NaPoWriMo 30/30 May 1, 2018

“Don’t get it right – get it WRITTEN!” ― Lee Child

NaPoWriMo Day 31

Whether or not you wrote in rhyme

wrote mostly junk or something sublime

writing every day is hardly a crime

and though you didn’t earn a dime

here’s hoping you had a marvelous time!

“To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the music the words make.” ― Truman Capote

Thank you Brendan McBreen for contributing some wonderful, challenging prompts for NaPoWriMo 2018.   Use and re-use these prompts anytime, anywhere.

“Dance above the surface of the world. Let your thoughts lift you into creativity that is not hampered by opinion.” ― Red Haircrow

Keep Reading and Reading and Reading and Writing!

If you are near Kirkland, Wa.  Drop in to BookTree Bookstore at 609 Market St. Kirkland, WA 98033   Say “NaPoWriMo 2018, Poetry is Everything, Please give me 10% off my purchase” (available once per patron through May 31, 2018 – excluding certain collectors and special merchandise).  Please ‘Like’ BookTree’s Facebook page here.    Thank You!

“That’s all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones.” ― Raymond Carver

Here are my poems written from prompt 29 and prompt 30.

My poem for prompt 29, which involves finding someone else’s laundry in the dryer

Stormy’s Laundry

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

Dear Stormy,

I leave this worn but still provocative 38 double d

lace bra for you, pinned to this board

in hopes you will soon be

back.  I had to prove I’m no liar

(and for the record I don’t know Comey)

but I do have everything you left in the dryer.

I’ll keep it all for a week or so

And then I’m sure my wife will say

either those clothes or she will go.

 

I’ll donate them soon, so please

if you give me mine, I’ll give you yours.

No questions asked, which ain’t easy

because based on the volume of lacy pretty things

which seems to prove your profession is a little bit hipper

than being an accountant.  I mean all the frills and strings

clearly means you must be a professional stripper.

 

However you are not out of luck

as I figure this wardrobe costs more than a buck

or two  than what I wore when I was here today

a quite memorable one for me, I now must say.

Here’s hoping you’ll notice something is amiss

And soon return here to find this,

your lost bra and a little note from

Chris.

 

My Prompt 30 poem –  something old, new, borrowed and blue

 

And still we wait

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

He’s Baudelaire drunk

on Ferlinghetti’s poetic blue America

where politicians return to representing the people,

including the rich, the poor, the recent immigrants and the homeless.

 

We were caught in a storm but all is calm for now.

 

Be still. Breathe in, look

beyond the shimmering nova light.

Let the hopes, dreams and ideals

wash away the dirt of the journey.

We write louder than hate and now

several of us are throwing bottles with notes in them

into the oceans believing our imaginations will inspire one to ask;

what are these words worth, William, tell

us this love, this wisdom is also part of the real America we have waited for.

NaPoWriMo 30/30 April 30, 2018

 “A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or a love sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” ― Robert Frost

NaPoWriMo Writing Prompt for April 30, 2018

Ta Da!  This is it.  The end of NaPoWriMo 2018.  The last official prompt for the 2018 National Poetry Month challenge.  I know the prompts inspired by challenge or by guilt at least a couple of poets out there reading this blog.  It was particularly tough for me to find the time to do this blog and write poems every day plus run the bookstore.  But…sometimes it’s fun and there’s a bit of a sense of accomplishment too.  Wrap up tomorrow and my final two prompt poems.

NaPoWriMo – 30/30 –  Poem-a-Day prompt for April 30, 2018

Prompt 30 – Something old, something borrowed, something blue — Our poem will be 8 to 12 lines. Every other line (lines 2, 4, 6 and 8 and possibly 10 and 12) will be brand new lines that you write. One or more of these lines will include something blue.

For lines 1, 3, 5, 7, and possibly, 9 and 11 use lines from two to three of the poems you have written in the last 30 days.

Keep Writing!

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”  ― Natalie Goldberg

Poem from prompt 28 – write a poem using two or more title from the non-fiction best-sellers list

Not just a list of 15 best-selling non-fiction books

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

A higher loyalty does trump fascism

though some insist with fire and fury

it’s still like playing Russian roulette which you’d think

all of the highly educated would avoid and opt for something

less risky like astrophysics for people in a hurry or

understanding our 50-state border crisis, factfulness

or just reading a book (like one about Obama).

Will God save Texas if we make trouble and say things like

this is me and if you  don’t like it, well, I’ll be gone in the dark

to start some secret empires of my own

that might lead to killing the deep state?

Well, it’s a bit beyond just another day in the life

of Marlon Bundo, if you ask me, don’t you agree?

NYT Bestselling Non-Fiction List

1. NEW THIS WEEK

   A HIGHER LOYALTY

   by James Comey

2. 2 WEEKS ON THE LIST

   FASCISM: A Warning

   by Madeleine Albright with Bill Woodward

3. 6 WEEKS ON THE LIST

   RUSSIAN ROULETTE

   by Michael Isikoff and David Corn

4. 16 WEEKS ON THE LIST

   FIRE AND FURY

   by Michael Wolff

    

5. 51 WEEKS ON THE LIST

   ASTROPHYSICS FOR PEOPLE IN A HURRY

   by Neil deGrasse Tyson

6. 9 WEEKS ON THE LIST

   EDUCATED

   by Tara Westover

7. 8 WEEKS ON THE LIST

   I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK

   by Michelle McNamara

8. NEW THIS WEEK

   GOD SAVE TEXAS

   by Lawrence Wright

9. 3 WEEKS ON THE LIST

   MAKE TROUBLE

   by Cecile Richards with Lauren Peterson

10. 17 WEEKS ON THE LIST

    OBAMA

    by Pete Souza

11. 5 WEEKS ON THE LIST

    SECRET EMPIRES

    by Peter Schweizer

12. 3 WEEKS ON THE LIST

    FACTFULNESS

    by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund

13. 4 WEEKS ON THE LIST

    THIS IS ME

    by Chrissy Metz

14. 3 WEEKS ON THE LIST

    OUR 50-STATE BORDER CRISIS

    by Howard Buffett

15. 3 WEEKS ON THE LIST

    KILLING THE DEEP STATE

    by Jerome R. Corsi

NaPoWriMo 30/30 April 29, 2018

“Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself…It’s a self-exploratory operation that is endless. An exorcism of not necessarily his demon, but of his divine discontent.” ― Harper Lee

NaPoWriMo Writing Prompt for April 29, 2018

“Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason.” ― André Gide

And then there were 2…    Almost over….and guess what?  It’s time to do the laundry!

NaPoWriMo – 30/30 –  Poem-a-Day prompt for April 27, 2018

Another prompt from Brendan (Cosmic Egg) McBreen –  Imagine opening the dryer and finding someone else’s laundry, write a brief poem describing this person based on their laundry.

“I love being a writer. What I can’t stand is the paperwork.” – Peter De Vries
Keep Writing!

My prompt poem for Day 26  (I posted Day 27 yesterday…and out of the usual order I have been posting). The prompt was to create a list of words from a book.   My Wordscame  from page 26/27 of Body & Soul by Frank Conroy (only a few paragraphs on page 26 so went to page 27 to finish random word lists

Words:   Moved, side, winter, piano, method, bills

 

Write 2 different poems with the words

 

Paying the bills

Christopher J. Jarmick

 

My foolproof method involved moving

the bills from one side of the counter

to the piano and I would pay them the following Friday.

Last winter they were moved

to the magazine pile on the coffee table,

so most were paid late.

 

Ghost Piano

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

Last winter the piano

was moved from the house

I grew up in.

I learned the Bastien method

for a couple years from  a teacher

who gave lessons to pay the bills

and on the side was part of a blues/jazz ensemble.

 

When I visited the house

I stared at the place the piano once occupied.

My knees involuntarily began to bend

as I thought about sitting on the bench

to play a few simple chords.

NaPoWriMo 30/30 April 28, 2018

“Writers are the exorcists of their own demons.” ― Mario Vargas Llosa

NaPoWriMo Day 28, 2018

“A story was a form of telepathy. By means of inking symbols onto a page, she was able to send thoughts and feelings from her mind to her reader’s. It was a magical process, so commonplace that no one stopped to wonder at it.” ― Ian McEwan

And then there were three…..  Three prompts left for NaPoWriMo 2018.  Today is Independent Bookstore Day.  Support an independent book seller or three today.

“I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.” ― Gustave Flaubert

NaPoWriMo – 30/30 –  Poem-a-Day prompt for April 28, 2018

Get a list of the Best Selling Non Fiction Books (New York Times or Local Area best-sellers)   Use two titles as they are in your poem and use as many of the words from the titles as you possibly can in the construction of your poem.

Celebrate Independent Book Store Day   Visit and support your friendly neighborhood indie bookstore Saturday April 28th!  BookTree’s Event Page Here 

Keep Writing

“Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” ― Gloria Steinem

Poem for Prompt 27  –  Graffiti inspired poem!    (Poem 26 tomorrow… I goofed and posted this one early…. oh well… it’s indie bookstore day and I am juggling like crazy!

Mr. Kilroy, I presume?

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

He was here, there and everywhere;

not some Fool on the Hill, or  flash-in-the-pan fad toy;

even found his way inside sealed ship compartments

nearly 90 years – a doodle and the name Kilroy.

 

Bald or mostly bald man, large nose

tips of fingers holding onto wall.

How Kilroy could be here, nobody knows

Lots of stories, some even true I suppose

 

Stalin in the bathroom as he zipped his fly

saw the Kilroy was Here graffitti.

Hitler thought it was a code name for a spy

Demanded to know,  ‘Who is this guy?’

 

A song and poem in the 1940’s

References in pictures, radio shows

In a 50’s  Isaac Asimov Short Story

Lucy and Snoopy in Peanuts mentioned him too, don’t  you know?

Styx in the 80’s named their album for him (– groovy).

Popeye, Seinfield, Bugs Bunny even Hogan’s Heroes

mentioned Kilroy and last year Kevin Smith made a movie.

 

George Washington didn’t sleep everywhere

But inside walls, even under the pier,

almost anywhere you might venture

you’ll find  Kilroy was Here.

 

More about Kilroy right Here

NaPoWriMo 30/30 April 27,2018

“To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.”― Aristotle

NaPoWriMo Day 27, 2018

“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of those who have minded beyond reason the opinion of others.” ― Virginia Woolf

Before we mention today’s prompt…. Let me remind you that Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day.   Try to visit three independent bookstores near you in the next few days and of course buy something if you can.  In the Seattle/Western Washington area ( and in many other areas) you can earn a coupon by visiting 3 bookstores!   Read.  Read a lot and support your friendly neighborhood bookstores too!  BookTree’s Independent bookstore day page!  

NaPoWriMo – 30/30 –  Poem-a-Day prompt for April 27, 2018

“You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.” ― Stephen King

From Brendan (Cosmic Egg) McBreen :  The writing is on the wall, find a piece of graffiti or a bumper sticker and write about that line, include the line in your poem.

Keep Writing!

“You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying in the road.” ― Richard Price

My prompt poem for the 25^th –  Ted Kooser inspired

Kooser Apples

By Christpher J. Jarmick

Somewhere

under the canopy of billions

of twinkling lights

beyond the shimmering nova light

of the busy city

behind the white picket fence

and lace curtains made by hand

nearly 100 years ago

a saucepan lid shimmies

letting steam escape

and fill the kitchen with the

sweet, fresh smell of apples

and cinnamon turning into what

you crave right now as you read this:

Applesauce.

NaPoWriMo 30/30 April 26, 2018

“The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.” ― William H. Gass

NaPoWriMo Day 26, 2018

Where does the time go?   We are winding down NaPoWriMo 2018.   I hope you’ve found some of the challenges inspiring and fun!

“Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.” ― Harvey Pekar

NaPoWriMo – 30/30 –  Poem-a-Day prompt for April 26, 2018

Make a list of 6 random words from a book.

Open a book to page 26.  Write down the first word that is 5 letters or longer (but not a proper name).  Write down the 26th word (or the first four letter word after the 26^th word).   In the 4^rd paragraph write down the first four letter or longer word.  Write down the 10^th word or the one after the 10^th word that is at least 4 letters long  and then the next 5 letter word after that.   From the end of the page… write the last 4 letter word on the page.        Share your 6 words.  Use one of the 6 words in the title of the poem.      Write a poem at least 6 lines long using all 6 words in the body of the poem.   As a bonus challenge  Write two different poems with the words.

Keep Writing!

“great writers are indecent people

they live unfairly

saving the best part for paper.

good human beings save the world

so that bastards like me can keep creating art,

become immortal.

if you read this after I am dead

it means I made it.”

― Charles Bukowski

 

My Prompt 24  poem Evoke poet Robert Penn Warren

You’ll never know

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

Among the bearded oaks

I dare not try to recall

what was never said, never spoke

too majestic, silent, tall

 

Between the blades of grass I lie

almost out of sight

answers in the wind to satisfy

curious thoughts taking flight.

 

Still waiting hour after hour

Passions, slaughter, now to lay

the end of all my power

my truth, my flesh to decay.

NaPoWriMo 30/30 April 25, 2018

“Wisdom is easy to carry but difficult to load.”― Ted Kooser

NaPoWriMo Writing Prompt for April 25, 2018

“Don’t talk to me about the stars, about how cold and indifferent they are, about the unimaginable distances. There are millions of stars within us that are just as far, and people like me sometimes burn up a whole life trying to reach them.” ― Ted Kooser

We’re on the homestretch for NaPoWriMo 2018.  I hope if you’ve been playing along at home that you are enjoying the challenge and developing a daily writing habit that will serve you well in the coming year.  Whether you are writing poems that with some re-writing and editing will be published or just flexing your creative muscles, you should pat yourself on the back for taking part in the challenge.

NaPoWriMo – 30/30 –  Poem-a-Day prompt for April 25, 2018

There are mornings when everything brims with promise, even my empty cup. – Ted Kooser

April 25- Happy Birthday Ted Kooser (1939)  our 13th US poet laureate.  His poetry seems to be rooted in the Mid-West and captures a vanishing way of life without being overly nostalgic.   So write a ‘Kooser’ poem today.

Keep Writing!

There’s nothing wrong with delighting in what you do. In fact, most of the fun you’ll have as a poet will come about during the process of writing. – Ted Kooser

My Prompt 23 Poem  – Somehow evoke these three writers/poets: Shakespeare, Vladimir Nabokov and Oregon-born poet Edwin (Man with a Hoe) Markham.

Lines Not Written In Oregon

By Christopher J. Jarmick

 

Esmeralda! Can we rest

in this bewitched place of the West?

The weight of centuries bears down.

I lean upon the hoe, gazing toward sacred ground.

What breath blew out the light

inside my brain forever preventing flight

even as a dream echo asks why

as I stare at monarch butterfly?

I hear the blue birds, see green upon green

And yet I merely stand by this hoe and lean.

Profaned, disinherited, no one left to trust

But on this spot, I stand, I must

This be my place and here I shall rust.