NaPoWriMo one week late

Well,I told many of you via fb that I was, again, doing NoPoWriMo and nudged a few of you in that direction.  However, I didn't start on time.  I could give you a number of good reasons (or excuses) but the truth is I couldn't remember how to get on my blog site! So what good a blog site to spread the word and publicise events if I haven't used it for twelve months? And, of course, I now have seven poems to write. So here goes:

Day 1 - prompt is "Triolet"

A Lovely Day

He whistled as he swaggered down the street

Unaware of the driving rain
His thoughts on love and the girl he was to meet

He whistled as he swaggered down the street

For she had turned his whole world upside down

He couldn’t wait to see her once again

He whistled as he swaggered down the street

Unaware of the driving rain

Day 2 - prompt is poem about songs from the year I was born

April Fool

I was born on April first, an April fool

The only songs I found were about a mule,

A reindeer, and riders in the sky,

Why?

Day 3 - prompt "Epithalamium"

The Wedding

The wedding was planned for eleven

and the church was alive with sweet flowers

which draped from the pews, spilled forth from the font

and appeared to grow from the bowers.

Diaphanous frocks and their owners

drifted past on a perfumed breeze

as the guest and invited partners

sank quietly to their knees.

From "the Gods" the choir shuffled gently

as harmonious chords filled the air,

the organist flicked several switches

on an organ so old it was rare.

Then, from the back of the church and the darkness

the bride cruised the aisle with her Dad,

as her Mother blew into a tissue

so happy, so proud, oh so sad.

For the daughter she'd loved for a lifetime

and who'd lived with her all of her life,

had finally left home that morning,

and soon would be somebody's wife.

Day 4 - prompt "writing the Blues" (animals and sadness usually or is that folk?!)

Dog Gone

My dog fell down a mine shaft late on Tuesday night

Yes, my dog fell down a mine shaft late on Tuesday

And if he aint alive tomorrow I’ll die too

He’s been down there a whining and a yelping

Man, he’s been down there a whining and a yelping

He won’t be coming back,  broke his doggarn back

So I’m digging  this grave out front to fit us both

So I’m digging  this grave out front to fit us both

‘cos he was my best friend and I was his

Day 5 - prompt "Opening Day" (can't say this is a prompt for me to follow this time so here's one on negativity instead)

Half Empty

I didn't find him repulsive nor his skin 

too pale and damp, I didn't see him

as lacking in all I desired

neither did I feel the entrapment

that forthcoming motherhood

had brought to my door

I did not view my future with uncertainty

my present with sadness,

nor my past with regret

wherever today takes me I know I shall

not be unhappy, confident in the knowledge

that I had not made the wrong choice

Day 6 - prompt  "Animals"

THE DOMESTIC CAT

I’ve given much thought to the reason why

A cat’s thumbs are the wrong way around

It could be for balance when walking a fence

Insurance against hitting the ground

But if this was the case, the whole feline race

Would similarly be designed

So they’re no help at all to protect from a fall

So another purpose I need to find

I won’t get depressed

I’ll take another wild guess

Dispersing this ominous gloom,

I know! … they’re such clean creatures

These newly formed features

Are for holding aloft a vacuum

Or the abridged version

Cats are such clean little creatures

Their deftly formed features

Are indeed the most purrfect boon

For the fussiest cat can keep a clean flat

As his thumbs can hold a vacuum

Day 7 - prompt is a colour - poetic choice here producing a variety of colours - another cheery poem!

ROTTING FLOWERS

Don’t leave flowers at the road side

You don’t even know my name

You are a total stranger

And in this accident take no blame

Don’t leave flowers at the road side

Where they will die, just like me

Are they here as a sign of respect

For all the world to see?

Because, if they are, I say again

You don’t even know my name

Take your flowers away with you

Pretend you never came

................ and now I'm up to speed

Day 8 - prompt is "outside"

THE END OF DAY

Heading west with the setting sun,

flocks of rose-coloured sheep fill the sky.

On the ground, shadows lengthen as

the last of the honey bees make their way home.

A calmness settles over the earth;

Another miracle draws to a close.

NaPoWriMo one week late

Well, I told many of you via fb that I was, again, doing NoPoWriMo and nudged a few of you in that direction.  However, I didn't start on time.  I could give you a number of good reasons (or excuses) but the truth is I couldn't remember how to get on my blog site! So what good a blog site to spread the word and publicise events if I haven't used it for twelve months? And, of course, I now have seven poems to write. So here goes:

Day 1 - prompt is "Triolet" 

A Lovely Day

He whistled as he swaggered down the street

Unaware of the driving rain 

His thoughts on love and the girl he was to meet

He whistled as he swaggered down the street

For she had turned his whole world upside down

He couldn’t wait to see her once again

He whistled as he swaggered down the street

Unaware of the driving rain 

Day 2 - prompt is poem about songs from the year I was born

April Fool

I was born on April first, an April fool

The only songs I found were about a mule,

A reindeer, and riders in the sky,

Why?

Day 3 - prompt "Epithalamium"

The Wedding

The wedding was planned for eleven

and the church was alive with sweet flowers

which draped from the pews, spilled forth from the font

and appeared to grow from the bowers.

Diaphanous frocks and their owners

drifted past on a perfumed breeze

as the guest and invited partners

sank quietly to their knees.

From "the Gods" the choir shuffled gently

as harmonious chords filled the air,

the organist flicked several switches

on an organ so old it was rare.

Then, from the back of the church and the darkness

the bride cruised the aisle with her Dad,

as her Mother blew into a tissue

so happy, so proud, oh so sad.

For the daughter she'd loved for a lifetime

and who'd lived with her all of her life,

had finally left home that morning,

and soon would be somebody's wife.

Day 4 - prompt "writing the Blues" (animals and sadness usually or is that folk?!)

Dog Gone

My dog fell down a mine shaft late on Tuesday night

Yes, my dog fell down a mine shaft late on Tuesday

And if he aint alive tomorrow I’ll die too

He’s been down there a whining and a yelping

Man, he’s been down there a whining and a yelping

He won’t be coming back,  broke his doggarn back

So I’m digging  this grave out front to fit us both

So I’m digging  this grave out front to fit us both

‘cos he was my best friend and I was his

Day 5 - prompt "Opening Day" (can't say this is a prompt for me to follow this time so here's one on negativity instead)

Half Empty

I didn't find him repulsive nor his skin 

too pale and damp, I didn't see him

as lacking in all I desired

neither did I feel the entrapment

that forthcoming motherhood

had brought to my door

I did not view my future with uncertainty

my present with sadness,

nor my past with regret

wherever today takes me I know I shall

not be unhappy, confident in the knowledge

that I had not made the wrong choice

Day 6 - prompt  "Animals"

THE DOMESTIC CAT

I’ve given much thought to the reason why

A cat’s thumbs are the wrong way around

It could be for balance when walking a fence

Insurance against hitting the ground

But if this was the case, the whole feline race

Would similarly be designed

So they’re no help at all to protect from a fall

So another purpose I need to find

I won’t get depressed

I’ll take another wild guess

Dispersing this ominous gloom,

I know! … they’re such clean creatures

These newly formed features

Are for holding aloft a vacuum

Or the abridged version

Cats are such clean little creatures

Their deftly formed features

Are indeed the most purrfect boon

For the fussiest cat can keep a clean flat

As his thumbs can hold a vacuum

Day 7 - prompt is a colour - poetic choice here producing a variety of colours - another cheery poem!

ROTTING FLOWERS

Don’t leave flowers at the road side

You don’t even know my name

You are a total stranger

And in this accident take no blame

Don’t leave flowers at the road side

Where they will die, just like me

Are they here as a sign of respect

For all the world to see?

Because, if they are, I say again

You don’t even know my name

Take your flowers away with you

Pretend you never came

................ and now I'm up to speed

Day 8 - prompt is "outside"

THE END OF DAY

Heading west with the setting sun,

flocks of rose-coloured sheep fill the sky.

On the ground, shadows lengthen as

the last of the honey bees make their way home.

A calmness settles over the earth;

Another miracle draws to a close.

and so we enter May

To those of you who have been interested enough to see what I have written during April, I thank you.  It has been an exercise in discipline if nothing else and, hopefully, one I can continue.  However, I don't think I can manage one a day for May - I think quality must become upper most again now.

I Did It Maggie's Way (30/30)

And now the time has come and so I write the final stanza
Poet friends, I'll say it clear and mention here Napowrimo's bonanza.
I've tried, yes tried so hard to follow each and every guideline
but more, much more than this, most of my poems rhyme.

Rejects, I've had a few but, then again, too few to mention,
I've changed what I had to change travelling in a new direction.
I wrote each structured verse and read aloud to make it sound right
but more, much more than this, I emailed by midnight (well mostly).

Yes there were times, oh we all knew
we'd taken on more than we could do,
we wrote all night, keeping verses tight,
we'd jot them down, move them around,
I tried them all, hit the writing wall,
but did it Maggie's way.

So now Day Thirty's here, no more to write, no competition
perhaps I'll write a book, go take a look, my special edition.
So, thanks yes thanks to you for all supportive comments rendered
'cos now, as I wipe my brow, I have surrendered.

Fantasy or Nightmare (29/30)

Fantasies or nightmares,

you choose.

Close your eyes, just dream,

what have you to lose?

Feel his warmth beside you,

breath upon your skin,

fingers sliding down your spine;

you’ve lost it, he wins.

Fantasy is over,

the nightmare reigns supreme,

banishing all thoughts of him,

cruelly mocks the dream.

The smells, the touch, the taste all gone,

dawn brings another day to live through

until night returns,the fantasy to re-play.

The Wedding (28/30)

There was panic at Westminster Abbey of the kind the Brits do so well,
an orderly kind of upheaval and calmness so no-one could tell
that the maples and hornbeams, though lovely, could hardly fit through the door
and the home of a nesting blackbird bounced twice before hitting the floor.

The trumpeters practised their fanfare spurred on by the listening crowd,
it was the last, the final rehearsal, they stood upright, stately, proud.
Bystanders outside the Abbey cheered and waved little union jacks,
it was twenty four hours to the wedding but spending the night on their backs
on a cold and hard concrete pavement, meant they limbered up when they could,
so they waved and they stamped and applauded just where they stood.

Elgar was still in waiting but the crowds were beginning to wain,
yes they loved all the pomp and ceremony but they'd been told it was going to rain. 
So they unrolled tents and brollies, creating a most colourful sight,
but as the music rose to a crescendo, they rolled over and said gooodnight.

Classy (27/30)

It's lust at first sight, the girl to your right,
the one with the straight brown hair.
The one in the dress, no, not her - she's a mess
be casual, don't stare.
She's classy alright, no holes in her tights
and look at those heels on her shoes.
She needs to be kissed and I just can't resist
a girl with so many tatoos.