Tag Archives: National Poetry Writing Month

NaPoWriMo, Day 13

This poem was prompted by The Emperor from the Robin Wood Tarot. (Click here to see the card.) I had to wrestle with this more than expected, and it’s still not really what I want it to be. But the point of NaPoWriMo is to write, not edit or perfect, so here’s today’s writing, warts and all.

Odin Looks Back

What was I ere I lost my eye? A chieftain, a proud ruler
with worlds at my feet, power and authority in my hands
like iron. I was fair to look upon, strong and confident
on my throne, the father of many sons.

But strength and confidence are not enough
to keep the Nine Worlds, so I traded perfect vision
of flesh for the more perfect vision of time and called
Thought and Memory to be my eyes.

No longer comely, I am grown wily with knowledge
of the living and the dead, though it will not save me. Still
I wander the worlds in search of anything that might see
my people through the great battle yet to come.

 

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 12

Today’s poem was prompted by the Grail King from the Arthurian Tarot. (Click here to see the card.)

Bargain

beside a stream, beneath a tree a marble slab lies on the ground
and I place my heart on it – the stone feels cool, almost damp

a man with a brass bowl lifts the heart in his hand, weighs it
he considers before making me an offer in exchange – I am speechless

I had not thought it worth so much – something tender
in his eyes, the tilt of his head tells me he knows this

 

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NaPoWriMo 2016

NaPoWriMo, Day 11

Today’s poem was prompted by The Moon from the Shadowscapes Tarot. (Click here to see the card.)

Diana, Huntress

Pitiless as she is beautiful, the lady holds my heart
in her hand – ransom or ante? – I cannot tell. I only know
I will not resist her, no less thrall than the flimsy creatures
she conjures out of mist and mushroom. She hides her face
in darkness, turns toward me mask within mask, ever false
to all the world, ever true to her mysterious self.

 

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NaPoWriMo 2016

NaPoWriMo, Day 10

Today’s poem was prompted by The Green Woman from the Wildwood Tarot. (Click here to see the card.)

A Window in the Greenwood

Deep in the forest lies a pool, a near perfect
circle of stone and water. Trees do not crowd

the bank, and their canopy forms an oculus
to frame the sky. Clouds refill it with tears

so pure that the heavens may watch the earth’s heart
beat through the glassy depths. According to legend,

those who look into the water see reflected
the image of their true animal selves.

 

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 9

Today’s prompt was the Two of Earth from Volume 1 (As Above) of the Book of Shadows Tarot. (Click here to see the card.) One of the gifts of this month of writing is that I seem to be experimenting with forms I don’t usually employ. I’m not much of a prose poetry fan, but this poem just refused to make sense any other way.

Tide pool

My feet hurt. This journey took much longer than I was told, took much more out of me than I expected. I had not felt my years before, not much, but now I feel older than the rocks, older than the mountains where I was born. But not older than the ocean on whose glowing edge I now sit, whose waters soothe my aching feet and reflect the marbled morning sky. It is a marvel, a vastness that moves and sighs like an animal, a form of life so different from the mountains. I know stone in all its expressions, its origins and transformations. I know the secrets it holds, how to uncover them and use them. But this, this! This expanse that has no shape but shapes and is shaped by what it touches, that changes moment to moment and somehow seems unchanged, unchangeable – this ocean frightens me. How can one understand such strangeness? And faced with such mystery, how can one not yearn to spend a lifetime discovering it?

 

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 8

This poem was prompted by the Two of Cups from The Housewives Tarot, a delightfully zany deck that has become one of my favorites. (Click here to see the card.) This image just begged for something light and fizzy.

The most important meal of the day

I love orange juice in the morning
especially with champagne

and you. Or should that be
I love you in the morning

especially with orange juice
and champagne?

Amazing how simpatico we become
with a mimosa or two under our belts.

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 7

The Lovers card from Jennifer Galasso’s Crystal Visions Tarot was the prompt for today’s poem. (Click here to see the card.) This is not a deck I own, and the image struck me as trite when it popped up in the app I was using. I dashed off a flip little ditty and decided I just wouldn’t post today. But my experience working with tarot wouldn’t let me leave it at that: I’ve seen depth and complexity in other renderings of this card – what was I missing here? My squirrel brain kept gnawing at it until I came up with something presentable. I’m glad it did, independent of the result, because it made me put in a good day’s work writing.

Chosen

Let us close our eyes to the trappings of love, lest we be deceived
by the cloying scent of roses, the glorious ray of light that cleaves
the clouds. Doves’ wings whistle like arrows in flight, and roses
bristle with thorns. Dark clouds crowd the sky; can the tang
of ozone, the rumble of thunder be far behind?

Let us close our mouths to the rituals of love, speak no words
for the wind to carry off as they are heard. The link we forge of our will
and choosing must hold us longer than the silken cords of ceremony,
bind us more firmly than any oath we can swear.

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 6

Today’s poem was inspired by the Seven of Staves from Helena Domenic’s Fellowship of the Fool Tarot. (Click here to see the card.)

Meet the challenge

Plant your right foot at the base of the mountains. Shift
until weight transfers from the bones of your body
to the bones of the earth.

Extend the other foot left at ninety degrees,
open your stance. Direct your gaze outward and release
your other senses.

Hold intention with curved fingers, right hand
at the shoulder, palm forward to meet, left hand near
the hip, palm down to ground.

Feel the life behind you, the undulating hills
and leaf-twined woods at your back: shield and screen,
ally and retreat.

Now you are ready.

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 5

Today’s poem prompt was the Six of Swords from The Enchanted Tarot by Amy Zerner and Monte Farber. (Click here to see the card.)

Over water

Do not weep, Mother; the waves
are soft and the boat sturdy.
We are not lost – see, the birds
know where we are! Sun shines, sky
blues, and breeze lifts our small sail.

There, there, Mother; the rainbow
marks our place, and the wide sea
holds us in her circling arms
so we cannot sail beyond
the safety of the round earth.

Be at peace, Mother; the night
will come, and with it the stars
in their glittering millions
to watch and the moon to steer
our little craft home.

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Welcome, global readers and poets!

NaPoWriMo, Day 4

The prompt for today’s poem was the Eight of Cups from Juliet Sharman-Burke’s Mythic Tarot. (Click here to see the card.) I once again found myself pulled into the inverse tanka form I used the other day (7-5-7-5-5).

Wine-dark dream

beneath the moon’s last crescent
and the cloudless sky
I descend: the stairs feel cold
and lead me away
from my mother’s house

NaPoWriMo 2016

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Readers and poets of the world – welcome!