NaPo 5: A cheat

A Cheat
I feel like a cheat
But I have so much work left...
Only a haiku

And then another
Because it takes far too long
To keep these things short

I don't have the time
To abbreviate my thoughts
And still keep them clear

There's still so much work!
A presentation to do
Put off forever.

So I can't write poems --
Or is that first line six beats?
I don't really know...

Counting syllables
Is an addictive pursuit
But I don't have time!

I can't... cannot... do
This ridiculous night's work
After the lock-out

But if I do not
Then I'll be forced to concede
On only day five.

Napo 4: Loneliness

Working off the NaPo prompt, to use concrete imagery for an abstract concept.

Loneliness
The clock ticking at midnight.
Lights on, humming low
but loud in the silence
Cat sleeping
dreaming and twitching her toes

The keyboard is sticky
And a little squeaky as I hit each key
My phone beeps
Squawks
Video game feet kllp-kllp-kllping
down the Hawkins paths
YouTube playing
CocoLegallyBlondeHairJCSCinemaSinsReactionsReviewsPolitics
Whatever
Keep it quiet enough
not to wake the neighbors
But it doesn't matter otherwise

Fast food boxes and drinks
Scattered on the desk
I haven't used the stove for days
(though I actually like to cook)

Will I go to bed soon? 
After the day's poem?

I don't care, and neither does anyone else.

The clock continues ticking
On its way to one.

And two.

The lights hum.

And I finish.

I have a game to return to.

And a sleeping cat.

And maybe, eventually, sleep.

NaPo 3: Lost in the Gray

Well, the NaPo  prompt today was about band names, but I couldn't get into it.  It did get me thinking about music though, so I thought I'd try something like lyrics for a pop song.

Lost in the Gray 
(lyrics)
Lost in the gray
I see a light shining through for me--
the things that you do for me,
guiding me on.

Just a roll of the dice
sent me far from your side
into the deepest dark
where monsters abide

Just a twist of bad luck
a wrong turn on the road
and I was lost in the shadows
where cold rivers flowed

Lost in the gray
I see a light shining through for me--
the things that you do for me,
guiding me on.

I called out for you
in the fog and the mist
and I felt you nearby
like the night we first kissed

I heard your voice in my heart
and I began to see
the light filtered in
and I knew I'd be free

Lost in the gray
I see a light shining through for me--
the things that you do for me,
guiding me on.

The monsters still move
in the shadows below
But I'm moving away
Toward the love that I know

Lost in the gray
I see a light shining through for me--
the things that you do for me,
guiding me on.

NaPo 2: Accents

Okay, this one's a little better than yesterday's.  I do like a sonnet here and there. It's old-fashioned, but so be it.;p

Accents
(Elizabethan Sonnet)
I always craved an accent of my own
A voice that said I came from somewhere real
A place of hoary words and ancient stone
Where tales would flow and mossy bells would peal.

The words would fall like gentle, lilting leaves
And each would be a gift from voices past
Old songs and words would ring down from the eaves
And I would know my secret name at last

Instead, my voice is flat and harsh as ice
As gray as Erie's endless shallow waves
The nasal tones that only would suffice
In the nowhere that I find my fathers' graves

My real voice sings of nearby country lanes
And the factories, farms, and Yankees in my veins.

NaPo 1: The Storm Cloud

Blech. Not an inspiring start

The Storm Cloud
(Villanelle)
Inside the cloud, the storms already rage,
the anxious pleadings of their impatient cast
To raise the curtain on a furious stage.

Beneath the sky, the heavens form a cage
We can't know how long the rain will last
And inside the cloud, the storms already rage.

The duration is impossible to gauge
Now that we have all the players massed
To raise the curtain on a furious stage.

The tempest shouldn't strike in reason's age!
The storm is something breaking from the past...
But inside the cloud, the storms already rage.

And the orders have gone out to engage
The bombers will release a fatal blast
And raise the curtain on a furious stage.

The coming storm is taunting's heavy wage
And when it comes, the burning will be fast --
Inside the cloud, the storms already rage,
To raise the curtain on a furious stage.

Aw, why not keep going early?

So... I did an iconograph.  Because, why not?

NaPoWriMo is approaching

Just creating a tag to stick (hopefully) daily poems on for NaPoWriMo.  I can do this.  Yup. Done it before.

Once.

Well, I did literally just write sixteen poems in two hours (wrote the instructions for 16 kinds of short forms in verse), but that was at work, so it doesn't really count.

I haven't made a real habit of poetry for about four years.  Let's see how it goes...

Heh, I'm starting a little early.  Just wrote a virelai to fill out a chapbook, and I kind of love it.

Ooh, Shiny!

What was I thinking, just moments ago?

I lost the thread as it sped to and fro!

How was I trav'ling and where would I go?

And people around me are staring...

Other folks keep to their topics, I know

They can stay steady and manage the flow

But me? I'm constantly erring!

I grab shiny things like a raven or crow

No, that's a magpie, they're all corvids, though...

Oh, blast, now I'm off again, raring!

Thoughts won't stay in order, above or below

I hope I can cover it, so it won't show

But inside, I'm kind of despairing.

What was I thinking, just moments ago?

I lost the thread as it sped to and fro!

How was I trav'ling and where would I go?

And people around me are staring!