April PAD Challenge + NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 22

 

Image by Dorothe from Pixabay

Good morning (or whatever it is where you are) Poetry People. I dragged my worthless ass out of bed at 5:40 AM, took my pills, stabbed myself (with an insulin pen), put drops in my eyes, and came back to my computer to write one of those brief, hard-hitting Haiku about how the human race selfishly harms the world that gave us life. 

We need to stop behaving like a cancer. One person may not be able to make much of an impact, but together we can make real changes. One of the most important things we can do is hold corporations accountable for their actions.

To construct my take-no-prisoners Haiku, I took inspiration from the following prompts.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-22

Write an Earth poem.

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-twenty-two-10/

write a poem in which two things have a fight.

We are in the fight of our lives against the very world that gave us life. If the world is to survive, we need to be on its side. We must listen to the Earth and hear what it is telling us. We must work to heal it rather than doing further harm.

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Image by 165106 from Pixabay

Change can only begin when we co-operate.

April PAD Challenge + NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 21

 

Image by Prawny from Pixabay

Good Gawd, Fingers, not Day 201. I would have a complete mental breakdown if I had to do this for 201 days in a row. 

The poem today's prompts inspired made for much lighter subject matter than yesterday's brief, sobering verse.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-21

The April PAD Challenge prompt asks for a trope poem.

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-twenty-one-9/

The NaPoWriMo prompt asks poets to focus on a single color in today's work.

I used this prompt in an oblique way when creating today's Haibun entitled "Dear Author."

https://chevrefeuillescarpediem.blogspot.com/2012/12/carpe-diem-60-winter-shower-shigure.html

I utilized this prompt to create the Haiku portion of the Haibun.

I had an experience last month which made me consider giving up writing entirely.

Admissibly, I was struggling after last year's NaNoWriMo. I started out strong but was burnt like toast by the time I finished, and I didn't recover well. I had gotten into a pattern of writing monthly anthology submissions and I was pretty proud of that. However, I was starting to feel like a typing monkey and the ideas weren't flowing freely. 

I was planning to create stories to submit to three anthologies. One was an Old West themed horror story, one was an erotic romance, and the other was a sweet romance.

I ended up with several false starts on both the horror story and the erotic romance. I took myself out of the running with the sweet romance.

I finally found plots I could commit to with both the horror story and the erotic romance. I'm still waiting to hear back on the horror story. With the erotic romance, I got one of those nebulous, frustrating "this isn't directly a rejection letter, but yeah, it's a rejection letter" communications, which included such phrases as "good bones." 

Not to put too fine a point on it, but, fuck me. Just say this one isn't your cup of tea and have done with it! They basically said "we aren't telling you to rewrite the story, but, yeah, we want you to rewrite the story." 

They wanted me to make such changes as somehow referencing ethnic differences between the characters without describing the traits of those ethnicities. No saying such things as "Sunny was a fair-complexioned young woman with curly blonde ringlets flowing over her shoulders," or "Ellie was a tall, full-figured Latina with dark frizzy hair, eyes the color of black coffee, and a warm, golden complexion." They wanted me to describe the characters' defining traits in a way that doesn't focus on their defining traits. 

It was so fucking nebulous it gives me a headache just thinking about it. It sounded like they wanted me to say something like "Sunny was Caucasian and Ellie was Latina. Meanwhile, their boss Zara was a black South African." I thought I was supposed to write an erotic romance with a friends to lovers trope, not a strictly fact-based piece. 

While a few of their suggestions weren't entirely maddening and I will actually take them into consideration when giving the piece a final rewrite before self-publishing it, this incident was the last straw, and I had a bit of a mental breakdown. I'm still not good at heeding warning signs that I'm trying to do too much and need to take a different approach. 

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Free use image by HG Designs on Pixabay

"That's it, I'm completely out of fucks."

April PAD Challenge + NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 20

 

Image by Shahariar Lenin from Pixabay

Remains of a concentration camp in Poland

Good morning, Poetry People. Or whatever it is wherever you are. 

Today's poetry prompts converged to inspire some grim subject matter. Add to that the fact that I woke up at 3:30 this morning. I don't know what it is about the 3 AM hour. It's like the veil between the worlds is thin or something.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-20

Today's April PAD Challenge prompt asks for a six-word poem. 

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-twenty-11/

Today's NaPoWriMo prompt asks poets to recount a historical event.

One of history's worst dictators was born today in 1889.

I summed this event up in six words with an acrostic.

I believed this brief work would be more impactful if I stuck to facts. It's easy to spiral into hyperbole where people such as the subject of today's work are concerned. 

There is no need for me to directly point out that Adolf Hitler was a monster or that his actions and attitudes inspired destruction. History speaks for itself.

Perhaps the most frightening thing about Hitler is the fact that much of the time he didn't appear monstrous. He loved animals. If he believed he had offended someone, it would trouble him to the point where he couldn't sleep. People who knew him described him as being charming and dignified. During the war, he visited hospitals to offer soldiers comfort and encouragement.

Indeed, the most terrifying thing about Hitler was the fact that a person embodying all the above positive attributes was capable of ordering the imprisonment and murder of millions while believing his actions to be completely correct.

In today's climate of intolerance towards anyone whose opinions differ in the least from prescribed political correctness, it is important to police our own behaviors and beliefs while keeping the following advice in mind.

When fighting monsters, be careful not to become one yourself.

"I think we have got to learn to disagree without being violently disagreeable..." Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Image by G.C. from Pixabay

April PAD Challenge + NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 19

 

Image by Enrique from Pixabay

Hello Poetry People! Here are today's prompts for your poetic pleasure.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-19

Today's April PAD Challenge prompt invites poets to create an emotion poem.

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-nineteen-9/

The NaPoWriMo prompt suggests the following intriguing idea.

What are you haunted by, or what haunts you? Write a poem responding to this question. Then change the word haunt to hunt.

That certainly sounds like my kind of poem. Adding in the following prompt from Carpe Diem Haiku

https://chevrefeuillescarpediem.blogspot.com/2012/12/carpe-diem-59-withering-wind-kogarashi.html

I went with the quick, hard-hitting approach, creating a two-verse Haiku about being both haunted and hunted by the withering wind. We've had some really wicked winds out here on the Lone Prairie over the past couple of weeks, so the subject matter seemed poignantly appropriate and also appropriately poignant. 

I hope you enjoy creating your own work using one or all of these prompts should the spirit move you.

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

"You're a flipping penguin, Lennox! I'm the one who should be wearing the rain slicker!"

"It's too big for you, Ornery. It fits me just right, and it looks super snappy on me too."

https://odysee.com/@GamingAmbience:6/destiny-2-the-dreaming-city-bay-of-3:9?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

Enjoy some music and visual inspiration.

April PAD Challenge + NaPoWriMo 2024: Day 18

 

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

This one reminds me of the Public Enemy logo. They remain one of my favorite rap bands of all time. They call things like they see them and don't hold back from speaking up about difficult issues.

I created another Haibun today. I try to address in only 100 words the fact that I've never liked being me. 

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-18

Today's April PAD Challenge prompt called for a pessimistic poem. I think my poem is more realistic than pessimistic because I never state that there's no hope. I simply state that I have never liked myself.

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-eighteen-10/

The NaPoWriMo prompt asks participants to write a poem about wanting to be someone or something else. I always wanted to be any number of wonderful characters or the actress who played the character. I later learned that many of these actresses had very difficult lives.

https://chevrefeuillescarpediem.blogspot.com/2012/11/carpe-diem-58-indian-summer-koharu.html

I used this prompt to inspire the Haiku portion of the Haibun. In this case, I think it's easy to see the relation between the prose and the Haiku, although the correlation may only be easy in my mind. The Haiku expresses a hopefulness that never transpired into reality. I always thought one day the other kids would lose interest in bullying me and then I'd at the very least be left alone.

I read once that wanting to be famous is a sign that you were traumatized. This makes perfect sense to me. 

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Image by Laura from Pixabay

As an owlet, I always preferred to sit in the back of the class.

https://odysee.com/@GamingAmbience:6/destiny-2-the-dreaming-city-aphelion%27s:f?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

April PAD Challenge + NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 17

 

Image by Shafin Al Asad Protic from Pixabay

Hello, Poetry People. Today, I went for brevity and wrote a Haiku for my April PAD Challenge/NaPoWriMo poem.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-17

The April PAD Challenge prompt asked participants to write a Not Blank poem. I gave my Haiku the title Not In the Mainstream.

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-seventeen-10/

The NaPoWriMo prompt suggests that participants create a poem inspired by a piece of music. For my own part, I chose a timeless classic: the music of nature in the form of the sound of falling rain. 

It's not mainstream pop, to be sure. The unspoken portion of the poem is the fact that it's being written by someone who will never be in the mainstream.

I've learned something about myself that doesn't surprise me in the least. In fact, it explains a lot about my hypersensitivity and how frazzled I feel when my routine is disrupted. It also reinforces my anger and sadness over the way I've been treated like I'm a bad person and/or weak for something that's part of my neurological makeup. I will spend the rest of my life trying to learn not to hate myself and to try and get along in a world that hates people like me. 

Nobody is going to try to understand people like me. I'm used to that. It would be nice, however, if medical professionals were taught to treat all their patients with common decency rather than disdain, even the "difficult" ones. 

I'm not trying to be difficult. It's not like I intentionally decided to have this shit show of a body. Who the hell would choose that? The truth is, I'm fucking terrified of you. I don't want to be here. I can smell the disdain coming off you. You don't try to hide it at all. 

To condense all that, the unspoken message in the Haiku is this:

Working through this shit show of a body and this weirdly wired brain is a soul who loves the sound of rain, just wishes everyone could be happy and live peacefully, and will never be part of the mainstream in any way. I don't want pills, injections, and surgery to force my disobedient body to look like what you have deemed it should look like. (I swear to whatever gods there may be if I type "whould" one more time, I'm gonna cut off my fingers!) 

I don't want pills or shock therapy or surgery to rearrange my brain till I fit into your definition of sane. 

I don't want injections or surgeries or other expensive treatments in a desperate attempt to make myself look younger or closer to what you deem attractive. 

It shouldn't matter if I don't conform to your idea of what the perfect woman looks like or acts like. You should treat me with respect and kindness all the same. You have no idea what I've been through or what it's like to be me.

I'll probably go back to being stoic tomorrow. Today, I felt like this needed to be said. I'm sure all five or six people who read this blog really give a shit anyway.

This was the first day in many months that I woke up without feeling like I was on the verge of a panic attack. Learning what I did recently makes certain things finally make sense.

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Image by c from Pixabay

https://odysee.com/@sayitright77:e/rain-sounds-for-sleeping-13:9?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

I could literally listen to this sort of thing all day.

April PAD Challenge + NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 15 & 16

 

Image by 🌸♡💙♡🌸 Julita 🌸♡💙♡🌸 from Pixabay

Using the prompts described below, I created my Soviet Stamp poetry suite.

https://odysee.com/@ENSE%C3%91ANDOMUSICA:7/musique-relaxante-musique-douce-musique:3?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

Notes on the Soviet Stamp Suite

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-15

Today’s April PAD Challenge prompt asks participants to write a middle poem.

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-fifteen-10/

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt invites participants to take poetic inspiration from postage stamps.

I decided to go with a Haibun. I selected what seemed to me an incongruous stamp. This stamp originated in the former Soviet Union but uses a religious image. Since the Soviet government was not merely irreligious but actively opposed to religion, I am puzzled by the existence of this stamp.

To complete my baffling Haibun, I wrote a Haiku using a prompt from the Carpe Diem Haiku site.

https://chevrefeuillescarpediem.blogspot.com/2012/11/carpe-diem-special-9-plum-blossom.html

For the second Haibun in the Soviet stamp series, I used these prompts:

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2024-april-pad-challenge-day-16

For the third Twofer Tuesday prompt, poets were invited to write a poetry form poem and/or an anti-form poem.

A Haibun is a form, so I’ll think of a way to deconstruct my Haibuns for the third piece in the Soviet Stamp Suite.

https://www.napowrimo.net/day-sixteen-11/

Today’s NaPoWrimo prompt asks poets to closely describe an object or place, and then end with a much more abstract line that doesn’t seemingly have anything to do with that object or place, but which, of course, really does.

The style of Haibun that I use for the first two poems in the Soviet Stamp Suite ends with a Haiku unrelated to the prose part of the Haibun. One can infer subtle connections between the prose and the Haiku, I suppose. I’m honestly not terribly concerned about it one way or the other.

For my next trick, I took my two Haibuns and created a blackout poem. A blackout poem is a form, but the resulting double Haibun is a nonstandard Haibun and therefore an anti-form poem, methinks.

https://odysee.com/@AncientRealms:e/works-of-the-weaver-vol-2-ambient:0?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

https://odysee.com/@AncientRealms:e/works-of-the-weaver-3-ambient-cinematic:5?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16&lid=5350902c145670971e848054a27d030431ff3665

Enjoy the Works of the Weaver from the Ancient Realms channel on Odysee.

A typo would have put me way over the top for my Camp NaNoWriMo goal. I'm not a cheater, though. I corrected it. It's kind of painful to subtract 145,000 words from your word count!