Tag Archives: GloPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo, Day 30

Today is the last day of April and thus the final day of National Poetry Writing Month. My participation this year has been very successful and productive, and I thank everyone who has read or posted for your inspiring devotion to the poetic arts. The final prompt for NaPoWriMo 2016 is The Sun from the Rosetta Tarot. (Click here to see the card.)

Act of faith

Some days my heart is
on my tongue, hanging out
for all to see, and my words

have wings and spiral
to the heavens where they echo
the first moments of creation.

 

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

 

NaPoWriMo, Day 29

This penultimate poem of National Poetry Writing Month was inspired by The Chariot from the Robin Wood Tarot. I urge you to look at the card – it’s so fabulous that it’s almost campy. (Click here to see the card.) If I were going to create a live tableau of this card, I would cast Fabio in the role of the charioteer. I’m not sure where I’d get the unicorns.

Beneath a canopy of stars

Lo, I come singing,
harp in hand —
the sun on my breast
and my hair shining.

Unicorns draw me
through the desert,
and the dust of our passing
blots out the sky.

 

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 28

The Wheel of Fortune from the Mythic Tarot was the prompt for this poem. (Click here to see the card.)

Three spinsters

My mother taught me to spin
plant and animal fiber into strands
for fish nets, for mittens, for tapestries.

But it was her mother taught me
to spin dreams into hope, desire
into possibility: for life, for love,

for the future.

 

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 27

The prompt for today’s poem was the King of Swords from The Ellis DecK (sic). (Click here to see the card.)

Judgement call

I may not have all the answers, but I do
have some of the questions. Darkness and light
are entwined so that only the sharpest
mind can discern between them.

The sword on my lap is Damascus steel, supple
and irresistible as water. See those wavelets
of charcoal and silver in the blade? It can bend
without yielding and hold an edge fine

enough to split truth from truth.

 

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 26

Today’s poem prompt is the King of Wands from the Enchanted Tarot. (Click here to see the card.)

Creative conquest

How strange it is for me, a warrior
clad in metal-studded leather, to stride
this embroidered land – its quilted
sky and paisley mountains, its calico

fields and gingham rivers. Am I the needle
piercing the world and drawing it
together with thread or the scissor
that divides and shapes it?

 

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 25

This feels fragmentary, but I’m not quite sure where it wants to go. I’ll publish it as is for now and tuck it away in the back of my mind, in hope that it will ripen into something more satisfying.

Today’s poem was prompted by the Three of Staves from the Prairie Tarot. (Click here to see the card.)

Not all sailors go to sea

He thinks of the wide, flat horizon, the full-
circle sight line, the endless ocean
of prairie and desert. He dreams of undulating
grassland, waves of heat and light and wind
that roll without cease, without tide between
vague shapes that might be clouds
or mountains. He longs for the sharp ozone
bite of a gathering storm and the clean, dry
scent of sun-baked dust.

 

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 24

The Hermit from Lewellyn’s Classic Tarot inspired two poems, which kind of makes up for me missing a day of posting and writing. Kind of. (Click here to see the card.)

Here’s the first…

Certainty

questions still haunt us, an old man
with burning eyes, raging in the dark
swirl of the storm — where is the light

to guide, to offer real or illusory
comfort? madness carries its own
order, a closed system in the chaos

 

…and the second.

Inquiry

Is it still snowing? What wisdom glimmers
in the swirling gloom, swings wildly
with the tossing wind? What could be
more comforting among these cruel
rocks than sturdy feet and a solid staff?

 

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 22

This poem was prompted by Strength from the Paulina Tarot. (Click here to see the card.)

What the lion thought

It is probably unwise to judge a person
entirely from a single bite, but if her hand
is any indication, the lady with the fish
on her head should taste delicious!

 

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 21

This is yesterday’s poem; I accomplished a good many things yesterday, but posting wasn’t one of them. The Emperor from the Zombie Tarot was the prompt. (Click here to see the card.) I tried to make this a haiku, but the last line just seemed clunky with more syllables. If you think of a five-syllable line that works, please post it in the comments.

Good advice

Whatever happens
my son, you do not open
the front door.

 

NaPoWriMo 2016

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NaPoWriMo, Day 19

Today’s prompt was the Two of Swords from the Rosetta Tarot. (Click here to see the card.)

Local color

X marks the spot where the war began, here
in our very own Blue Rose Tavern. The Lunese
are notorious for changing their minds
then changing them back again, but on that ill-starred
day the Lunese ambassador waxed or waned
one time too many. The Librite deputy minister lost
her legendary equanimity, and the two exchanged
sharp words before they crossed swords. The war
itself was brief, of course, as the Lunese rescinded
their declaration within days of issue and the Librites
regained their composure after a few minor skirmishes.

 

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!