.

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Image by Kay Wille from Pixabay

Ornery Owl Sez:

It's not easy being green. Or ornery.

April PAD Challenge + NaPoWriMo 2024: Writing Prompts Day 8, 9, 10

 

Image by Peter Schmidt from Pixabay

I got way off track, Poetry People, but that's all right. Let's get back on the rails.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-8

Today's April PAD Challenge prompt asked us to write about a major event. I chose the eclipse. I wasn't in the path of totality and the sun was behind the clouds anyway.

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

I combined this prompt with the Day 9 prompt from NaPoWriMo and wrote an ode to the partial eclipse I didn't see.

Image by Chil Vera from Pixabay

For my next trick, I used a form I like to call Six Squared. This is a six-line poem with six syllables per line.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-9

I did a bit of a different take with the Twofer Tuesday format, which asks participants to create a love and/or anti-love poem. I wrote about spirit guides and how much it must suck to try and help corporeal fuckers who ignore every sign you send them. 

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

My use of the NaPoWriMo prompt in this poem is a bit obscure. The prompt asks participants to write a poem that centers around an encounter or relationship between two people (or things) that shouldn’t really have ever met – whether due to time, space, age, the differences in their nature, or for any other reason.

I've never come to terms with the veil between worlds thing. Without going into details, I've seen some shit and experienced some other shit. This shit is the reason I'm an agnostic rather than a full-on atheist. However, more often than not, the living are just left stranded to be mired in grief when they lose someone who meant the world to them. 

It's a shitty system, and I like it not. However, I can't do anything about it, so I wrote a cheeky poem about it because that's how I roll. Maybe someday, light years from here, some other misfit fucker will read my poem and say to him or herself:

"At last! Another fucker who gets it!"

To that person, I say from my place in your distant past, I salute you!

https://yesterdaysprint.tumblr.com/post/161407476014/honolulu-star-bulletin-hawaii-may-26-1913

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-10

Today's April PAD Challenge prompt tasks participants with writing a Blank Better poem.

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

Meanwhile, the NaPoWriMo prompt suggests writing a poem about a news tidbit found on the Yesterday's Print Tumblr. I take it no one is surprised that I chose a story about a cussing parrot.

That's me catching up. Until tomorrow!

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Image by Erik Karits from Pixabay

https://odysee.com/@RokTorkar:4/easter-2am-house-mix:0?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

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