Poem 8/30 - College Freshman Song

After Robert Pinsky's "Samurai Song"

 

When I lost my home,

I covered myself in courage.

I feasted only with my eyes to fill my empty stomach

Yet when there were no sights to be seen, I perked up an ear

Yet when there were no sounds to be caught, my mind wondered

Yet when my thoughts wandered away, I learned patience.

With the absence of both father and mother,

Compassion became my paternal guide,

While wrapped in order’s maternal embrace.

When my calls to friends only led to voice mails

A call to Silence was always reached.

Still, with no adversary of any sort in sight,

I turned on myself.

Without even a church to call home,

I found sanctuary in my voice.

Although it is without a priest,

My tongue sings out

When my income finally runs dry,

Fortune is my only means

‘Til the day Nothing is all I have left to give

This will be my fortunate end

But until then,

I make my way of living by necessity

With a strict detachment policy

So when I go to lay down alone

Sleep is the only one invited to join me.

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 Prompt from http://www.napowrimo.net/
Rewrite a famous poem, giving it your own spin.

Poem 7/30 - Typewriter

I was always told I’d fall for someone older;

Yet, our generational gap quickly closed with each encounter.

Even knowing your history; your previous partners’ intimidation left

My mixed feelings stayed lost between competition and comparison.

Still, you never failed to spell everything out so neatly,

With a clarity that I never wish to part.

Now it seems there’s rarely a thought of my own

That I don’t anxiously wish to share with you.

Easily allowing minutes to melt into hours

Just sitting with you,

Patiently you allow me to sort through my perspectives

Forgiving enough even to allow me to revise the errors of my ways.

While appalled by those who only see you as a tool,

With such a physique, I cannot fully fault them.

At times even I fall,

Guilty of my own lustful desires to push your buttons.

But physical attraction is far surpassed by our level of intimacy,

Because while I continue to work on all that I can give to you,

You dig deep within and bring my best ideas to life

Always helping to bring out my creativity.

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Prompt from http://www.napowrimo.net/
Write a love poem about an inanimate object.

Poem 6/30 - Widow's Window

Slowly taking the last drag of a cigarette

Exhaling, puffing out of the open window

The smoky cloud, flying up

Mingling into overcast skies above.

She sits and silently closes the panes,

Wondering when her own heart

Became as clear and fragile as this glass.

Sipping away from sobriety and memories,

She watches the beige and brown lawn below

Return to the lush green grass that greeted them

When moving into their first new home.

She shrinks at the sight of now brooding heights

Of the saplings they planted together

In celebration of a first year anniversary.

Only a bird’s chirp transports her back

Once again to the realty of his absence.

Inside, the bedroom that once hummed

Lit with the plans for a future of possibilities,

Now blacked-out by the whispers;

Questioning the reasons for what’s unexplainable

Why she sits alone now and still

Listens for years to hear his steps on the stairs.

Hating that she let him go out that night

With his, mistress of the road, Corvette

Whose seduction led to the accident

That stole their vow, ‘til death do us part,

Much too soon

Now as she sits watching

Raindrops softly tap,

Collecting against the window

Yet, confused why they streak down her cheeks

Wondering when her own heart

Became as clear and fragile as this glass.

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Prompt from http://www.napowrimo.net/