Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Poems of Spring 2021 Remix

 


Image by David Bruyland from Pixabay

when you look at this rumpled old thing
just what is it that you see?
shall we plant a fence of trees
that will outlive you and me?

the miscreant heir who plays bass at purple twilight
Mad melodies marauding through my mind
Make me want to defy reality
How can I lift myself above this insanity?

dark havens for Stepford girls
mold and shape little women
made delicate like china
staring, pitying, patronizing

I didn't break you
although I cannot mend you
I will support you
if you will allow me to

Dear Cosmic Chef,
Was it fair of you to make me a mind 
that loves cooking up big dreams 
but has no freedom to fulfill them?

In retrospect, I can see 
why you thought Hollywood was wrong for my tastes.
But why didn't you see fit to give me even a morsel of talent?
Or even the smallest sprinkling of pizazz?

I could accept the fact 
that only the most half-baked mind 
could envision me as erotic.

But giving me the appearance 
of a blob of gritty icing 
atop a melted ice cream cake 
left sitting in the sun?

I won't stand for it, and I demand a refund.

waiting for the process server sucks
From where I'm sitting
There are doves and sparrows in the tree outside my window
Plotting to take a dump on my car

six-time loser down on her luck
at least this afternoon
we'll be able to hit the food bank

Would you believe that I am trying to be more like Pooh?
That willy-nilly silly old bear is my real hero.
Because he’s good-natured even when he’s bothered.

Every year one more piece of the past
Floats away on the winding river of time
many years have passed since I last visited a temple
or took a walk anywhere I felt at peace

Everything has changed so much in my old town
When my mother is gone, I will visit there no more
It brings back too many painful memories
Even with the passing of years, some wounds never heal

I don't hear too much from the birds outside my window
they fly to and fro, perching soundlessly
I slowly knit a headband and a scarf
from multicolored yarn, gold and red like autumn

I look at the birds outside my window
when my cats are gone, I will have no more
my heart is still an open wound from those lost before
night will fall regardless of what happens

love is a rat
caught in a trap
I clung onto his arm like a tattoo design
feared his desire would flicker like a dying flame

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?

The first rain of the season was Thursday
Both the left and right are off their rocker
It's a sick, sad world
believe me or don't

~cie~


Music mix while I remix:


Write a remix poem.


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


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Saturday, May 15, 2021

Senryu: Believe It or Don't

 

Image by John Hain from Pixabay


I am not ringlorn

within my agnosthesia

believe me or don't

~cie~


Day 27: Write a "believe" or "don't believe" poem.

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

Write a poem inspired by an entry from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Overachiever that I am, I selected not one but two entries. I'm such a teacher's pet.

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


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Sly's Feminist Poetry: It's a Sick, Sad World

 

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

All around me are the indoctrinated
Catechized places, brainwashed faces
Hating the liberals and non-white races
Going nowhere, going nowhere

Rage fills their eyes behind their glasses
Hateful expression, disdainful expression
Hide my head, it fills me with sorrow
I fear for tomorrow, I fear for tomorrow

It isn't very funny
It makes me pretty sad
The American dream lays dying
Replaced with something bad
Cheeto Stalin has something to sell you
He thinks all news is fake
His devotees run in circles
It's a sick, sad world
A sick, sad world




Children waiting for the day they feel good
In a world of rigid ideals based on their sex
That tell them to be stereotypes of what a boy or girl should
Indoctrination, indoctrination

Some kids don't check the boxes, they're shy and nervous
Their parents misconstrue them, counselors undo them
That they were made wrong is their earliest lesson
Docs prescribe drugs to undo them, surgeons cut and reskew them

I don't think it's very funny
I think it's pretty sad
Gender fundamentalists say kids are dying
If a sex change isn't had
I once fell for gender doctrine
But it really takes the cake
When doctors give puberty blockers to healthy children
It's a sick, sad world, a sick, sad world

Both the left and right are off their rocker
It's a sick, sad world

~cie~

you're gonna need the notes
To sum things up:
Biden is doing a better job than I expected him to do. I knew that he couldn't be worse than tRump (it's pretty hard to be worse than that), but he's worked hard and made excellent progress.

I was appalled by the January 6 insurrection and disgusted that its ringleader, tRumpty Dumpty, is not yet in prison. I rather fear that he never will be.

I vehemently disagree with President Biden and with anyone else parroting gender theory unexamined and unchecked. I'm a live and let live kind of person. Transgender people deserve the same civil rights as anyone else. However, something has gone badly amiss, and no one is benefiting from it but big pharma and the medical-industrial complex.

There have always been gender-nonconforming people, but sex reassignment surgery was a relatively rare phenomenon and was only performed on adults. In Abigail Shrier's book "Irreversible Damage," transman Buck Angel discusses the process that he went through in order to transition, including extensive counseling and psychological assessment. 

A transgender person such as Buck Angel experiences extreme dysphoria regarding their biological sex. In Buck's case, taking steps to make his feminine body appear masculine helped alleviate his crippling dysphoria. Buck acknowledges and has honestly discussed the fact that he is biologically female and has shared his wisdom for other transmen to benefit from. 

I do not have a problem with Buck Angel or Caitlyn Jenner. They are adults who have taken what they feel are necessary steps to alleviate their dysphoria. I have no issue with using their chosen pronouns. Live and let live.

The problem is that no one is allowed to discuss the possible pitfalls with gender transition or they run the risk of being bullied and threatened, including physically. Gender ideology is a cult. If anyone expresses critical thoughts about prescribing puberty blockers and surgery to vulnerable children or troubled adolescents, one is shouted down as a "transphobe" or TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist.)

If one dares to take exception to misogynistic and dehumanizing terms such as birthing parents, chestfeeders, cervix havers, front hole havers, menstruators, non-men, or uterus havers, one is shouted down as a TERF. While there are references to "non-birthing parents," no one refers to men as penis-havers, prostate-havers, or sperm producers. Women are bullied for protesting the loss of female-specific terms to describe our lived experiences.

If one dares suggest that male-bodied people do not belong on women's sports teams because of their unfair physical advantages, that person is dismissed and branded a TERF. This recently happened to Caitlyn Jenner, who, as most people know, is an award-winning Olympic athlete who competed for the USA men's team prior to transition. Jenner's thoughts on the matter are sensible, but she is being written off as a "traitor" for expressing them rather than falling in line with gender fundamentalism.

Perhaps most sinister is the rise in childhood transition. Drugs such as puberty blockers are known to promote issues such as early-onset osteoporosis. Adolescent girls are having their healthy breasts removed. I do not believe that children and adolescents should be prescribed these drugs or given these surgeries. Guess what happens to anyone who expresses that opinion.

Transgenderism is a complex issue, and I find it sinister that it is impossible to discuss it without being bullied, berated, and threatened. In this case, it is the left rather than the right who are behaving in an unenlightened, fascist manner.

I leave you with links to books that address the subjects of childhood transition (of girls in particular) and the silencing of women critical of the current trend.




A banner from the now-defunct Gender Critical Feminism Reddit, which was removed for "hate speech." 
"Hate speech" means expressing opinions critical of transing children and silencing women.


Sick, Sad World was an infotainment program from the television show "Daria."


Day 26: Write a (Blank) World Poem

Day 26: Write a parody poem
The work parodied is the 1982 song Mad World, written by Roland Orzibal and performed by Tears for Fears.


Write a "disappointment" poem

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


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Sunday, April 25, 2021

Late April Thoughts

 

Image source: NASA


It’s around the time of my son’s birthday

My soul, restless

The first rain of the season was Thursday

~cie~




Day 25: Write a "thought" poem


Day 25: Write an "occasion" poem


Today's prompt was the image at the top of the post.





AROUND
FIRST
WAS


https://sammiscribbles.wordpress.com/2021/04/24/weekend-writing-prompt-206-restless/



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


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Saturday, April 24, 2021

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

Day 24: Write a question poem.

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. 

I changed "he" to "she."

Wordle

Kiss

Eyelashes

Long

Bohemian

Raise

Deepest

Plummet

Reckless

Jaguar

Specious- superficially plausible, but actually wrong

Collapsible

Colorful


Write a "minute" poem.

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: 

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:

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.



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

Use the sound "oop" somewhere in your work.




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)


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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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Thursday, April 22, 2021

Cressida de Nova: National Poetry Writing Month - Day 18

Cressida de Nova: National Poetry Writing Month - Day 18:  Day 18 Shadorma       ma memere taught me how to sew these french knots not easy my rosy cheek'd grandmother was such a darling    

Wow! Both the poem and the needlework are very impressive.

Sail Me to China

 

Qianhu Miao Village
Image by 波 胡 from Pixabay

winding river of time

Every year one more piece of the past

Floats away on the winding river of time

I watch the last ones travel, serene before my eyes,

And drink in bitter dregs of sorrow

Birds nest in the tree outside my window

April winds blow cold between the tombstones

I make a conscious effort to find joy in this sad world

For everything would be lost if there were no happiness at all

72 words


Winding River ~ Du Fu

“Each piece of flying blossom leaves spring the less,

I grieve as myriad points float in the wind.

I watch the last ones move before my eyes,

And cannot have enough wine pass my lips.

Kingfishers nest by the little hall on the river,

Unicorns lie at the high tomb’s enclosure.

Having studied the world, one must seek joy,

For what use is the trap of passing honour?“


now the notes

This poem is a good poem. It mostly obeys the rules--mostly. It checks most of the boxes. It doesn't make too many waves.

You are welcome to stop reading at the end of these Necessary Notes and call this visit good. However, if you'd like to follow this slacker by nature down a conversely overachieving rabbit hole, come along with me and see what other variations on Chinese poetry I have to offer. You needn't spend even one penny from your coffer, because, you see, this ride is free.

Image by beate bachmann from Pixabay

a momentary respite

many years have passed since I last visited a temple

or took a walk anywhere I felt at peace

I remember visiting the botanic gardens at night

The tolling bell calls the people to worship on Sunday

A tiny stream ran through the neighborhood where I used to live

There was a forest behind where green pines chilled the sunlight’s coloured rays.

I used to walk through woods or stream alone

Looking at the clouds I could see dragons playing


Stopping at Incense Storing Temple ~ Wang Wei

“I did not know the incense storing temple,

I walked a few miles into the clouded peaks.

No man on the path between the ancient trees,

A bell rang somewhere deep among the hills.

A spring sounded choked, running down steep rocks,

The green pines chilled the sunlight’s coloured rays.

Come dusk, at the bend of a deserted pool,

Through meditation I controlled passion’s dragon.“


the end of everything

as a child, I dreamed about the horse of time

now too many things fade into the past

I like seeing the moon shining in my window

It is as beautiful as the moon was in my childhood

Everything has changed so much in my old town

When my mother is gone, I will visit there no more

It brings back too many painful memories

Even with the passing of years, some wounds never heal


Oh When Will Autumn Moon and Spring Flowers End (The Beautiful Lady Yu) ~ Li Yu

“Oh, when will autumn moon and spring flowers end?

How many past events I’ve known.

The east wind buffeted my room again last night,

I cannot bear to remember the bright moon of the old country.

The marble steps and carved balustrades must still be there,

The people’s rosy cheeks are all that’s changed.

How much sorrow can one man have to bear?

As much as a river of spring water flowing east“


the birds

I don't hear too much from the birds outside my window

they fly to and fro, perching soundlessly

I slowly knit a headband and a scarf

from multicolored yarn, gold and red like autumn

I will never again try to weave romantic love into my life

better to be lonely alone than lonely in love


Crows calling at Night ~ Li bai

“Yellow clouds beside the walls; crows roosting near.

Flying back, they caw, caw; calling in the boughs.

In the loom she weaves brocade, the Qin river girl.

Made of emerald yarn like mist, the window hides her words.

She stops the shuttle, sorrowful, and thinks of the distant man.

She stays alone in the lonely room, her tears just like the rain.“


hope for today

I must drive, so I hope it will not snow

60 miles to the veterinary hospital

night will fall regardless of what happens

my cat behaves the same as she ever did

If I could drink wine, I would

I look at the birds outside my window

when my cats are gone, I will have no more

my heart is still an open wound from those lost before


Flood ~ T’ao  Chien

“The lingering clouds, rolling, rolling,

And the settled rain, dripping, dripping,

In the Eight Directions—the same dusk.

The level lands—one great river.

Wine I have, wine I have:

Idly I drink at the eastern window.

Longingly—I think of my friends,

 But neither boat nor carriage comes.“

~cie~


https://dversepoets.com/2021/04/20/poetics-china-kingdom-of-the-poem/

These poems and the following prompt comes from the D'Verse Poets Poetics Challenge for 22 April 2021.

The Poetics’ Challenge here is: Select any ONE of the above poems and with as many re-reads as you need, imagine what the poet has painted, what impressions are conveyed. Then:-

reinterpret the poem in your own style

OR for those of you who prefer a classical form then:-

2. re-interpret the poem in the Chinese LUSHI style

eight lines long of couplets – The first couplet should set-up the poem; the middle two couplets develop the theme, the final couple is conclusion

each line must have the same number of words, either 5,6, or 7.

a mono-rhyme is on every even-numbered line

Caesura (a pause) should separate clauses.

WHICHEVER STYLE YOU CHOOSE YOU SHOULD:-

use the same title

not re-use more than a very few (if any) of the poet’s words

cite the poet at the end of your post. [Alternatively, parallel the original with your own poem- by using a 2 column layout]

OTHER PROMPTS USED


Day 21: Write a (Blank) Me poem.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2021-april-pad-challenge-day-21

Since I'm working with Chinese poetry, I settled on the title Sail Me to China.


Day 22: Write a nature poem.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2021-april-pad-challenge-day-22

There are references to nature in these poems.

(Sometimes I wish I could throw Grammarly out the window and just bloody well write without red lines appearing all over the place.)



Day 21: Use a line with a repetitive set-up such as "when the..." or "'twas like" as in the poem "There Was a Man of Double Deed."

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-twenty-one-6/

I didn't do this.

Day 22: write a poem that invokes a specific object as a symbol of a particular time, era, or place.

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

I didn't really do this. I used the tree outside my window as a repeated point of reference.

https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2021/04/22/three-things-challenge-576/


Write about the month of April.

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


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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.

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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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