NaPoWriMo Update & Poem – Trillium

Hello! I hope this posts finds you well on this late, late Sunday night. (At least it is for me – I can’t say when exactly you will be reading this post :D) It finds me rather happy and mildly stressed. Happy because it’s finals week tomorrow which means I finally get to go home next week, and stressed because it’s finals week tomorrow which means I have so much to do before I can finally go home next week. Oh the life of a college student, hey? 😀

Poem – What Was Left Behind

‘Tis very late… Somehow the weekend is already coming to a close, marking the end of another week. And slowly but surely this year is marching to the finish, and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it…

Anyways, my feelings are entirely disconnected to the poem I’m going to share with you all today. 😀 The prompt was to write about some abandoned place… and this was the result.

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Light tiptoes down the hall, busy –

spinning shadow spiderwebs from the ceiling,

poking curious fingers beneath a forgotten newspaper.

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No time to notice:

the brassy fly knocking on a molded window,

dust sleeping in the corner.

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Pea green paint slips from tired walls,

soaked with yesterday’s rain that dripped

through a jagged skylight.

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A blue model plane with a broken wing lies quiet,

flight shattered, alone on an empty floor –

small grave, no flowers.

~

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this poem in the comments! Do you see beauty in abandoned places? Do they strike emotion in you?

Poem – Uncooperative

Well, just when I thought my week couldn’t get any more interesting after my passing out experience…. it did. Tuesday brought dull red skies and heavy smoke that has stuck around until now and probably won’t be leaving any time soon. Fires have been ravaging the PNW, and while I am currently out of harm’s way, it has been a heavy week watching Oregon burn.

Anyways, today’s poem has nothing to do with fire, and I’m grateful for it. 😀 It’s loosely based on a story that my grandma tells about me when I was little. As a kid I was very spirited and stubborn (some would say I still am :D), and one time my grandma had a humorous interaction with me that culminated in me declaring that I had ‘an uncooperative attitude!’ – a pretty big phrase for a three year old! I took this story and twisted it up with some imagination and creative liberty – and this poem is the result.

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When my grandmother tells me that I have an uncooperative attitude,

I feel like the rebellious flutter of a flamenco dancer’s skirt,

a stifled laugh in the middle of prayer meeting,

a chorus of crossed-out words in an essay,

a window swelled with age, stuck in its frame,

a fire hydrant sprinkler for inner city kids,

trespassing feet in a moon-soaked garden,

January squall in daffodil March,

wind-wisped hair, waving at the sky,

the scald of too-hot tea, sweet and waiting.

~

Were you an cooperative child? Do any of these similes strike a chord with you? I’d love to hear about it in the comments! 🙂

Poem – Paper and Ink Moment

Poems come to me in the most random ways sometimes. Take, for instance, last night… Mum and I are currently reading a L.M Montgomery book together (Jane of Lantern Hill, to be precise – which is a thing of joy and beauty forever and I highly recommend). She’s reading it to me on kindle, while I read along in my paper copy and underline things that catch my eye (this is my newest bookish phase, in case you were wondering – underlining in good books). Anyways, I went to grab a pencil and then came in and sat down with her. As I did so, I realized that the pencil I had grabbed had no eraser. ‘No room for mistakes then.’ I thought.  And then a poem materialized from the shadows of my brain – this is the result. 🙂

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You are a pencil without an eraser,

better yet, a pen.

No room for mistakes.

No second thoughts.

Spill your words freely, oh saga-filled soul,

this is your paper and ink moment –

darkly defiant in a world of half-erased stories.

~

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this poem in the comments! Do random instances like this one ever inspire you to write poetry? 

NaPoWriMo 2020 Update #4 & Poem – Fight For This Fairy Tale

Hello there! I write this as a woman who has officially finished both my Freshman year of college as well as NaPoWriMo 2020 – I couldn’t be more relieved! 😀 It’s definitely been a crazy week for me, full of finals and frantic paper writing and many late nights. But it’s all done now and I’m ever so glad! It’s a weird feeling to not actually have any homework to get done – I keep catching myself thinking about if I need to get anything done! So far in my newly found freedom from school, I have baked a cake, gone on a walk, talked to people and slept a lot. All delightfully relaxing things. It’s nice to have a break before my life restarts back up, as I am anticipating it will do so after I fly home to England and get a job. 

I also finished NaPoWriMo 2020 this week, which is another cause for celebration. I finished this poetry writing challenge approximately 30 minutes after I turned in my last assignment of my Freshman year. I may or may not have written three poems in one day in order to catch up, but that’s besides the point. 😀 I’m really happy with myself for completing this challenge – not only do I feel that I have expanded and grown my writing repertoire, but I also feel that this has been a really helpful exercise in processing a lot of emotions that I’ve been wrestling with over this month. It’s really weird to think that I finished of NaPoWriMo 2019 while travelling around Europe on a family road trip, while this year I completed this challenge while under lock down because of the Covid-19 pandemic. My, how much can change in a year! But despite the adverse circumstances, I really enjoyed writing poetry consistently this month. And I hope that this will help inspire me to continue in the weeks and months to come!

The poem that I’m sharing today is based on a prompt that I found on the good ol’ reliable Pinterest – that ever useful fount of inspiration. 😀 The prompt was ‘fight for the fairy tale’… And as someone who has an ongoing love with fairy tales and the impact they have, I just knew I had to write something on this prompt. Here is the result… 🙂

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Fight for this fairy tale, you almost grownup you.

 

Fight for the golden wonder and mystery of magic, elusive and ever present.

Fight for the dragon whose scales are dulled with the smut of smoke and flame.

Fight for the princess, beauty fading with time, now asleep and alone in a tower of disbelief.

Fight for the prince with still and heavy hands closed around the blade of a rusting sword.

Fight for the castle still standing with rambling roses and a brave and tattered banner.

Fight for the triumph of good over the encroaching darkness of evil.

Fight for winged, mystic creatures slipping away into the whispered lore of the past.

Fight for the brightness of fairy dust, the song of the nymph, and the laughter of the elves.

Fight for the once upon a time and the happily ever after.

 

Remember your childhood wonder, and fight

for this fairy tale that you once loved.

~

So there you have it – this Pinterest inspired poem, and the end of my NaPoWriMo journey for this year. Thank you for following along with my writing adventures this past month. I’ve had a wonderful time writing, and I hope that these poems have encouraged and inspired you! 🙂 

 Does this poem ring true with you? How have fairy tales impacted you? I’d love to chat about this poem in the comments!