The NaPoWriMo prompt for today is as follows:
“And now for today’s (optional) prompt! The number 13 is often considered unlucky, so today I’d like to challenge you to beat the bad luck away with a poem inspired by fortune cookies. You could write a poem made up entirely of statements that predict the future (“You will meet a handsome stranger”), aphoristic statements (“The secret to getting ahead is getting started)” or just silly questions (“How much deeper would the ocean be without sponges?”) Or you could use a phrase you’ve actually received in a real fortune cookie as a title or first line. However you proceed, I hope you will feel fortunate in the results (do you get it? Do you get it? Rimshot, please). Happy writing!”

Until today, I had no idea that there is a website entitled “The Fortune Cookie Message Archive.” I spent a bit of time there today to create a pep talk for a reluctant poet of a certain age. I selected only four word fortunes and, for fun, included one four-word quote from Anne Lamott, a writer whose gifts include the ability to inspire other writers.

 
 

Fortune favors the brave.
Be most affectionate today.
Good things take time.
Treasure what you have.
Use your instincts now.
Unleash your life force.
Let your fantasies unwind.
Reality is unforgivingly complex.

Stop wishing; start doing.
Aim high; time flies.
Happiness is an activity.
Life is a verb.
Become who you are.
Let the deeds speak.
 
 

 
 
(to) achieve solitude

being totally honest
black and white thinking

creation of alternative worlds
dislike of sentimentality
fantasy worlds/super-heroes
inability to cope

mental exhaustion/paranoia
remembering what to do
vocalization of thoughts
when listening to others

solitude
 
 
 
For the NaPoWriMo prompt of April 12, we were challenged to create an index poem, based on words and phrases found in the index of a book. This poem is sourced from words and phrases found in the index of The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome by Tony Attwood, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London and Philadelphia, 2007.
 
 

 

A man making candles out of beeswax

Purify the wax, rid it of the dross,
melt it, all the while knowing its power
to burn if not handled with care.

Wick the molds, fill the molds, cool the molds,
remove the candles, inspect them, all the while
knowing that your mistakes are never permanent.

Remelt, remold, reform once more.

Now you see your words wax and wane
and wax again and again on the page,
all the while knowing their impermanence.

The search, the quest, the process. The
intricate extended process.
Rebelliousness of inner hopes.

 
 

Today’s Impromptu prompt from Matt Trease asked us to write an astrological self-portrait by first creating a natal chart and then using the degree data from that chart to determine symbolic information related to the specific details of our birth. The challenge was to create a poem using, or inspired by the language found in this information. Matt provided two sites to help us interpret the symbols: Inside Degrees by Elias Lonsdale and The Degrees of the Zodiac and the Sabian Symbols by Dane Rudhyar. The lines in italics in my poem are taken directly from these sources.

Today’s Impromptu prompt was from Kristina Marie Darling:

First, choose a text by another writer. This can be anything from a Victorian novel to a field guide, an epic poem, a Shakespeare play, or a computer manual. Read through it carefully and consider the following question: What has been buried in so much other language? Then, by removing portions of the source text, your task will be to excavate what has been obscured by narrative, exposition, rhetoric, etc. There are many possibilities for excavating pieces of language from a text. You may choose to bring to light beauty, violence, a particular image that appears and reappears, or anything else that risks being lost.

My text, published through the Gutenberg Project, is from the Preface to The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid by John Casey and Euclid, 1885.

 

a want much felt
at the present day
a necessity to understand
reality, considerably altered,
thoroughly revised
and greatly enlarged
 
 

 
 
The NaPoWriMo prompt for today (April 10, 2016) asked us to create a poem using the spines of books with one title per line. Here is mine:

Savor

California hiking.

One good turn

down the Yellow Brick Road.

Here and now,

all roads are good.

 
 

Life interred in suburban somnolence
and daring to dream of rebirth.
An insistent yearning, a shadowy itch,
a remolding, a breathless rush
into an unknown world.
“Do you hear yourself?” I ask.
I wait for my own voice,
but a voice reborn
illuminating life with her fireworks.

Come as you are or as you know you want to be.
 
 

Today’s Impromptu prompt is from Simone Meunch who challenged us to write a biographical cento sourced from lines of our own poetry. It was great fun to review poems back to January, 2015 to see where I’ve been and dream about where I might be going.
 
   

 

 
 
Today’s challenge at NaPoWriMo is to write a poem about, or inspired by, food. My response is a non-traditional haiku. [Photo by James Brooks, “Coffee Halibut“]

 
 
grit of the spice rub

between raw flesh and fingers

sharp taste in the feel

 

 

On Blacktail Mountain
in Navajo winter,
the desert king surveys
the jubilee bush, its
scaly bark camouflages
the Georgia rattlesnake
(black diamond yellow-belly)
the ancient enemy, patient
under golden honey starlight
and early moonbeam glow.

 

This poem was written for Day Five on the NaPoWriMo 2016 poem in which we were challenged to peruse heirloom seed catalogues to find interesting varietal names to use as inspiration for a poem. Although it’s hard to believe, every italicized word or phrase here is the name of a variety of watermelon, one variety per line.
 
 

Today’s Found Poetry Review Impromptu Prompt from Noah Eli Gordon was actually a series of prompts, most of which I found impossibly complicated or simply undoable.  However, the idea of a modern sonnet was appealing, given the following instructions:

Write a sonnet in the modern key:

Line 1: narrate action, include at least two nouns
Line 2: ask a question without using “I”
Line 3: make a statement without saying “I”
Line 4: now say “I” in another statement
Line 5: use a fragment
Line 6: narrate another action, include one of the nouns from line 1
Line 7: ask a question using “I”
Line 8: use a fragment that
Line 9: spills into the next line
Line 10: now say “I” and include the other noun from line 1
Line 11: answer your first question
Line 12: make a statement that is in total opposition to line 3
Line 13: combine phrases from lines 5 and 8 here
Line 14: answer your second question

In the spirit of found poetry, I decided to use vocabulary from a theater review in today’s New York Times;  Brantley, Ben “Middle-Aged Mortals Squinting at the Abyss,” New York Times, 04/06/16, p. C2.
 
 
Middle-aged mortals squint at the abyss.
When does dis-ease overtake our days?
Let’s sing the fragmented melody of the moment.
I’ll bury the past in bits and pieces.
Life interred in suburban somnolence
The abyss looms largest at four AM.
When I squint can you still see me?
From dream-laced moments of darkness
to frigid insomniac nights
I join with mortals in sleepless stasis.
Dis-ease confronts us with the sunrise
We’ll no longer sing; our melodies muted.
Interred once more in dream-laced darkness.
Squinting, I feel myself disappear.
 
 

 

 

I am doubling up today on my NaPoWriMo 2016 and FPR Impromptu prompts.  NaPoWriMo’s challenge: “write a poem in which you explore what you think is the cruelest month, and why.”  Impromptu #4 asks us to make a “word block” by selecting a word and then generating related words that share one or more letters with that word.  Technically, I think the words in the word block should intersect with one another and that the NaPoWriMo poem requires a bit more “why,” but it’s 11:10 PM on April 4 and this is what I have — so far.