z

Young Writers Society


twisted steel and broken spines



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488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Thu Mar 22, 2018 2:21 am
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Meshugenah says...



This could be interesting, since I'm coming off the mysterious sickness of doom and my brain is all kinds of special swiss cheese right now, so of course poeting is the answer!

Previous years:

2017 Drought
2016 Earthquake Weather
2015 once more unto the breach
2014 Poe-Tree
2013 *gasp* Mesh Masticates Madness!
2012 Look! Mesh actually *does* write!
2011 Stardust - Bek's NaPo thread 2011
2010 ?
2009 I love like a phantom: Bek's NaPo thread 2009
2008 Bek's NaPoWriMo thread
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  





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488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Sun Apr 01, 2018 4:44 pm
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Meshugenah says...



Spoiler! :
#1
beats wobble in uneven balance
of 11/16 - a duple imposed on triples
forced syncopation to trip over
in a waltz that spins on pinpoint.
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  





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488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Sun Apr 01, 2018 4:45 pm
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Meshugenah says...



Spoiler! :

#2
the house smells like tradition
(though we're in the wrong place at the wrong time)
because no matter how far divorced we fall
from the things grandpa tried to teach us
we still remember sedar's past
of reading haggadah (pretending to listen,
between the cries of "not the fish!" and
the arguments over the last matzoh ball)
and spoons falling into bowls,
because spring means pesach and soup and
chosen family, no matter how irreverent we've become.
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  





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488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Sun Apr 01, 2018 9:22 pm
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Meshugenah says...



Spoiler! :
(apparently I'm being productive today)

#3
you can see the lines
where the earth has cracked cement
and weeds have gained ground
in the face of neglect.
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  





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488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Tue Apr 03, 2018 3:21 am
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Meshugenah says...



Spoiler! :

#4
sun reflects in water
framing the chalk-stained
walls in stars left to ruin
and rot, beer stains running
tears through years and neglect.
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  





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488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Tue Apr 03, 2018 6:43 pm
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Meshugenah says...



Spoiler! :

#5
my grandfather wore a magen david
on a long gold chain
my mother claimed was a relic of the 70s.
it lay hidden beneath shirts and sweaters and later
sweatshirts and layers of blankets and it burned with him
under another star.

years later we found the torah
we think was his gift for bat mitzvah -
1941, Brooklyn, and a listing of names long dead
(the last in Hebrew lettering no left can read)
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  





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488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:08 pm
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Meshugenah says...



Spoiler! :

#6
the smell of wet reeds burns
as cork grease smeared over joints
only smooths the path so far

throat burns and fingers tremble -
you can’t play wind instruments
without breath.
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  





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107 Reviews



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Points: 9326
Reviews: 107
Thu Apr 05, 2018 7:07 am
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Cadi says...



Oooh. I love #6. These are all great so far. #5 really captures loss not just of a person, but of the things he knew - that "we think"!
"The fact is, I don't know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn't collapse when you beat your head against it." --Douglas Adams
  





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488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Thu Apr 05, 2018 9:22 pm
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Meshugenah says...



Spoiler! :

#7
the pops from the gun range a few miles north
are only background until they’re outside the bedroom window
and the difference between death and fireworks
is knowledge battle tested, not inherited.


Spoiler! :

SEE @Audy POP. *glares at*
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  





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488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Fri Apr 06, 2018 5:23 pm
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Meshugenah says...



Spoiler! :

#8 is totally because I'm still grumpy I can't shake this cough. Yep. I still have a small backlog I haven't posted, and I think I like them better than 6-8)

#8
this body was not made to withstand
the months of uncertainty and knowledge -
there’s only so many times it can cough
before blood becomes the norm.

#9
the winds blew clouds over skies
that turned to summer before spring
and quiet cricket and the chirping of birds
before the moon stills and bathes the sky
in grey-blue hues that only break for solitary
street lights, sentinels that weather the gales,
stalwart, marking time and place amidst
the tumult.
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  





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488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Sat Apr 07, 2018 5:26 am
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Meshugenah says...



Spoiler! :

#10
my great-grandmothers are a study in contrast:
one i knew, one i’m glad i never met,
one i wish i knew, and the one who i only know
by the relics she left behind:
a majong set grandma still uses, a seder plate,
and a broken hanukkiah.
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  





User avatar
488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Sun Apr 08, 2018 4:47 pm
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Meshugenah says...



Spoiler! :

#11
i used to think god lived
in the menorah, candlelight
it’s own sacrament
dripping tradition
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  





User avatar
488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:59 pm
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Meshugenah says...



Spoiler! :

#12
my mother has a mezuzah
that lives in a jewelry-box drawer
because it never quite made it
to a door.
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  





User avatar
488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Wed Apr 11, 2018 2:58 am
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Meshugenah says...



Spoiler! :

#13
in college i learned the meaning of shabbos
and group dinners friday nights
where fighting over challah and hummus
and learning camp versions of prayers on the fly
meant induction into part of something
i never quite knew if i'd found or lost


#14
it's the second (third?) year without grandpa
and every year we drift further from observance
and closer to the food and the sense of what used to be
until we straddle the line of tradition and heretic.


Spoiler! :

I used the first one here for April Madness... because I combined a bunch of stuff I had written separately (mostly night before last) but kept playing with words and line breaks but hadn't posted. So, you'll get some version of them all in the next few days.
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  





User avatar
488 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 3866
Reviews: 488
Fri Apr 13, 2018 12:43 am
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Meshugenah says...



Spoiler! :

#15
nothing screams spring quite like
mosquito bites and crickets
that screech you to sleep.


#16
there’s books hidden behind glass walls
that whisper of tradition that has slipped
through fingertips and we’re left with impressions
tinged by nostalgia and musk
and pages that never open.


#17
the last time i set foot in a temple
was to the disbelieving looks
of a girl not long past
bat mitzvah.
***Under the Responsibility of S.P.E.W.***
(Sadistic Perplexion of Everyone's Wits)

Medieval Lit! Come here to find out who Chaucer plagiarized and translated - and why and how it worked in the late 1300s.

I <3 Rydia
  








Someday, everything is going to go right for you, and it will be so wonderful you won't even know what to do.
— Hannelore Ellicott-Chatham, Questionable Content