by the Read Write Poem Staff
Do you have the courage to attempt today’s prompt, written by Read Write Poem member Dale? If you haven’t practiced being silly in a while, this is the perfect assignment for you:
In a nice private place, pick out a stanza, or a few lines, that you like from a poem that you don’t otherwise feel was very successful. Say them over to yourself.
Now hum them. See if you can find the tune.
And now sing them aloud. (Who cares if you can sing? You’re in private. And this is poetry!)
Throwing away the rest of the poem, write two more stanzas (stand-alone or connected) that go to the same tune.
No fair doing it silently!
Reminders for everyone
Read the Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Challenge Kickoff post for details on how the challenge works — and how you can engage with Read Write Poem this month, no matter what your personal writing challenge is for the month of April.
Please read this page to find out how Read Write Poem’s prompt posts work. Remember that work linked from any post this month is shared in precisely that spirit: sharing, as opposed to critiquing. If you haven’t done so already, please read all the pages under About in the navigation bar.
rob kistner replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 12:52 am
rob kistner replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 2:47 am
…I kept trying to take this one to the silly side, but it just kept insisting on being sexy — so, here’s my NaPoWriMo #15 post… be careful, it’s hot!
vivienne blake replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 3:59 am
Rob, the passion makes this excellent material for a song. I wish I knew the tune. Scotched or scorched? Sweep or sweet? (I prefer sweet!)
rob kistner replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
I think I had single malt on my mind last night, though I don’t drink — thanks for the typo catches… want a job as a proofreader?
Here’s a little children’s lyric that I changed for us “adults” LOL. Hope you enjoy it!
http://babblingoninbabylon.com/blog
Here’s my Day 15 poem, which on my timetable should have been to the day 14 prompt but wasn’t as I thought it was a bit difficult! Rise
Half way through the month and I have been on prompt 80% of the time, so lets see if I have more luck with this one.
Pretend you can hear me singing this: <a href=http://says-sir-ten.blogspot.com/2010/04/cost-of-living.html< COST OF LIVING
Stan Ski replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 1:09 am
Or even this: COST OF LIVING
vivienne blake replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 2:35 am
Great idea to give us the tune as well. I sang the three-syllable lines as minims sforzando!
Stan Ski replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 3:45 am
Minims… what…? Sorry, music is a foreign language to me, when when it comes to written notes… EGBDCA about does it for me…
vivienne blake replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 4:01 am
Sorry to be opaque, Stanski: I meant double length notes, accented forcefully.
Stan Ski replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 4:09 am
Thanks for that Vivienne – noted and consigned to memory.
And I especially feel it’s an appropriate way of voicing the last line.
I have returned as a Thursday-only weakling in this year’s challenge. The prompt I selected was #13, such a splendid prompt! Now I must try to read as many of the others as time will allow.
Poem Starting with a Line from Norman Dubie
So now I’ve written two poems in two weeks, which is more than I had written in over 13 years…..many thanks for the challenge!
vivienne blake replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 3:52 am
I like this very much, and feel that you could expand it to advantage into a longer poem.
Tired…just back from 4 hour drive…saw word
’silly’ Am going with that and music
‘Pizzicato’
http://rallentanda.blogspot.com
vivienne blake replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 3:55 am
This is great fun. I love the almost constant onomatopoeia words.
The first two and the last verse are the originals and the rest is new
Bilingual Duet
Gobbledegook, soit GAGF#
n’importe quoi F#GF#E
My mind’s a fog. DDDD
They’re burbling at me. DC#DD
Blah blah de blah GAGF#
et tout le bazaar. BF#GF#E
I understand nothing. BDDDDD
Why can’t I tune in ? DC#DDD
Elle est folle, G-AGF#
la pauvre Carole. BF#GF#D
I catch a phrase DDDD
I think I know. DC#DD
Mais non, j’ai tort : GAGF#
elle dort. I’m awake. BF#GF#E
I need to be ill BDDDD
in my own language DDC#DD
Confusion, AGF#
perfusion, BAG
piqure. C#D
for non-francophones, this translates as
Gobbledgook, which is
rubbish.
They’re burbling at me.
Blah, blah de blah
and all that stuff.
I understand nothing.
Why can’t I tune in?
She’s nuts,
poor Carol.
I catch a phrase
I think I know.
But no, I’m wrong:
she’s asleep. I’m awake.
I need to be ill
in my own language.
Confusion,
Drip,
Injection
Stan Ski replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 3:56 am
Encore…
Bravo…
I know only too well the frustration of being hospitalised in a foreign country…
Lost me on the …Majors?… Minors?
Like I said me and music – lip service…(not even lip-synch!)
vivienne blake replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 4:05 am
That’ll larn me not to show off! # = sharp, or half note. The song is in the key of D, which has two sharps, F and C. Please Sir, I won’t do it again!
Stan Ski replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 4:12 am
No worries whatsoever – I’ve learnt more today than I have in a long time.
rob kistner replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 3:59 am
This is fun with a sober edge to it — I enjoyed it Vivienne…
…rob
Image & Verse
barbara_y replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
clever. I do like “I need to be ill in my own language”
Something a whole lot essential – sort of a song itself.
Today’s poem is here:
http://thelaughinghousewife.wordpress.com
My poem is here:
http://ragbone.wordpress.com
Join in my Battle Song!
http://melrosemusings.blogspot.com/2010/04/battle-song-napowrimo-day-15.html
Uma Gowrishankar replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
I liked the cry of the battle, not bloody but with a passion underlined.
Ick
vivienne blake replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 5:11 am
It may be icky to you, but my 8-yr-old grandson would love it! I suspect there would be many youthful fans for it.
Not exactly what the prompt asked, but still song related: Apocalypse Solo
This one’s serious. But dale won’t mind.
http://slowreads.com/verseBackSeat.html
- Peter
poemsotherwise.blogspot.com/2010/04/tunes.html
Off prompt, a little. But a few loyal readers requested it. Dot/Scarecrow.
A little off-prompt, but the music helped to completely change the poem I started with and made it into something I might actually work on at a later date, too. So, job’s a good’un, I think!
http://just-somestuff.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-15-comfort-of-endless.html
Another non-prompt poem. Today’s is about loss and my former musical career. It’s called “Amputee,” and you can read or listen to it here:
http://jasoncrane.org/2010/04/15/poem-amputee/
Enjoy!
Jason
vivienne blake replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 7:39 am
Jason, I felt every line of this. No. Definitely not a song. I wrote a sonnet about the growing inability of my elderly brain to control my fingers on the piano keys, but your story is infinitely more moving.
Here’s my offering… I am so tired.
http://poiesis3.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-day-15-fridge-talk.html
http://mothersparrow.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/1449/
Apologies that I haven’t commented on many poems the last few days; I have been really busy but I hope to get round them all tomorrow.
I’m not managing daily poems (no real surprise there, with a four-and-a-half month old baby!) but I’m still writing one poem a week, and here’s this week’s:
Anticipatory Psalm 3
http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2010/04/another-mother-psalm.html
I did not follow the prompt, but had fun nonetheless with this brief ditty:
http://poemblaze.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/part-of-this-poem-is-true/
I’m practising being silly.
Resonate secretly
Teddy Bears Picnic anyone?
http://redshoepoet.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-challege-15.html
I’ve done it, but if we depended on my sense of rhythm, we’d be up to our ears in offspring
let ‘er roll
OK…Here’s silly! “Childhood Games” can be found at http://bridgeanna.blogspot.com
Blessings on your day!
The best thing is, I wrote something! Even though it is not to the prompt.
http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com/2010/04/saintly-mind-gets-lubricated.html
Thanks for the belting prompt Dale, Here’s mine: Please Pretty
I don’t do tunes, but I sang it to myself Elvis style!
Off-prompt, I’m afraid, but sometimes you have to respond to the urgent inspiration. http://rhiannonproblematising.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/napowrimo-15-how-does-jesus-speak-to-you-today/
Great for singing in the shower!
http://herwordsbloomed.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-15-carrying-tune.html
hosking replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 11:34 am
Marianne, I like it. Definitely a guitar strumming tune.
A shameless adaptation of Emily Dickinson, most of whose poems can be set to the tune of “Oh Susanna” or the Oscar Meyer theme song. But not this one; it has a tune all its own.
Meditation #97
What are these “previous poems that didn’t work out” you keep talking about? I am so new to all this there there is no stock I can draw from. Besides, if I write (which is rare enough) there is usually no “didn’t work out”. There is only badfic and badpoetry and that’s it
Ok, so basically what you wanted us to do is write filk, right? Lyrics to a tune we knew, or even with a new tune. Filk I can do. Here you go. I think you can guess the music
Yesterday,
The need for writing seemed so far away
Then NoPoWriMo came along my way
And prose belongs
To yesterday.
Suddenly
The words will move and rhyme so easily
Just like a river flowing merrily
Oh, poetry
Came suddenly
Why I
Pledged to join I don’t know
I couldn’t say
It did
Just feel right at the time
of yesterday.
Yesterday
Writing wasn’t yet a game I’d play
Now I’m in to deep and here to stay
Oh what a feat
of yesterday!
vivienne blake replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 11:26 am
Jaelle: some beginner! This is wickid
You are in TOO deep, but you’re going deeper!
ViV
haikujunky replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 11:53 am
Ha!
Robin replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
I’m with Vivienne. This is awesome…and it takes the words right out of my mouth. I really am a beginner (sure it shows!), and I’m feeling totally bereft of ideas right now.
Great prompt! I stumbled upon the perfect poem to use – one that I tried to create specifically around two lines I loved, but that never really fleshed out properly.
Green was born of the grass
http://katharinewhitcomb.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-15-new-years-day.html
This gave me a new poem from one I had abandoned. I really liked the prompt!
and from me today
april 15th
Thanks for the prompt Dale.
http://flaubert-poetrywithme.blogspot.com/2010/04/shitty-little-ditty-napowrimo-15.html
Timely prompt. This wasn’t working as a poem, then the poet and rocker mixed it up. They started hearing pennywhistle and squeeze box in the background, and the rocker won this round. But the poet got to pick the title, Channeling Dylan Thomas:
http://jdmackenzie.blogspot.com/2010/04/channeling-dylan-thomas.html
Halfway !!!
My NaPoWriMo poems and prompts are on Facebook
and here:
http://dash30dash.ning.com/profiles/blogs/napowrimo-day-15-the-halfway?xg_source=activity
Again, some excellent work and an impressive amount of participation this year. Excellent!!!!
haikujunky replied:
April 15th, 2010 at 11:57 am
Wow, I posted right next to you Chris!!! xoxoxo
I always try to do my poem before work, so even though I don’t think this is quite “lyrical” enough, here it is, with some lines salvaged from another poem…
writing nothing
letters fall out
on to the floor
melding with gravity
gravity folding in
an origami yoga position
balanced on nothing
nothing but gravity
and letters holding words
in old scarred hands
old scarred hands
the letters falling out
on to the floor
melding with gravity
gravity folding in
balanced on nothing
I requested easier not harder. Anyway, I Write the Poems.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978174922
I enjoy writing songs.
O, the Rage
http://nothinghypothetical.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/o-the-rage
A little bit late but this is mine:
http://stiletto.crisopeya.eu/2010/04/15/napowrimo-15-carrying-a-tune/
Carrying a silly tune
http://sheiladeethdrabbles.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-napowrimo-15.html
I got -real- silly with
Silly Willy-ness!
I don’t know if it’s musical, but it’s a bit sing-song:
White Lies
I think this is the most fun prompt yet! To the tune of “Oh My Darling, Clementine”, “Deadlines Pending”:
http://caraholman.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/2010-napowrimo-15/
Here’s one more changed musical lyric I wrote to the tune of “Thank You Very Much” from the British musical “Dickens A Christmas Carol.”
http://babblingoninbabylon.com/blog
Borrowing the frightfully apt Poetic Asides prompt for today: http://jasonriedy.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/napowrimo-15/
I love Dale’s singing idea; need to remember it for future writing.
Spring Poem (start with 1st. verse of “Jingle Bells”)
Late last Autumn
I planted tulip bulbs
Now they have burst forth
From the muddy ground
Like there is still hope
In the world
Some things that will not give in
To despair.
(chorus)
Hyacinths, daffodils
Bluebells on the way
Tulips open in the sun
What a great display
(repeat chorus)
Here is this from a Tamil song – ‘Song Of The Housefly’ – http://umaathreya.blogsome.com/2010/04/15/song-of-the-housefly/
SOO much trouble with this one. The tune stinks too.
http://mmw113.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-15-temporary-hiding.html
I have many failed poems. As I went about my day I tried singing some of them. I finally became “stuck” on one – though I did it all – found a rythmic part, threw away the rest, built 2 new stanzas – there’s no song here. Anyway, here it is. As someone earlier this week said – “You can’t win them all.”
http://synecdochicstuff.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-15.html
No time, and no ideas…feeling almost beaten by this challenge, but still dredged this one up. This is to be sung to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,” and is called
“When a Father Takes Children Fishing.” Please take with a big grain of salt…or rather, how about some scotch on the rocks? It’s definitely silly…though true
http://rrosenchang.blogspot.
here is #15…trying to carry a tune
http://waynepitchko.blogspot.com
http://sky-lined.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-day-15.html
In the event of
something
worthwhile
What a fine and
deadly
game it is!
Today’s poem, off-prompt:
http://memali.posterous.com/1530-6
I wrote one for the prompt, which I really had a hard time getting into: http://poetry.disorderedcosmos.com/2010/04/napowrimo-15a-badly-writing-poetry/
And another one as part of a new series about Canada:
http://poetry.disorderedcosmos.com/2010/04/les-noirs-de-montreal/
ohhh this was just too much fun… i recall
This one’s entitled ‘Home Alone’ but could just as easily have been ‘Song for the Cellphone’. =)
“It’s not fair, not fair at all,
I can’t receive incoming calls;
The latest gossip is postponed,
My cellphone’s home alone…”
Find the complete poem at http://www.gregoconnell.com
Off-prompt, but fun to write nonetheless.
http://avniously.blogspot.com/2010/04/inheritance.html
in bed with tonsciltus at the mo, so singing not an option !:) so i wrote a tiny thing to an instrumental (the beginning of rhapsody in blue)
Night blues, the way you walk into the room,
laugh and make the whole city sound so out of tune.
Night white,the pinprick of light in your smile,
is a needle’s steel meeting my eye
I fall so hard I’m a cartoon
and my heart goes down like a balloon.
Night blues, the way you take a plastic flower
and hold it close to your nose
as if it’s a garden in spring makes me wish.
Anything, for you touch my skin to make me feel like a plastic flower woken by the feel of bees on their stem,
your like the fingers tiny feet of insects
make me open and close for your tongue.
http://pamelavillars.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/april-15-10-love-song/
I did not interpret the prompt as to write a song-style poem; I interpreted to find the tune from an old poem then create something new in that tune.
http://skankinmoon.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/partial-names
well, it’s not exactly a song & it’s not exactly silly, but I did sort of smoosh together 3 old poems.
then I rinsed & repeated.
http://another2doors.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/glorious-bead/
Well, my tune was a bit random; I don’t think the words themselves reflect the singsong, but it was there, lurking underneath things!
http://www.shicho.net/words/?p=1085
Well, I did try to follow the prompt, but it didn’t work out how I imagined. It kinda has a musical quality to it, but I borrowed from Emily Dickinson for the original stanzas.
I call it “Imitating Emily”: http://goo.gl/fb/X2aw2
I like to think I was totally channelling Leonard Cohen with, “Sleeves”:
http://www.redbubble.com/people/nebsy/writing/5010475-napowrimo-15
Missing the Beat: http://thekitchenbitchponders.blogspot.com/2010/04/national-poetry-writing-month-day_15.html
ALMOST forgot to post my poem!
Didnt use the prompt, but did sing
http://bygraceandfaith.tumblr.com/
My Melody
If I knew the tune I’d sing it loud and clear
If I knew the melody
to soothe your pounding ears
I’d sing it until it rang out over the distance
so far we couldn’t reach it
so far it’s infinite
song would dissipate and we’d wave goodbye
If I knew the melody
I’d sing it even if it’d be a lie
To soothe the pain, aching and countless tears
Everything is broken
no solace seems to be near
I count myself lucky to have those I love
singing melodies in my ear
when I’ve lost faith in anything above
I sing a song today loud and clear
I sang it through the pain
I know my tune and its called fear
I sing out my melody
washing with it all my tears
A poem originally called “Death of the Plastic Bag” now to be sung to a sing song ditty like what ice cream trucks play.
http://daily-yawp.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-15.html
Once again I am off-prompt, however I would still like to share my work with you all.
http://systematicweasel.blogspot.com/2010/04/technology-4-15-2010-poem-day-challenge.html
not really songish, per se. This prompt is the kind of thing I’d like to have a couple or three days with, to flesh out and smooth out. – “is Infinite”
http://novaheart.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/poem-41510-is-infinite/
Poem #15. “Writing to the Music of Yo La Tengo.”
Imagine there is a lot of feedback in the music of this poem and it might work a bit better.
Posted at: http://troysworktable.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-15.html