NaPoWriMo 2023

A higgledy-piggledy approach

I’m not officially doing NaPoWriMo this year because I have so much on my literary plate right now. I’ve participated every year since 2015, not necessarily every day of the month some years, but I tried. Poetry was my first writing love. The first poem I remember writing was in third grade when our class was invited to read our poems over the local radio in Spring Lake, NC. I don’t remember the words but I remember it was to or about my stepdad who was fighting in Viet Nam. There was a long hiatus from poetry writing and I didn’t pick up the pen again until the mid 90s and didn’t write regularly until about 2007. Lately, I haven’t written much poetry. I feel like I’ve lost the muse for it.

But I took a look at Paul Brooks’ ekphrastic challenge for day 2 last night, (here) and fell in love with “In the Emerald Sea (OVP2)-Superstition Review”, above, one of todays art prompts. Thanks to Paul and the artist, Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad, for the inspiration.

Then I used a word generator to suggest a few words. They were economy, red, path, overeat, jam, sunrise.

This is what happened: I thought I’d write something about color. I think I ended up with a political poem, so not like me. Actually, it’s more about how the rhetoric from both sides is wearing me (a lot of us) completely out. I feel inundated with politics, it feels like it’s invaded every dark corner of social life. It feels like a lot of people don’t even try to understand the other side. It feels uncivilized. Anyway, here it is.

EVERY DAY WE MAKE A CHOICE

I’ve forsaken red,
it’s look-at-me bluster & narcissistic blasts
it makes my neck sweat with its
needling & finagling 

I’m plugging my ears on blue,
It’s holier-than-thou proselytizing & pitifying 
it makes my head ache with its
rules & rants, it’s only one path 

Give me peach jam sunrises & cool green choices,
rounds that roll, picking up & letting go, 
adapting & growing, heels that dig out not in,
overeating kindness, economizing kicks