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Printed from https://webx1.writing.com/main/books/item_id/2227028-Daily-Poem-Entries
Rated: 18+ · Book · Philosophy · #2227028

Entries to The Daily Poem Contest.

It makes sense to keep them all in one place.

Signature for those who are nominated for a Quill Award in 2021

Quill Nominee Signature 2022
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October 31, 2024 at 10:00am
October 31, 2024 at 10:00am
#1079222
Shadow

Hah, stalker, skewered at last, now you hang from the ceiling
like a specimen pinned for inspection, unable to move,
held by the light from the lamp on the floor, imprisoned,
grown faint in your relentless quest, your obsession with me.

Now let’s see you follow as I escape your constant grasp
by the simple expedient of turning off the light,
leaving you frozen in the pitiless hand of the night
while I run free, secret, and far from your endless attention.



Line count: 8
Free verse
For The Daily Poem, 10.31.24
Prompt: Your shadow climbs the wall and cowers near the ceiling. Tell us why.
October 30, 2024 at 12:44pm
October 30, 2024 at 12:44pm
#1079175
Culinary Capers

It’s strange I know but lately
the kitchen seems to hate me.
I open the fridge door
and it spits things on the floor.

Now it seems the toaster
makes toast just like a coaster,
and the microwave’s dark look
means it refuses to cook.

I’ve never liked the oven,
it mutters like a coven
making some awful new spell -
the kitchen is now my hell.

And the reason it’s now explained:
from cooking I’ve never refrained -
vacations are what they have claimed!



Line count: 15
Rhymed aabb
For The Daily Poem, 10.30.24
Prompt: Write a poem where the objects in your kitchen are plotting against you in absurd ways.
October 29, 2024 at 11:56am
October 29, 2024 at 11:56am
#1079117
Lethologica

Being an old man of walking-towards-the-front years,
I find myself beset with a large-number-of-aggressive-people fears.

Will my eyesight worsen into antagonisticism,
or am I doomed to die from analyticalism?

You may find these thoughts humerus,
but to me they are more than lugubrious.

Hah, I remembered that one -
who laughs last, laughs a ton,

Sometimes it’s indelibly easy,
at others, incredibly sick-to-the-stomach-but-rhymes-with-easy.



Line count: 10
Rhyming couplets
For The Daily Poem, 10.29.24
Prompt: Craft a poem using the concept of Lethologica.
Notes: Lethologica is the temporary inability to retrieve a specific word.
walking-towards-the-front = advancing
large-number-of-aggressive-people = horde
antagonisticism = astigmatism
analyticalism = aneurism
humerus = humorous
sick-to-the-stomach-but-rhymes-with-easy = queasy.
October 28, 2024 at 9:44am
October 28, 2024 at 9:44am
#1079053
Mayflies

As the summer sun plays through the foliage of trees to pattern the pond in light, I watch the dance of mayflies above the water.

Deep in the water, the imperatives of past and future clash in this moment. Mayfly nymphs, caught in the forces of the moment, rise to the surface to take flight. Now, embracing the drive to procreate, they seek the loved one, in joy to float in the crystal light, bright jewels of fire against the shadows. The still air is laced with the complex trails of reflected sparks, this kaleidoscope of nature’s urgent order. They live for this one day of courting, joy, and death, a flash of lightning in the yearly gloom.

In the evening, when darkness broods upon the silent pool, the air no longer lit by the mayfly dance, the shaded depths brood upon the year of preparation now commenced.

brief the mayfly life
pure delight in ecstasy
and reason enough



Word count: 160
Form Haibun
For The Daily Poem, 10.28.24
Prompt: Write a Haibun about two competing forces of nature, but it’s a tragic love story like Romeo and Juliet.
October 27, 2024 at 10:24am
October 27, 2024 at 10:24am
#1079010
Subtle Domestication

The cat curls upon my chest,
her purr thrumming in my ear,
pure contentment and trust
resonant in the sound,
like the chirr of insects calling
in the sunbeat heat of noon.

This warmth between us,
soft and healing glow
in both our beings,
so far from her repute
of hauteur and disdain,
takes no account of reason.

No, this quiet assassin
of nightly rodent hunts,
who does not flump or plonk,
she it is, so delicate,
that kneads and turns
and settles like a cloud.



Line count: 18
Form: Free verse
For The Daily Poem, 10.27.24
Prompt: Using at least four of these words, write an onomatopoeia-heavy poem:
Plonk, Scritch, Thrum, Chirr, Scroop, Squelch, Flump.
October 26, 2024 at 11:00am
October 26, 2024 at 11:00am
#1078961
Odo the Dragon

Have you ever had soda go right up your nose?
Those bubbles will sting from your head to your toes
So you might feel sorry for poor Odo the dragon
the fire from his sneezes his nose hair did blacken

The fear of the flames gave him a terrible puzzle
what he needed it seemed was to go soak his muzzle
he flew over land and he flew over the sea
he wallowed in quagmire and even tried tea.

He bought slushies and milk shakes but nothing would do
the fire in his nostrils made him aquamarine blue
But what soothed him at last and made him feel spry
was to lie in the rain with his nose to the sky.



Line count: 12
For The Daily Poem, 10.26.24
Prompt: Write a children’s poem about a dragon who is afraid of fire and sticks his head in water every time he sneezes to stop the flames.
October 24, 2024 at 3:14pm
October 24, 2024 at 3:14pm
#1078863
Title says it all.


Deserters

What, leaving so soon?
red on black sign exclaims,
perhaps indignantly;
the theatre dark but vivid,
still breathing with the crowd.

No truck with furtive leavers here,
ducked down and sneaking through,
yet trailed by muttered protest:
“Hey, mind my foot!”
and shameful pleas for pardon.



Line count: 10
Free verse
For The Daily Poem, 10.24.24
Prompt: As per illustration.
September 8, 2022 at 8:17am
September 8, 2022 at 8:17am
#1037490
The Collector

Alabaster,
near translucent white as though absorbent,
soft yet hard
and smooth the surface,
carved with care by delicate hand
practised with precision,
the statuette,
lone in limelit windowed showcase,
draws his sure acquisitive eye.

Pauses the ever wary hoarder,
wooed and hooked by “interesting piece,”
feigns no more than passing fancy,
points a vague and trembling finger,
“Alabaster?” he enquires.

Knows he well from long acquaintance
sculptures in this palest stone,
understands the value understated
inherent in the figure posed,
yet his mind, in thrift directed,
aims for bargain basement price.

Proprietor of antiquities outlet,
disguised by coarseness of its name,
“Bizarre Bazaar” in golden letters
emblazoned bright above the door,
knows full well the precious relic,
chose its present place of honour,
displaying it to best effect,
estimating quite precisely,
its market worth down to the cent,
steels himself for cunning barter,
girds his loins, draws up his wit,
answers with a twitch of ‘tache,
“Yes indeed, sir, highest grade,
your eye discerns the best, I see,
the piece is pure unblemished,
Arabian alabaster.”

So the battlefield is chosen,
lines drawn up and hunkered down,
long the struggle (and enjoyment)
as two combatants join the fray,
strategy and artifice,
feint, riposte and brutal onset,
all employed in finest measure,
till they stand, exhausted, spent,
the goal so close,
both adamant
no more retreat will be supported.

“Five more dollars and it’s yours,”
proprietor entreats.
“No penny more, you think me mad,”
collector proudly states,
“The thing’s not worth it, I don’t care,
that price you’ll never get.”

A moment then, they stand and stare,
eye to eye and glaring full,
then turn away, ignoring each,
without further word, they part.
The hoarder’s hand on exit handle,
opens, and rings the service bell,
the merry tones in peal ring out,
and both contenders turn again,
“On second thoughts…” they shout.



Line count: 62
Free verse with a touch of trochaic tetrameter
For The Daily Poem, Sept 07 2022
Prompt: L R A E H D E O R Without using technological assistance, put together the longest word you can from the given string of letters and use it in your poem. Please bold the word you find and use.


September 7, 2022 at 8:09am
September 7, 2022 at 8:09am
#1037437
Excerpt from Home Burial
by Robert Frost

He saw her from the bottom of the stairs
Before she saw him. She was starting down,
Looking back over her shoulder at some
fear.
She
took a doubtful step and then undid it
To raise herself and look again. He
spoke
Advancing toward her: ‘What is it you see
From up there
alwaysfor I want to know.’
She turned and sank upon her skirts at that,
And her face changed from
terrified to dull.
He said to gain time: ‘What is it you see,’
Mounting
until she cowered under him.
‘I will find out now—you must tell me, dear.’
She, in her place, refused him any help
With the least
stiffening of her neck and silence.
She let him look, sure that he wouldn’t see,
Blind creature; and awhile he didn’t see.
But at last he
murmured, ‘Oh,’ and again, ‘Oh.’

From which I extracted:

Incoherence

From the bottom
of the fear
she spoke,
always terrified,
until,
stiffening her neck,
she murmured,
"Oh," and again, "Oh."



Line count: 8
Free verse
For The Daily Poem, Sept 2022
Prompt: Using either of the prompts below, create a redacted poem.
Note: I began by assuming you meant the whole poem. It was only when I had nearly finished that Ned drew my attention to the explanatory exchange in the forum that made it clear only the excerpts were to be used. Having made my choice of poems, I was loth to change and considered what I had done thus far. It seemed to me that I could make eight lines that referenced only the excerpt if I merely shortened the lines that used that section. It worked well enough and even contained more meaning than my original rambling and increasingly confused effort.

September 6, 2022 at 10:46am
September 6, 2022 at 10:46am
#1037394
Keeping Mum

Things not said can be important,
hidden cost is no informant,
the muttered words at close of play
are often what we need to say.

“What’s that you said, I didn’t hear?”
“Oh, nothing dear - it wasn’t clear
that I had anything to add.”
(to say aloud would just be mad)

So bind those words and keep them down,
or let them loose and risk a frown;
your shrink would call it dissipation,
but I say it’s - self preservation.



Line count: 12
Rhymed couplets
For The Daily Poem, Sept 05 2022
Prompt: Things not said. Your poem must be a minimum 10 lines, but not more than 12 lines. It must have a minimum 5 words per line, but not more than 8 words per line. You may NOT use the following words in your poem: regret, unsaid, memory/memories/memoirs, whisper, or remember.


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