by the Read Write Poem Staff
With words like codswallop, it’s clear that Read Write Poem member Marie Gauthier means business! Now is not the time to let your NaPoWriMo work ethic slack.
Clichés, idioms, what-have-you. As points of inspiration, you might think they’re dead in the water, but that’s a load of codswallop. Time spent investigating word origins is never time wasted. “Left in the lurch” is one example. Here’s what The Phrase Finder says about it:
There are suggestions that lurch is a noun originating from lych – the Old English word for corpse, which gives the name to the covered lych-gates that adjoin many English churches. The theory goes that jilted brides would be ‘left in the lych (or lurch)’ when the errant bridegroom failed to appear. The lych-gate is where coffins are left when waiting for the clergyman to arrive to conduct a funeral service. Both theories are plausible but there’s no evidence to support either and in fact lych and lurch are unrelated.
For our purposes, it doesn’t matter whether the derivation pans out as true or not. Your inquiries are meant to be catalytic crackers. Surely “lych-gate” stirs an idea or two!
So for today’s prompt, travel a while on The Phrase Finder website until you find the phrase or phrase origin that most interests you.
There are no hard and fast rules. The Phrase Finder has phrases from the Bible, from Shakespeare, phrases coined at sea, something for every taste. Take some notes, do a free-write or three, and see where a little word exploration takes you.
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.
Here is mine #24 and counting
http://www.waynepitchko.blogspot.com
My poem “Decline and Fall” is off prompt–
http://theresebroderick.wordpress.com
I chose the phrase A poor workman always blames his tools and ended up with excuses.
http://disorder1313.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/transliteration-of-catullus-xxx-complete/
http://redshoepoet.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-challege-24.html
http://kolokoli.blogspot.com/2010/04/epigram-1.html
http://freckledwriter.blogspot.com/2010/04/shakespeare-aesop-and-poison.html
First time I don’t follow the prompt. It was a cool idea, though; it’s just that we were traveling today and I didn’t have time.
Addicted
Not only was I running low on time today, but I almost forgot to post the link!
http://www.shicho.net/words/?p=1143
(Probably not worth a read as a poem, but this certainly encapsulates my evening.)
Love is blind:
http://paperdreams-jgc.blogspot.com/2010/04/day-24-love-is-blind.html
Love this prompt and the website, too. 12 hours working/day is taking a toll on my creativity. As always, you can read me at musetomyeyes.blogspot.com. I miss your comments.
humble pie
Making up for yesterday, as well!
http://avniously.blogspot.com/2010/04/sheets-and-beef.html
“A Sea Grammar”
http://eveningpoems.blogspot.com/
Prompterific: http://jasonriedy.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/napowrimo-the-factorial-of-four/
I want to push myself, just not off a cliff unless there’s just enough water. So I’m kinda tossing pebbles over and listening to their splashes.
My #24 offering:
Hope for Plain Sailing
I challenge all of you to write a poem a day for the rest of the year. It is not so hard. I have written a poem or two a day since 1 Jan 2009. So it’s easy. I know you can all do it with all your talent and imagination.
My phrase is from Shakespeare’s Richard III:
“Now is the winter of our discontent” which according to The Phrase Finder means “The time of unhappiness is past.”
So here goes:
Tim Keeton
Poet/Wizard/Teller-of-tales
Tim Keeton replied:
April 24th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
This can be found at http://timkeeton.wordpress.com
My NaPoWriMo plan included writing one intentionally bad poem. Today’s the day. (I know, how can you tell, right?)
http://tinacelio.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/as-promised-threatened-a-bad-poem/
I’m a little boring today; sorry.
http://cosmicmermaid.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/cookie-crumbles/
Poem #24. “Chasing After Wind.”
Posted at: http://troysworktable.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-24.html
http://katharinewhitcomb.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-24-when.html
well, it’s almost 9 on the west coast. this one was slow to come.
Thanks for this prompt – great Web site. I used the phrase Gadzooks as my inspiration.
~~~~~~~
God’s Hooks
Gadzooks: An exclamation – a euphemistic shortening of God’s hooks (the nails on the cross).
From the moment we latch
Into the womb
We’re hooked–
Just like Jesus.
Hooked on food, love, sex, money,
Hooked on TV, coffee, cigarettes, booze,
Hooked on yoga, meditation, religion, approval,
On power, endorphins, adrenaline,
On being good, on being right,
On our stories, our dreams–
Until the big hook pulls us off the stage.
Jump In A Lake
Angeliad of Surazeus
2010 04 24
http://open.salon.com/blog/surazeus/2010/04/24/jump_in_a_lake
Though temples of money collapsed
and fell into heaps of broken dreams
we gather together in dawn of despair
to rebuild business with skilled hands
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Though wizards of stocks and bonds
shuffled cards to bundle empty gems
they tricked hard-working men to gamble
in games where they win and we lose
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
There is no sure way to get rich quick
without working hard to process dirt
transforming seeds to plants for food
and stones to metal for every machine
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Farmer plants seeds in soil to grow crops
then harvests produce in wagons of bags
for cooks to prepare meals that nourish
our hearts with ove from heart of earth
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Miner digs minerals from dark dank cave
smelting stone into metals and glass
to build engines and telvisions and cars
and computers that connect our hearts
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Rancher herds animals on green hills
spreading manure to fertilize fields
and milking cows and gathering eggs
for sweet meals we eat in elegant cafes
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Carpenter cuts trees and saws in planks
to build houses and wagons and boats
that shelter us and help us move things
and guide us exploring our complex world
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Mason carves stone from mountain bone
and builds temple and arch and church
and theater and castle and paradise
to guard our souls from storm and death
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Wealth of empires is based on work
processing food and things from dirt
so when banks fall bankrupt from tricks
return to earth with hands in her soil
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Farmer with wheat was attacked by thieves
so he stored wheat in warehouse of loaf-ward
who gave coins in return for bags of food
when money was created from gold nuggets
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Worker with gold was attacked by thieves
so he stored money in a marble bank
who gave paper notes in return for coins
when money was created from paper
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Broker with cash was attacked by thieves
so he stored money in computer database
as blinking numbers in silicon memory
when money was created from credit cards
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
When your soul is enslaved by debt
kneel on earth and dig hands in dirt
and feel power of life in cool moist soil
that surges your soul awake with hope
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
When you lose your job in office tower
walk outside and leave city of steel
and dance in wind by sparkling lake
where eternal spirit whispers in wind
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Who remembers how to build a fire
placing stones in a circle on clear dirt
and piling leaves and twigs and logs
and striking fire stone and tending flame
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Who remembers how to build a wagon
fashioning wheels and plank from wood
and hitching horse with leather harness
and guiding wagon on winding roads
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Who remembers basic building technique
stacking stones and assembling wood
to surround garden of fruit trees and well
where lovers play harps and sing spells
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
If your dreams crumble around your ears
get back to Garden of Eden for rebirth
and learn again basic crafts of design
while illusions of wealth are flower fleet
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
Though schemes of profit collapsed
and fell into heaps of betrayed hopes
we gather together in dawn of despair
to rebuild business with skilled hands
so when you feel dirty from blind greed
jump in a lake and baptize your soul.
I diverged a tiny bit, due to lack of time, from the main prompt. I still based it on a quote, just not one from that website.
http://wintermintfruit.blogspot.com/2010/04/stairs.html
I used “bag and baggage” from Shakespeare, and I love my final result — I think it’s one of my strongest. Here’s what I ended up with:
http://mayaganesan.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-24.html
http://sky-lined.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-day-24.html prompt 1
I did something a little different with the phrase “Frailty, thy name is woman.” Enjoy!
http://mylineofwords.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-24-frailty-thy-name-is-woman.html
a second try
http://crankymango.blogspot.com/2010/04/just-deserts.html
Still fighting the flu…
Here’s “The Siren’s Lair.”
http://bridgeanna.blogspot.com
I hope this finds everyone else well.
Sweet dreams!
hand raised & hand fed
Negress, my negress!
NaPoWriMo #24 Periodic table
Tea Party Lament
- with apologies to Emily Dickinson
Because I could not stop Barack
I made myself some tea;
And as good luck would have it
Fox News was there to see
My homemade sign, my t-shirt too,
How sad my family was
That we could not spell “Socialism”
Or tell you what it is.
We only know to hate the things
We cannot understand,
Like irony, a valid point
and words that rhyme with hand.
We tire of this explaining why
We hate the powers that be.
It’s only treason when your view
Is opposite of me.
You think that Bush was ignorant
And always on vacation,
But you still know he’d beat your score
On Wii or on Playstation.
And I don’t have to justify
My views for they’re in season.
And I don’t see why anyone
Should have to bow to reason.
Fools rush in where angels dare to tread:
http://seashelllz.livejournal.com/118236.html
Here’s mine: She’ll move mountains
Bodies Linger Not Broken
http://nothinghypothetical.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/bodies-linger-not-broken/
No one ruinning a well tuned sailing ship wants to land on a beam ends.
Storms come out of now where and you wonder who disturbed Neptune.
Surely it was not a small vessle.
She knows her limits and stays within her bounds.
There are larger ships on the sea and they may be playing with each other.
She moves out of the line of fire to retire a while and repair the damage caused her by those who do not care about her.
They care only for their own agendas.
In dry dock for quite some time and wondering who really is in charge of the weather.
Mother nature is not so cruel.
It sounds like men at war.
Women and children take care and get out of their way.
We want none of our ships to beam ends.
http://inkinthepaper.blogspot.com
Couldn’t post yesterday, phone still wasn’t working…
http://kagerrr.tumblr.com/post/549223019/april24thpoem
late! But heres one for the 24th.
Music
The air pulsates
Brutal strength envelops
Demanding audience
As it shrieks its message
The sounds it conjures
Numbing and sweet
They suck out my soul
And with joy it feasts
Willingly, I surrender
A fate worse than death:
loving a man repulsed by you –
believing he can change.
Confessions
Brought to you by the phrase “All things must pass.”
Three days later, here it is. The Bitters. My phrase was Sour Grapes
http://mmw113.blogspot.com/2010/04/napowrimo-24.html