Bragging Rights

Okay, it's been a long time since I've posted photos of the kids, which was the original intention of this blog, by the way.  I let my beautiful, photos spamming, kid blog get tarnished by silly things like creative writing.  Enough of that, you need a kid fix, don't you?  

Well, I just happened to have received some gorgeous ones today and I can't help but share them!

Enjoy!

  

Alex, age 9

Connor, age 7

 Kirstin, age 6

 Brooklynn, age 1.5

C'est fini!

And now for our final (yet still optional!) prompt. Today, as befits the final poem of NaPoWriMo, I challenge you to write a poem of farewell. It doesn’t have to be goodbye forever — like I said, NaPoWriMo will be back again next year. If you need a little inspiration, you might find some in perusing this selection of goodbye-and-good-luck poems from the Poetry Foundation website.

Happy writing, everyone, and good-bye, and see you next year!

The terzanelle is a modified villanelle. It uses the terza rima's interlocked rhyme pattern, but fits the villanelle form of five triplets and a quatrain. In addition, the middle line of the 1st stanza becomes the third line of the next stanza, and so on, such that the terzanelle is a huge pain, but worth the effort and determination to finish.

A Farewell to April

It is difficult word to say

When one must summon an honest farewell

Farewell to April, welcome sweet May

It does not pay to consistently dwell

On the sodden grass and cool damp air

When one must summon an honest farewell

April rolls out quietly, brown and bare

Signs of life emerge, so tentative

On the sodden grass and cool damp air

The birds return and the flowers live

As the month comes to a final close

Signs of life emerge, so tentative

There's poetry in spring, sweeter than prose

Ceasing with the last of winter's remains

As the month comes to a final close

Farewell dank earth, farewell melting rains

It is a difficult word to say

Ceasing with the last of winter's remains

Farewell to April, welcome sweet May

-Laura Freeman-

April 30, 2014

WTF kind of a prompt is that?????

A Tanka

Today's prompt scares me

Twenty challenges, one poem

No one can do that

At least not without more time

Tonight I would rather sleep.

... aww, what the hell, I'll give it a whirl...

I'm a little too tired tonight to attempt the prompt:

Sleep is an elusive mistress

I haven't slept in eighteen days

My bed beckons, it smells of fresh laundry

It is soft, colourful, tastes like lint, and rustles

The blankets smell blue and fuzzy.

Laura doesn't understand synesthesia

When she's in Vanderhoof

Last night while I slept,

I dreamed that I was flying

I'm flying to Newfoundland in July

For a wedding

I am practicing my Newfinese

If I'm not well versed in the local slang,

The lobster won't taste as sweet

And I won't be able to wish the newlyweds

A hearty "Long may your jib draw."

The province, it beckons with its

Salty air of friendship

I had to google abstract noun

on my typewriter

Which I immediately dismantled

and put back together in

alphabetical order

Mommy doesn't have a nickname,

Just a title.

Mommy will be amazed by all the sights that

She will see in Newfoundland

The land surrounded by the

Uncoordinated Atlantic

C'est la vie

While the airplane laughs in the sky

And I sleep.

-Laura Freeman-

April 29th

1. Begin the poem with a metaphor.
2. Say something specific but utterly preposterous.
3. Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem.
4. Use one example of synesthesia (mixing the senses).
5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.
6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.
7. Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.
8. Use a word (slang?) you’ve never seen in a poem.
9. Use an example of false cause-effect logic.
10. Use a piece of talk you’ve actually heard (preferably in dialect and/or which you don’t understand).
11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: “The (adjective) (concrete noun) of (abstract noun) . . .”
12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative qualities.
13. Make the persona or character in the poem do something he or she could not do in “real life.”
14. Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.
15. Write in the future tense, such that part of the poem seems to be a prediction.
16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.
17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.
18. Use a phrase from a language other than English.
19. Make a non-human object say or do something human (personification).
20. Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but that “echoes” an image from earlier in the poem.

Status

I took a lot of poetic license interpreting today's prompt: "Today I challenge you to find a news article, and to write a poem using (mostly, if not only) words from the article! You can repeat them, splice them, and rearrange them however you like. Although the vocabulary may be “just the facts,” your poem doesn’t have to be — it doesn’t even have to be about the subject of the news article itself. Happy writing!"  Since I rarely watch the news anymore, I glean most of my current events from my "news feed", which is, arguably, mostly rubbish. So, here is a snippet of what my "friends" have to say, today.

Today on Facebook
No one announced their pregnancy
Or bad-mouthed their boyfriend

No one posted a funny quip
about their children's quirkiness,
Or slung offensive thoughts
About abortion or gay rights.

Instead, I learned that:

Your chocolate shell is a vessel
In search of music
To my fetal family,
Celebrate
Pickled ram testicles
Does anyone else's skin crawl?
This has got to stop,
It's only been twenty-four years
For a long time
I didn't even notice.
Blame your sister!
I always enjoy those afternoons
Supported instead of judged.
Time to get a move on'
Love is louder.
If you want to interrupt, feel free,
What's the worst that can happen?

It was a slow day on my wall.
Time to socialize with real people.
Alas, they're all sitting front of their screens

Knackered now

From their status updates!

-Laura Freeman-
April 28, 2014

When I Was Your Age

When I was your age,
We watched tv in black and white,
Cartoons on Saturday morning,
And occasionally Disney
On Sunday night.

When I was your age,
I knew how to dial a phone,
And I had my conversations
Attached to the wall,
Not wandering cordless through the home.

When I was your age,
My teacher wrote with chalk,
And when we wanted to chat
With one another,
We actually had to talk.

When I was your age,
My running shoes had laces,
My bicycle had three speeds,
And we didn't own a helmet,
To protect our precious faces.

When I was your age,
We passed notes folded elaborately,
Skyping was a thing of science fiction,
And my pen pal 
Actually wrote to me.

When I was your age,
Tweeting was something 
Only birds would know,
A face book was my High School year book,
And pinning was something
You did before you sew.

When I was your age,
There were prizes in our cereal,
Restaurants were for special treats,
And we washed with ordinary soap 
Not labelled anti-bacterial.

When I was your age,
I had to pay a quarter
To use a phone that wasn't mine,
But heck, it could have been worse,
Your father had a party line!

When I was your age,
Thirty seven was practically geriatric,
I never imagined youth would leave me,
And that Father Time would play
This rather dirty trick.

When I was your age,
Life was a little less convenient,
And yet we still survived.
I used to dream about the wonders of the future,
And, my children, that future has arrived!

-Laura Freeman-
April 27, 2014

A Curtel Sonnet

Now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today’s prompt comes to us from Vince Gotera, who wrote his “family member” poem for Day 20 in the form of a curtal sonnet. As Vince explains, the curtal sonnet is shorter than the normal, fourteen line sonnet. Instead it has a first stanza of six lines, followed by a second stanza of four, and then closes with a half-line. The form was invented in the 1800s by Gerard Manley Hopkins, who used it in his famous poem “Pied Beauty”. So for today, I challenge you to give the curtal sonnet a whirl. It doesn’t need to rhyme — though it can if you like — and feel free to branch out beyond iambic pentameter. Happy writing!

April Showers

The air stagnates, heavy before the rain,
Dark crowds roll in obscuring my vision,
Of the sun, so welcome in April morn.
I find myself wishing for light again
And we scurry to complete our mission
Intent to beat out the impending storm.
Before the clouds release on us their wrath,
Swirling, and gathering; We quicken our pace,
And race for home taking the shortest path,
A spring walk cut short; Droplets tease my face,
Before the rain.

Laura Freeman
April 26, 2014

Error

Error, Error, Error

I stared at the screen, my brain in a haze,
It's easy, they'd said, it's online these days!

Error, Error, Error

Just fill in a few details, point and click,
But when I try it, I'm missing a trick.

Error, Error, Error

Login failed... do a password reset,
A jumble of numbers and letters, and yet...

Error, Error, Error

What?  I'm sure that's the password, that's got to be it!
I just finished resetting, you piece of shit!

Error, Error, Error

Now the wheel keeps endlessly spinning,
The webpage is frozen, the computer is winning!

Error, Error, Error

Information is missing? Are you kidding me?
What field did I miss? Why are you screwing with me?

Error, Error, Error

Email support then wait days for a useless reply,
Or go back to the office and tear a strip off the guy!

Error, Error, Error

Aah, customer service, in English, back in the day,
Meant speaking to someone who knew what to say

Error, Error, Error

Now everything is online and the assumption is that,
Wifi is in every house and in every flat

Error, Error, Error

Instead of standing in line for the next available clerk
I sit on my phone, at my screen, like a jerk!

Error, Error, Error

Technology is the way of the future? Bullshit!
Oh, how I miss carbon paper in triplicate!