Nothing Like the Sun

Contrasts in word choice (based on Sonnet 23):


- Reckless
- Violent
- Charging
- Seizing
- Grabbing


- Careful
- Floating
- Hovering
- River boat
- Following the path


Opposites:
- Pacifistic
- Approaching
- Letting go
- .
- Careless
- Sinking
- Jet
- Going off-road

^ Didn't use all of these in the poem, but it was the start of the process.

Initial draft I then edited down:

People need to know that they are loved
not just as a mention in a speech,
not just the words that say
you are a loving person,
like a dictate that makes it true.

Loving is a title not bestowed by one alone,
but a kind of hovering half-reflection
in sun and gently whispering rain,
a paper boat upon the river path
that nods together with water.

So don’t use ‘loving’ when you lift yourself
like a frozen crown above the trunk and roots
that doesn’t love the tree that holds it up
that doesn’t know what river feeds it
that tries to stray from paths
it never half-approaches.

Notes:
- The stress patterns (meter) in this one are a lot more all-over-the-place, but like a sketch I just wanted to get this down
- Shakespeare’s use of different kinds of art (theatre, painting) as a metaphor within a poem inspired this

Notes:

- Not the most creative I've been in terms of imagery
- It's based on the following lines from Sonnet 34 + unconscious emulation of Shakespeare's financial metaphors:

“For no man well of such a salve can speak
That heals the wound and cures not the disgrace.
Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief;
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss” – Sonnet 34

Sonnet 34 actually does a reversal of this sentiment and is a love poem. So my little poem here is a reversal of that reversal, making it an anti-love poem xD

A second take on the idea behind a NaPo 2020 poem. Instead of a pantoum, I've written an initial quatrain and then repeated each line of the quatrain as the beginning of another quatrain. Not sure if this is an existing form with a totally different name, but there we go, I have un-pantoumed a pantoum (and put it in iambic pentameter, thanks Shakespeare).

A new sonnet (without the *regular* end rhyming) inspired by an old sonnet I wrote in NaPo 2020. The old sonnet had more unity of imagery than I thought it did, but I primarily focused on the idea of orange/flame-coloured light and let that take up as much of the poem's imagery as possible. I think this might be my last one for this NaPo unless I get a real itch to continue this project right away. But for now I'll celebrate 15 poems!

hey limi! i love reading your poetry so much. the way you write really makes me slow down and focus on every word instead of just reading it. you have such a unique and wonderful way of writing and i love it so much. in your last poem i especially liked the third stanza. everything just blends perfectly into itself and it's awesome. incredible job this year! <3