napowrimo: chain poem

Read Write Poem’s chain poem, which a few have donated a line towards, is here:


Aunt April

Flowered mesh captures hair floating above sun-glassed eyes
She sneaked the harsh Chinese cigarettes
Striking the match on the bottom of her shoe
Her cloyingly touch caused my brother to seethe
She changed her name and learned to swim
Rolled her hips and shimmied at a club on Calle Ocho.

She’s a bit of a strange old bird
With her nest of curly gray hair
So, three husbands and two dogs later
She still wears bikinis and lays to sun herself in the front yard
Her companions: a highball, a nail file, a romance novel
Her optimism cynicisim in a lesser womans hands

Kindness in her heart, murder in her veins
This woman hides herself from her own view, running frantically
Family secrets too late at night are safe in her hands
For tomorrow will never come and the dark night will stay
But only in her dreams; in the day she’s still smoking
Those harsh cigarettes and my brother is still seething

(And she’s still running around in her bikini)
Being old and one half of a dead couple had made her
thin and wiry. Hair streaming like sparklers in the moon.
 

 

* * *

Would you like to add to our poem? Contribute a line and count it as your daily NaPoWriMo poem! Or simply add a line and contribute to National Poetry Month.

Or grab all - or some of - the lines and rearrange them and post them on your own blog.

It’s a free-for-all.

~Deb.


22 Responses to “napowrimo: chain poem”

  1. 1 paisley

    she’s a bit of a strange old bird

    i would like to contribute this line to the poem…..

  2. 2 Leigh Lear

    i thought this line might work next.

    “with her nest of curly gray hair”

  3. 3 pepektheassassin

    so, three husbands and two dogs later

  4. 4 jimmmaaa

    Here’s my poem, Former Wisconsin Beauty Queen that I made from the chain of lines.

  5. 5 NamasteBlue

    she still wears bikinis and lays to sun herself in the front yard

  6. 6 ...deb

    I love the way these chain poems build. And I really enjoyed you poem, jimmmmaaa.

  7. 7 Blythe

    Her companions: a highball, a nail file, a romance novel

  8. 8 NamasteBlue

    Her optimism cynicisim in a lesser womans hands

  9. 9 jimmmaaa

    Thanks, Deb. I had fun expanding on the chain. It’s still jangling around in my mind and perhaps I will go back to refine it, although rewriting is not my strong point, yet.

  10. 10 Rob Kistner

    here’s a line:

    “kindness in her heart, murder in her veins”

  11. 11 jan doble

    ‘this woman hides herself from her own view, running frantically’

  12. 12 Whirling Dervish

    Here’s my line:

    Family secrets too late at night are safe in her hands

  13. 13 Beloved Dreamer-Melanie

    For tomorrow will never come and the dark night will stay.

    I would like to add this line.

    love-bd

  14. 14 jan doble

    –but only in her dreams; in the day she’s still smoking those harsh cigarettes and my brother is still seething

  15. 15 jan doble

    (and she’s still running around in her bikini)

  16. 16 jan doble

    Deb,
    I guess her bikini fell off!

  17. 17 Read Write Poem

    Hey Jan, I wasn’t quite sure it was a line with the parenthesis. I heard it as commentary since you’d donated a line before that.

    Will be interesting to see where this might yet go.

    Title ideas, anyone?

  18. 18 jan doble

    you really could have left that off…somehow the 2 lines you made out of what i sent was really supposed to be 1 line; and the bikini part was to be the last line in the poem (or in that paragraph). But, when you made 2 lines out of the 1 that i sent, i really liked it MUCH better, and realized that it would have been awkward to use it as just 1 line! so then, i was kind of glad you didn’t use the ‘bikini’ line, and my last note to you was pretty much just a joke, a final comment! now that you’ve put the bikini line as the beginning of a new section of the poem, it really WILL be more complicated! i hope people will continue it…otherwise, you can take it off if you want to:) wow…this is a lot to say…sorry it went on so long:)

  19. 19 jan doble

    if no-one else wants to contribute, i think the poem looks cool the way it is…even with one line alone at the bottom. maybe you could even include something about the bikini in the title? (just a thought…)

  20. 20 Beloved Dreamer-Melanie

    Being old and one half of a dead couple had made her thin and wiry.

  1. 1 Skipping the rewrite again… « pro tempore
  2. 2 napowrimo: celebrate may and back to our regularly scheduled poll dances at Read Write Poem

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May 15, 2008 — The current Get Your Poem On post is here. This post is where you leave us a link to your blog in response to Blythe's prompt having something to do with mothers. Or any other poetric inspiration. We don't care, as long as you eat your vegetables.

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May 11, 2008 — Carolee is back at it with an interesting discussion centered on the last poll, which asks us about our self perception. There are great follow-up comments from participants, so read it...and then visit the latest poll. One column over - yeah, on the far right.



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Apr. 30, 2008 — Here's a recap of RWP's April 2008 support for the NaPoWriMo-er's effort(s!!).

And here's a celebration-of-your-NaPoWriMo-success button. Help yourself.



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A different word or phrase will appear here each time you visit the site or refresh the page. Your current prompt is — pell-mell



RANDOM WRITING TIP

Think of all the things that provoke anxiety in you, and write them into a poem.



RANDOM READING TIP

Spice it up! If you are tiring of the same old poetry-reading routine, try something new. Read in a new place, invite a friend to read with you, try a new flavor of poetry, or hunt for a new poet to read online.



RANDOM COLLABORATING TIP

Write a list poem, with each collaborator supplying one or more items for the list. Just think of a topic and you’ll be on your way.


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