14. 'brushing your hair is an achievement' or 'survival is not genetic' strength resides not in the foundations (not the bones holding you up nor the heart in your chest nor the blood through your veins nor the brain in your head) but in the care taken to keep the structure maintained
Spoiler! :
I'm off to bed now, but idk, I think this is meant to be inspiring or something? I have to sleep now. Stuff to do tomorrow. Several hours later, in a more coherent extension of this, I think I was talking about how who you're born as doesn't define you and what you're capable of, but rather the steps you take to build yourself up that define what you can do.
15. Sunday Storms there is peace in the thunder in the bitter autumn rain in the grey skies watching over and the darkness that holds sway
there is peace in the lightning how it arcs across the night before the call of thunder reigning light upon the sky
there is peace in the water that rushes aimless from above touching earth with trepid wonder like the heavens weren't enough
there is peace in the rolling clouds how they blanket out the stars as if the world is all alone and that safety isn't far
there is quiet in the darkness that spreads far across the land to push away the daunting day and lead the people home to lay
in quiet dark and brewing storm here the peace shall be with rain to cleanse the burning soul and mend our hearts until they're whole
Spoiler! :
I used to really dislike the rain. It was cold, wet, and dreary. It made me feel trapped. Then, everything changed. I found myself walking through the rain and, well, falling in love with it (hence this poem which is literally about me falling in love with the rain). Now, I find the rain and thunderstorms to be a very calming, almost cleansing experience. Grass always grows quicker after a thunderstorm. Storms bring new life to a place and that's something I really love.
16. A Long Walk For Nothing There is a tiredness in the way we walk these hallowed streets, like the poles and strings that hold us up are crumpling beneath the weight of our hollow bones. It's like we're filled to the brim with an aching kind of sadness - liquid lead in our veins that pulls us to our knees. We are repentant men, noses to the dirt but still, we are yet to be free.
We slave, day by day, along this one-way street. There is gravel deep in our wounds and tarmac clinging to our feet. This path is against us eternally and always but still we fight like drunkards with wide swings and desperate blood-shot eyes. We blink and we blink but we still can't fight away the sadness, the weariness that plagues our broken selves.
And as we look to the sky like blue is the colour of forgiveness, we wonder: if our hope is gone than why are we still fighting. We are stubborn. Men were born to be free.
Spoiler! :
To be honest, I don't feel like saying much about today's poem. I just really want to get to bed because damn I'm so tired. What I will say, though, is I decided to take a more grammatically structured (?) approach to today's poem and I kinda like it.
Godly Creatures In Unearthly Places There's something mundane about the way you live here by the highway in your urban brick house three bedrooms two baths and a half just to be safe and sure The problem is that you're too much like other people you work nine to five coffee break club sandwich gym membership indistinguishable id social security bills paid forgettable But still you catch me in a feedback loop of thinking about you and how can someone so insignificant wear a halo
You're my guardian angel I swear it but what the hell are you doing in this sad little town anyway you know I'm nothing worth saving
So why
Spoiler! :
Sometimes the most unsuspecting people are looking out for you even if you think you don't deserve it. And you're just left to wonder 'what the hell are you doing here and why do you care about me so much'. And they're amazing people who you really don't want to let go but you just keep waiting and waiting for them to disappear into the crowd - just another nobody passing by. But they don't and you're not sure if that's the most amazing thing or if you want to cry. Anyhow, I guess it's kind of complicated. This poem's about that.
18. the sea did I ever tell you how you remind me of the sea how you push and pull and you're so so cold you twist and you tumble and you crash down upon me until I'm suffocating in your salty kisses and there's grit in my eyes burning sweetly
I still can't see how when the summer sun comes calling you'll find me waiting by the sea
Spoiler! :
Whoops this one's a day late. Been really tired these past couple of days. Was in bed before I had time to remember to poet. Anyhow, last year no. 18 was the last poem I wrote in the month. I'm determined to beat that, even if it's only by one. And look, not a single senryu or haiku so far. Go me!
20. Untitled We are imperfect lifetimes of flesh, blood and bone. We cut, we bleed, we are reborn not even whole. We sicken like trees wilting with gnarly limbs and scars engrained on peeling skin. Layer by layer we fall apart. Until finally, it gives - our beating heart.
Spoiler! :
Just a short little thing about humans and healing today. I was thinking about scars when I wrote this - little imperfections from the process of regeneration. Nothing much to go on, but I'm still pushing through NaPo. Anyhow, back to the daily grind tomorrow. Hopefully I can still keep up with NaPo.
21. Severe Weather Warning I darkness down these city streets
like eyes blinking shut and people
can't find their feet so they stumble and they fumble
can you blame them for trying
when the lights are out and there's dark about
and a storm rumbles by
Spoiler! :
We've been undergoing a really serious storm here. Most of the power grid was taken out, a lot of major roads are flooded or blocked by trees. School's been cancelled. A lot of places are even without water and sewerage. It's hectic. I've still dutifully written my poetry.
22. Severe Weather Warning II Rain is a fluid until it's not. Then, it's an endless barraging solid of unending white and grey and it's still not ice. But it's falling and it's falling and the wind is screaming like my nightmares. The thunder is saving me from my nightmares. The lightning is blinding. It's four am and fallen trees and sullen breeze. A cacophony. No silence. Then,
silence. The eye of the storm is circling like a bird of prey. We pray for the lost, the missing, the dead. Are we not hopeful as the wind batters and trees shatter our infrastructure, our lives. How will we rebuild, how will we go on.
Like this endless storm washing away our lives for days and days until everything's a haze. Darkness. Power out. Until the weekend, they say. Can we wait that long, are we patient like the storm. Are we hedging our bets. Are we waiting on a cure. Why is there no cure for this deadly, deadly disease.
I'm sick of this destruction. I want a vaccine.
Spoiler! :
And it's amazing how people work together to put their lives back in order after a disaster like this. People offer their homes, their hands, their hope to those in need. It is the epitome of our compassion. And all this for a raging storm - a natural disaster. We are so helpless to this destructive weather. There are so many things in this modern world with a solution, a cure, but here we are, standing in the wind and the rain, and dying.
Meta Sweeping statement. Make it bold. Descriptive language, it's never old. Like flowery sunsets, a simile. A metaphor for you and me: A picture with a hundred words. Something thoughtful or unheard. Dance with letters, dance with rhyme, and write these poems all the time.
Shocking statement. Patterns made. Draw your readers through the page. Slant rhyme near, but not for naught. just as well you don't get caught. Rhythm here, an iamb there. Make your point, then break the rules but only if you're really cool.
Change of tone, getting darker. Make them think you're getting smarter. Alliterate for angel's sake and with bated breath you shall wait. The poem builds right to the sky. For you can tell the ending's nigh. And break your rhyme and break it well. Make a point so they can tell. Then stop.
Something grand and meaningful. A profound conclusion, a simple tool. To make them pause, to make them think. Is this all a waste of ink?
Spoiler! :
Back to the fun whimsical poems today. Not much else to say on this other than that it's a fun little poem about, well, the construction of a poem.
with your fading lights and your lively eyes under crystal nights and starry skies
then I blink and you're gone while the freeway blurs behind me
Spoiler! :
She's leaving tomorrow. She's promised to keep in contact but I'm afraid that she won't. I don't know if it's truly sunk in yet. The realisation might come when I give my last goodbye tomorrow. I don't want to see her go, and this past year has gone so fast, but she means something to me now. I don't know what, but she does. I hope I'm gonna miss her.
25. Water some people will tell you there's a difference between water and chaos as if water follows rules and makes patterns and doesn't slip between your hands between your fingers doesn't linger at a whim doesn't crash and tumble and tear apart trees or houses or lives has some semblance of sympathy or empathy and won't destroy your life because water is not chaos
but it is and when the water flows we should be afraid
Spoiler! :
We're still recovering from and encountering storms. This place has been declared a natural disaster zone, Poetry's been hard. Inspiration's been low. I'm still trying to push for 30.
26. limbo there is always that idle state of limbo where everything is empty but full, you know that kind of feeling where void is thick and filling like cotton wool in the mouth but you can't spit it out and inside you're screaming but you're dealing
with your demons and everyone has them but some mouths are fuller than others who still have the chance to breathe, you know to speak about them and cry about them until someone says open wide and makes a diagnosis, state of limbo of decline, say let me give you a hand and you'll be fine
but what about those who are choking and people make jokes about them, say cough it up spit it out it's easy, you know but it isn't when you're so weak from asphyxiation wrong diagnosis, faking it no mountains to climb no cliffs to jump no state of decline just limbo
where nothing changes and you're still a hollow box weighed down with nothing but the weight of cotton wool and maybe a black hole too
Spoiler! :
This is a bit of an attempt to capture that emotional state that feels kind of like a bit of an overload - a short circuit that leaves you blank and unable to function. It's not a very pleasant state and it feels like there's no room for change. Sometimes there's just enough function left to reach out. Other times, you're stuck and you feel so hopeless, struggling to even acknowledge the seriousness of what's going on.
but if i was it would only rain on sundays when the sky burns with twilight and violet streams from the horizon interchanged by white rivers coursing and bubbling never-ending magnificent, i think like the way something so mundane can become brilliant with a blink and a breath
Spoiler! :
Two more days left to go. Just in time, too, since next week is gonna be super busy. I seem to have fallen into posting a couple of poems every second day. I've run out of things to say about my poetry. I'm still determined to hit 30, though.
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