Monday, April 19, 2010

PAD Challenge - Days 17, 18, & 19

Welcome to week three of PAD Challenge!
I think I'm finally running out of poetic steam. My poems lately have been kind of blah, or at least they seem like it. Hopefully the following will not be. I am surprised that it took me 19 days, though, before I felt poetically tired. Last year it only took a week and a half!

Day 17 - Write a science poem.

Omniscience

Long day, achey legs,
floppy arms, too tired to move properly.
You and I
settle in to each other
for a movie with no other
interest
except
to rest.
I know this movie already.
I know that the bills
need to be paid,
clothes laundered and put away.
My room needs cleaning,
the pets need to be fed,
forms must be filled out,
and tomorrow we both have to
go back to work, which means
I know I have to make lunches
tonight before bed.
I know you'll dose off
content to have me by your side
like a sweet baby with no obligations
but to be itself.
I know the dishes need doing.
I know my bank account
is low and I need to
balance
my check book.
I know the phone bill
needs paying.
I know you need a back rub
from the day we had.
I know you are warm
and I know I'm safe
nestled in among your
arms.
I know your needs and mine,
I know we don't have much
time.
Being self-aware,
omniscient about my entire life
is annoying.
All I want to know
is that all I want to do
is stay in your arms
forever.

Day 18 - Write a poem with the title "To _____"

With apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson and the author of that ancient poem we all know about but have probably never read. (Reading tips: "Geat" is pronounced "Yeat". Also, this reads a lot better after you've read The Charge of the Light Brigade.)

To the hall, to the hall!

Night is come, night is come
night is come early,
quick to the hall of Hroogar
all you hold dearly:
'Grendel, monstrosity!
Run for your life' they say:
Into the walls of Heorot
came the great warriors.

'Grendel, monstrosity!'
Was there a man dismay'd?
Yes, tho' the warriors knew
Some one was with them:
Theirs to support and watch,
While hardy Beowulf fought,
Theirs just to gawk in awe
In the meade hall of Hroogar
fought Grendel, outcast.

Stench in the midst of them,
Claws desp'rately clawing them,
Jaws gaping wide at them,
Inhumanly beast;
They stormed it with shout and yell,
Boldly they tried and well,
Flashing their swords and breath
Inside that great meade hall
strong Beowulf's Geats.

Without a weaponry,
carring for chivalry,
fighting him armlessly,
Charging a beasty while
All the town wonder'd:
De-armed the scaly fright
Right from its own great might;
Geatlings and Monster
Reel'd from host'le blight,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Beowulf, the hero with
out any blunder.

Bloody at right of them,
Bloody at left of them,
Still then behind them
Stomping and running;
Left, Grendel for the land,
Beowulf, the monster's hand
Crumbling like stoney sand
Mounted it to the wall.
Monsters forever banned,
Poor Grendel left the hall,
Left all of Heorot.

When can his folly learn?
In confidence he burned
from his great feat.
Dragon to fight at last!
Hubris he had amassed,
Died, Beowulf the Geat.

Day 19 - Write a poem with a person's name as the title.

C.S. Lewis

Pockets of imagination
Hiding in this tiny world;
You found them, and put your hand in,
Then you ripped them open.
Spilled their contents on the page,
lacing it with charm and wit
and well turned phrase.
Thanks to you my children will
never lack to know the value
of the imagination.

1 comment:

  1. I like "C. S. Lewis". It looks very simple, but I like your phrasing and the message of the poem.

    ReplyDelete