Writing 201: Poetry – Day Seven: Fingers, Prose Poem, Assonance

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201, direction, fears, fingers, floundering, needs, poem, prose poetry, snow, writing 201 poetry

Day 7

Assignment: Write a poem using the following:

Prompt: Fingers
Form: Prose Poetry
Device: Assonance

Direction

When I’m floundering fixedly on facing fears; fully aware of my shortcomings, I find you pointing proudly in the direction that I should go. Don’t you know that if I go, I go with the knowledge that I am not enough out there on my own? My needs are not necessarily manifold, but many are they and they wont go away without first feeding that part of me which hungers for your staunch support; stepping in line with me.

So when you point, please don’t point with those elegant finely forbidding fingers. Instead, firmly hold my hand, grasp it lovingly and lead me along the path where the bluebells grow, dancing in freshly fallen snow, in the chill wind of April’s noon-day sun.

~mew

Day Five: Fog, Elegy, Metaphor

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compassion, elegy, ethereal, fog, heart, metaphor, mist, poem, poetry, touch, Writing 201, writing 201 poetry

It’s day 5 of Writing 201:Poetry and the assignment is to use the following in a poem:

Today’s prompt: fog
Fog. Today’s word prompt can be taken in so many different directions: condensation on your car’s window. An eerie landscape (or streetscape) at dawn. Your glasses as you enter a warm room from the cold outside. The mental state of confusion, forgetfulness, or dementia. How will you introduce fog into your poem today?

Today’s form: elegy
Today’s form, the elegy, can trace its history all the way to ancient Greece. It started out as a poem that could be about almost any topic, as long as it was written in elegiac couplets (pairs of verse, with the first one slightly longer than the second). Over the centuries, though, it became something a bit more specific: a (more often than not) first-person poem on themes of longing, loss, and mourning

Today’s device: metaphor

Not Alone

I’m not alone here where I stand
in fields of green my friend
You promised you would always stay
close by no matter where I am

If I could touch your warm hand
And feel your white breath
Rising slowly upon the cold morning air
Glimpse your misty presence near

I would raise my eyes to the sky above
My hesitant heart would laugh
And my soul, ethereal fingers outstretched
Would touch your face once more

~ MEW

Writing 201: Poetry – Day 4 Courtesy of a fellow blogger

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concrete poem, day4 writing 201, enjambment, poem, poetry, shapes, writing 201 poetry

A Dear Fellow Blogger [FB] who saw how distressed I was about not being able to do a concrete poem, kindly went above all that is expected of a fb and did my assignment for me. I cannot take full credit here at all. Twenty7zero3 has made my poem into a dog-shape.

Doggy Thoughts

Words ~ MW
Shape ~ Twenty7zero3

Day Four: Writing 201: Animals, Concrete Poem, Enjambment

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animals, concrete, enjambment, metaphor, poem, poetry day 4, shape, writing201: Poetry

Today’s prompt: animals

Today’s form: concrete poetry
Poetry is, of course, a word-based form of expression. That doesn’t mean, though, that the visual layout of a poem can’t affect the way we read it. Taking this idea to a playful extreme is today’s (optional) form to explore: concrete poetry.

Also known as shape poetry, the idea here is to arrange your words on the screen (or the page) so that they create a shape or an image. The meaning of the image can be obvious at first glance, or require some guesswork after reading the poem.

Today’s device: enjambment
Today’s poetic device continues the focus on the arrangement of words on the page: enjambment. What it describes is a really simple phenomenon: when a grammatical sentence stretches from one line of verse to the next.
[Notes taken from Writing 201: Day 4]

Today’s assignment for me was challenging and I’ve not been able to come up with a concrete poem and sadly no enjambment either. However I’ve managed to include today’s prompt which is to write a poem about an animal. As is my wont, I’ve taken it to another level in a metaphoric way.

Doggy Thoughts

If I fish around
In the murkiest pond,
Searching: doggedly dig the depths
of the earth beyond
your garden wall
hoping to impress you,
will you cattily say
to me,
I can’t bear you?

~ MEW

Day Three: Trust, Acrostic, Internal Rhyme

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acrostic, day 3 writing 201, friendship, internal rhyme, poem, poetry, trust, writing 201 poetry

Day 3 of Writing 201, and the assignment is to use the prompt below: “trust” and also to use the acrostic form (optional) and the device of internal rhyme.

Your prompt: trust
Today’s word is trust: write a poem in which you address, reflect on, or tell a story about the feeling of trusting or being trusted by another (person, animal, object, potted plant…). Or about distrusting them (or not being trusted yourself).

Here For You

Trials and tribulations may come to some
Resting rudely on battered souls
Undoing life’s pleasures, making no sense,
Severing bonds and breaking faith
Take heart my friend on me you can depend

~MEW

Writing 201- Day Two: Journey, Limerick, Alliteration

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assignment, dawn, disgracefully, fawn, growing old, limerick, pink icecream, Writing 201, writing 201 poetry

Today’s assignment in Writing 201: LIMERICK

Example of a limerick [taken from the notes]

It rarely takes a lot of time
To make the first two verses rhyme.
The third line is short.
The fourth? A mere snort.
You can sell limericks three for a dime.

Your prompt: journey
Today’s word prompt is journey. Write a poem about anything that word evokes for you, from the excitement of a trip you’re about to embark on; the mental progress you witnessed someone make; or the struggles, pleasures, and extreme emotions that travel can bring about.

My limerick is a poem about a journey of sorts. It is not strictly travelling in the true sense of the word from one place to another, but I do think that ageing can be considered as a “journey” from one stage in your life to another. So bearing this in mind, I have written “Disgracefully” which is part of a longer poem I wrote some years ago. Lucky for me that the first verse resembled a limerick, so all I had to do was copy and paste it! I have tried to follow the example above and I think I may have only just got it right, but I’m afraid I’ve fallen short on alliteration – must try harder!

Disgracefully!

They say you should grow old gracefully
But I want to grow old quite disgracefully!
I want to eat pink ice-cream at dawn
And fawn
At the man 20 years younger than me!

~MEW