NaPoWriMo: Day 30

I did it! I made it to the end of April! To wrap this month up, I have some more senryu, inspired by the library. (When you work seven days a week, you think about work a lot.)

---

Procrastination:
I can't help you with your work
Or your citations.

Yes, you have to pay
for printing. Paper doesn't
grow on trees. No wait...

It takes two days for
books to arrive from other
campuses. Sorry.

Good luck on finals.
You have a grade of sixteen?
Out of a hundred?!?

I'll see you again
next semester. You'll forget
everything you learned.

NaPoWriMo: Day 29

Today I wrote an erasure poem! (It's like a redacted poem, but instead of leaving the text in tact and striking through the leftover words, you just pull out the words you want, in order, and get rid of everything else.)

This one came from the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article about storms, because today we're going to get lots of isolated thunderstorms, if the forecast is to be trusted.

---

Any disturbed body's surface
may be heavy, strong.
However,
they can allow
activities
which would not be possible
otherwise.

NaPoWriMo: Day 28

I bring you: poem about writing poems where each line rhymes with a number, in order. (First rhymes with "one," second rhymes with "two," etc.)

---

Writing poems is super fun
You know you want to, too.
You can write poems like me!
I promise it isn't a bore.

If you're busy as a bee in a hive
And don't have time as the clock ticks
You'll be in poem-writing heaven:
You don't have to pine and wait;
Just write silly poems like mine!

NaPoWriMo: Day 27

We're getting so close to the end! Here are some more of those double-definition senryu like the ones I did on Day 10.

---

Pronunciation:
Saying it right; condemning:
Denunciation.

Tranquility is
Peacefulness; keeping steady
Is stability.

Hippopotamus:
Large mammal; thin peninsula:
That is an isthmus.

NaPoWriMo: Day 26

Acrostic! Yes. And it rhymes. And it's self-aware.

---

Out of the dark, I hear a creak.
'Neath the sink, "drip drop" goes the leak.
On the mantle the clock says tick and tock.
Many birds outside screech, caw, and squawk.
A cannon far away makes a mighty boom;
The cars driving by go whoosh and zoom.
Outside, a trolley says clatter and clang.
Pulling the trigger makes the gun go bang!
Onomatopoeia like "boing" and "pow"
Evoke certain feelings like awe from "wow."
In French, a frog says "gowap"
And I feel like this poem was a "flop."

NaPoWriMo: Day 25

It's time for another villanelle! It's about a villain. It's a villain-elle. Because I like puns.

---

You think I'm the bad guy.
You chase and zap and fight me,
But I just don't know why.

You think it's so cut-and-dry:
I must be evil (is it the goatee?)
You think I'm the bad guy.

You like to make me cry,
(Although I don't let you see)
But I just don't know why.

You're clearly not my ally,
Though I'd like it if you would be, but
You think I'm the bad guy.

When I see you, I just sigh.
You attack like a killer bee,
But I just don't know why.

You want me to suffer - or die -
All I can do is offer my plea.
You think I'm the bad guy,
But I just don't know why.

NaPoWriMo: Day 24

Birk was accepted to the master's program he applied to! Let's have a celebratory haiku:

---

Acceptance is sweet!

Now you'll study sciences

Biomedical.

NaPoWriMo: Day 23

Early in the month, I wrote an English sonnet (with the rhyme scheme ABAB ABAB CDCD EFEF GG). Now, I'm going to try an Italian sonnet (with the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA CDC CDC or ABBA ABBA CDE CDE).

Remember: An Italian sonnet starts with an octave (two quatrains) describing a problem, followed by a sestet (two tercets) that solves the problem. (The first line of the sestet is the turn, which identifies the switch from problem-describing to problem-solving.)

(Can anyone tell that noise in the library has become a problem recently?)

---

Too many people are being loud.
They're whispering and talking
On phones without even balking
Like it's something of which to be proud.

I tried to tell them it's not allowed
But still they continue their squawking,
Even as toward the door they're walking.
With great lung power they're all endowed.

I must find a way to stop the speaking!
I'll stem the unceasing, unending supply
Of voices that sound like chalkboard fingernail scrape.

A solution that would stop me from shrieking:
Run down to the hardware store and buy
Their biggest, stickiest roll of duct tape.

NaPoWriMo: Day 22

It's Earth Day! So I'm going to write sciencey haiku. Because of course I am.

---

Earth is pretty small,
Compared to the rest of the
Solar system's orbs.

When the sun explodes,
the earth will disintegrate.
But I will be dead.

Iron and silicon,
Magnesium, sulfur, and
nickel, calcium.
[The most common elements in the composition of the earth.]

Crust, upper mantle,
Mantle, outer core, and the
Inner core. The Earth.

Tectonic plates shift.
The ocean floor, subducted.
Ridges built, and fall.

NaPoWriMo: Day 21

Let's have another villanelle, and another Doctor Who themed poem.

(If it helps, I've just watched the penultimate episode of season 6. In other words, I don't yet know the resolution of this particular plotline. So make like the Silence and shush... and make like River and don't tell me any spoilers. Sweetie.)

Don't laugh at me. Stop it.

---

Silence will fall when the question is asked.
Who will ask it and who will answer?
What of the future and what of the past?

The question in question will be unmasked.
It will be the fault of the time-and-space dancer.
Silence will fall when the question is asked.

The Silence will strongly lambaste
The one they believe to be a cancer.
What of the future and what of the past?

Which side will manage to outlast?
We can tell when we hear the laughter.
Silence will fall when the question is asked.

The Doctor's ability is unsurpassed.
The Silence can run, but he can run faster.
What of the future and what of the past?

Our savior's following has been amassed.
Our questions and prayers have been answered.
Silence will fall when the question is asked.
What of the future and what of the past?

NaPoWriMo: Day 20

Let's have an experiment in sight rhyme, on the subject of last evening's weather!

---

I think you'll find
That this crazy wind
Is not so kind

I am confined
And somewhat chagrined
And a little maligned

Whoever designed
This wind and grinned
Must be undermined

NaPoWriMo: Day 19

I've been wanting to do a redaction poem since NaPoWriMo began, so today I'm finally doing one!

I took a paragraph of the Wikipedia article for "brown."

---

In terms of the visible spectrum, "brown" refers to high wavelength (low frequency) hues, yellow, orange, or red, in combination with low luminance or saturation.^[14] Since brownmay cover a wide range of the visible spectrum, composite adjectives are used such as red brown, yellowish brown, dark brown or light brown.

As a color of low intensity, brown is a tertiary color: a mix of the three subtractive primary colors is brown if the cyan content is low. Brown exists as a color perception only in the presence of a brighter color contrast.^[15] Yellow, orange, red, or rose objects are still perceived as such if the general illumination level is low, despite reflecting the same amount of red or orange light as a brown object would in normal

[the adjectives are only perceived as normal]

NaPoWriMo: Day 18

I'm not as bad off as the poem makes it sound, but I am pretty tired. Had to stay up late to pick up my aunt from the airport.

Had there been more activity there, maybe I could have written about that.

---

Deprived of sleep
The fogginess creeps
I want to count sheep
And doze so deep
On the bed in a heap
It's so hard to keep
awake; I could weep.
Zzzzzz.

NaPoWriMo: Day 17

I've discovered that I am apparently some kind of meter anarchist. I haven't even made an attempt to match some kind of meter so far. (It's harder than it sounds!) So today, I'm going to give it a shot.

I think the easiest structure to try first would be... a limerick!

---

The leaves on the trees are all quivering,
The people without jackets are shivering,
I thought it was summer!
Man, this is a bummer.
So why is this weather still lingering?

NaPoWriMo: Day 16

I'm following the optional prompt from NaPoWriMo today! You can read it HERE to make sense of what I'm doing.

---

Original Poem: "April" (Nguyễn Tiên Hoàng)


những ngày như bữa nay, một nền âm lập cập đầu gà chỉ hướng gió
những cuốn sách mùa thu chống chọi mối ăn
những bữa cơm phanh thân mướp đắng
những gã bù nhìn ngã sụm, mùi keo
một cồn mây đùn trắng sọ
một nền sơn loang những băng sơn động giật, xám len xanh
sau một đêm mưa dại
trút như điên xuống cống rãnh chằng chịt phố phục hồi
bước gần tới xem những nét chì chìm dưới cọ
phép đọc gần thấy một gã ngựa ra rìa
hắn mới đây
trước giờ tin đài báo white christmas, cuộc chạy lấy thân
roma, seneca, giờ cuối cùng trong bồn nước rửa tội
đẩy tới tận cùng cuộc trầm hai cánh phổi
trước loạt loạt con người xóa sổ mít mớ cửa ngoài
lùng bùng tiếng cánh quạt giờ cháy
bay về biển dữ kèn wagner
một buông đỏ màn khoa ngôn đại thắng
lẫn mặt mày đau xé giật nhìn
kẻ thân thích hàng nghìn
chạy như bị đánh tốc
về vùng phụ chú

---

My version (put through Google Translate and adjusted by me):


days, like this meal - a stereo pair of chicken head - only the wind
books fall, fight; termites eat
bitter melon body meals.
the puppet guy falls slumped. smell the glue:
a white cloud extrusion compared to
a background paint, markings, painted bands. shocks, gray green wool
after a night of wild rain.
vent like crazy, down drains interlaced. city recovery
step closer to see the pencil submerged.
allow. recent shows a horse guy off the edge.
He recently...
first hours, news desks, white Christmas. The run took body
roma, seneca, now finally in the baptismal tank
pushed to the bottom of the deep lung wings
Previous series series open man jack off outside
down fire flare-hour propeller
U.S. marine data wagner horn
a scientific red lettering display: language of victory
parking and faces, startled, look:
who relatives thousands
runs as beaten
on the note.

NaPoWriMo: Day 15

Halfway there! Fifteen down, fifteen to go. The pollen is EVERYWHERE now, and I felt like it deserved a few haiku.

---

Yellow pollen falls,
Sticks to everything and me.
Achoo! Excuse me.

My car should be blue.
It is coated with pollen.
Blue and yellow: green.

Flowers are pretty.
The warm sun feels very nice.
The pollen sucks, though.

NaPoWriMo: Day 14

A poem about writer's block! Which, judging by my over-30,000 word count for Camp NaNoWriMo, I don't have.

---

Blinking cursor.
Backspace, reverser.

Drawing a blank,
Walking the plank.

Have to write something,
Coming up with nothing,
Writer's block in full swing.

Just write a word,
And write one again,
By computer or pencil
Or fancy fountain pen.

Put one word after the next
Until you have a page of text!

NaPoWriMo: Day 13

Gimli is rambunctious. This makes for a decent poem theme.

---

Kitty causes much destruction.
He seems to need better instruction.
He's afraid of the vacuum's suction.
Getting comfy is a huge production.

He gets in my lap and begins to knead
And he will not stop until I bleed.
My requests to stop he will not heed,
Instead he chooses to proceed.

He whines and cries and meows and mews.
Sometimes he wants water or food,
Or more litter in the box where he poos.
Or sometimes he's in a playing mood.

But whether he wants to shout and cry,
Or his nails are digging into my thigh,
Or being underfoot day and night,
I love my kitty and he's mine all mine!

NaPoWriMo: Day 12

I was thinking about paradoxes, and started looking some of them up out of curiosity. And then it turned into a poem. I've listed the paradoxes in the same order as the lines they refer to, below the poem, if you don't understand a line or if you want to look into them further.

---

Ravens are black because here's an apple that is green.
The ladder fits in the garage if you give it enough speed.
Adding one grain at a time will never create a heap.
If this sentence is true, then fine jewelry is cheap.

This sentence is not true; this is false; I'm lying.
Time travelers should worry about their grandparents dying.
If I know one thing, it's that I know nothing at all.
A cat with buttered toast on its back: how will it fall?

My friends have more friends than I do; so do yours.
"It's raining but I don't believe it's raining" (while it pours).
Schrodinger's cat will be alive and it won't.
You can't search for what you know or what you don't.

"The smallest positive integer not definable in fewer than twelve words" just was.
If the barber only shaves those who don't shave themselves, who gives him a buzz?
Is "heterological" applicable to itself? Hard to say.
It's Opposite Day today... so it must not be today.

This post intentionally left blank.

---

Raven paradox
Ladder paradox
Paradox of the heap (or Sorites paradox)
Curry's paradox

Liar paradox
Grandfather paradox
Socratic paradox
Buttered cat paradox

Friendship paradox
Moore's paradox
Schrodinger's cat paradox
Meno's paradox

Berry paradox
Barber paradox
Grelling-Nelson paradox
Opposite Day

Intentionally blank page

NaPoWriMo: Day 11

I'm sorry to do haiku two days in a row, but I went to the Aquarium yesterday before it was open (I had a meeting, it's not like I broke in or anything) and all the animals were really active - I think they had just been fed - and I wanted to write about them.

---

Slap, splash, flip, flop, flap.
The ray is splashing at me.
Oh no! Now I'm wet.

With enormous claws,
The lobster scuttles about.
It's like he's dancing.

Did you know that the
Sea turtles can see you through
The glass in their tank?

Did you feed the sharks?
I hope so. They look hungry.
But I'm out here. Ha!

The blowfish is huge.
You could wrap your arms around!
It would prickle, though.

NaPoWriMo: Day 10

I don't think there's a name for these (but if there is, it's an enormous coincidence that I thought them up as well). They're haiku (except not about nature, so I guess they're senryu) where the first and third lines are single words that rhyme, and the second line defines them both.

They're really fun! You can be creative with the definitions because they have to be brief, and it's interesting to find five-syllable words or phrases that rhyme with each other.

You could get really clever and find words/phrases for the first and third lines that are totally unrelated, but then you relate them somehow with their definitions... oh the possibilities!

---

Spontaneously
Sudden; unnecessary
Extraneously

Vocabulary
Words; peace officers
Constabulary

Deoxyribose
DNA; a polymer
Nitrocellulose

Accommodating
Whim fulfilling; making worse
Exacerbating

Freedom of the press
Write what you want; kidnapped girl
Damsel in distress

NaPoWriMo: Day 9

Are you guys ready for me to nerd this joint up? You know you are. Here's a poem in rhyming couplets about how to find resources in the library.

---

The catalog is where you'll find books;
Click on the link and take a look.
Search by keyword, title, or author:
A keyword example would be "otter."
For titles, drop the "a," "an," or "the."
For authors: last name first, like "Morgenstern, E."
When you find a book you'd like to use,
Write down the call number; it will give you clues
On how to find the appropriate shelf.
Ask a librarian if you can't find it yourself!

If it's articles from databases that you need,
Go back to the library's website with speed!
We have hundreds of databases to choose from;
If you can't decide which one you need, don't be glum:
They're listed alphabetically or also by subject.
Make sure the box for "full text" is checked!
Search your topic in the boxes at the top,
Narrow results down until it's time to stop.
(A reasonable number of results is one hundred, or fifty;
Narrow by date, format, or more: how nifty!)
You can print the articles or email them to yourself.
It's all online; no need to go to the shelf!

Just remember a few very important rules:
The only people who make noise in the library are fools.
Food and drink are expressly forbidden,
Even if you try to keep them hidden.
If you bring your kids, keep them in your sight.
And yes, you have to leave when we close for the night.

NaPoWriMo: Day 8

Before you read today's poem, you should know that no, you don't need to worry about me. This is a tie-in with the novel I'm writing for Camp NaNoWriMo.

The pertinent information is: The main character is the last guy alive who is contaminated with this deadly disease, and he's a carrier, so it's not going to kill him. It can't survive outside the human body, so they have to put him in isolation to study him and keep him from the rest of the world. It's all very top-secret, so most of the world doesn't know about him; they think this disease went the way of smallpox. And this is written from his POV.

I'll try to write a funny poem for tomorrow.

---

Isolation
Or obliteration?

Causation
Of the desolation
Of civilization:
Contamination.

Not my imagination,
Not a hallucination,
Not a fabrication.

Abomination.

Aberration.

Damnation
And condemnation.

Examination
And experimentation;
No operation,
No vaccination;
No alleviation,
No amelioration.

Segregation,
Separation:
My obligation.

No adulation,
No admiration,
No adoration,
No acclamation
For my participation.

In summation,
I'm the salvation.

NaPoWriMo: Day 7

Today is my friend Amy's birthday, and I can't go to her party because I have to be at work, so I'm writing some tanka for her.

---

Sushi is yummy.
What the hell is that thing there?
Is that still... moving?
I don't think I should eat that.
Oh wait... You're wiggling it.

Hamsters that can fly
And are magical creatures
With their wands and wings:
They will save us all someday.
But for now, change their bedding.

Birthday cake, ice cream,
Candles, presents, tea party,
Pretty dresses too.
You're older but it is fun!
Wishing you all the bestest.

NaPoWriMo: Day 6

Time for another villanelle, friends! This one is a bit dramatic for the subject matter, but it's fun.

---

The picture on the wall is askew.
It's distracting and unsettling and just not right.
It bothers me; does it bother you?

Flowers of blue
On a background of white.
The picture on the wall is askew.

Don't tell me it's level; that's just untrue.
One side isn't even with the other's height.
It bothers me; does it bother you?

It's slanted, tilted, through and through;
One side's heavy and the other's light.
The picture on the wall is askew.

I'd like it to hang the way it used to,
And someday perhaps it might.
It bothers me; does it bother you?

We need someone to fix it, but who?
Someone, please end our plight.
The picture on the wall is askew.
It bothers me; does it bother you?

NaPoWriMo: Day 5

So, I'm doing this thing called a Little Visitor Swap through the crafting website I use. Basically, you get a partner from somewhere else in the world, and you swap "Little Visitors" (I sent my partner a little plushy pineapple man, she sent me a wide-eyed Clydesdale). You take your LV on adventures in your hometown (and wherever you go while they're with you) and take photos like they're a tourist and make a scrapbook and collect little souvenirs, and send it all back to their owner at the end of the swap.

You can read about my LV's adventures HERE.

My LV (Clyde) arrived yesterday, so I decided to write today's poem about him. Freestyle!

---

Clyde is a horse who travels the world
Meeting lots of new boys and girls

He came from Florida to visit me
And see all the sites that he could see

We'll go to the beach and Mount Trashmore
And visit Paris and Iceland and more!

He'll accompany me to work at the library too,
If you come see me, he'll also meet you!

We'll go to Busch Gardens and meet his kin,
And in September he'll go back home again!

NaPoWriMo: Day 4

I'll be drawing on personal experience today with my free-form poem about noise in libraries...

---

The library is only truly quiet when it's closed.

The typing and whispering and page turning starts
And the squeaky wheel on each of the book carts

The clunk and clack of the automatic doors
And shuffling and stomping across the threadbare floors

The AC's whoosh and the water fountain's hum
And the chewing, smacking, popping of gum

Giggles and comments and questions abound
Books are dropped and answers are found

Shelving thumps and scanning beeps
A baby in a carrier weeps

The printer's noisy task adds more
To the librarian's tiresome shushing chore

So try as we might to keep the volume down,
There will still always be some level of sound.

The library is only truly quiet when it's closed.

NaPoWriMo: Day 3

Time to try my hand at an English (or Shakespearean) sonnet! Remember, that's 18 lines (four quatrains and a couplet) with rhyme scheme ABAB ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, typically in iambic pentameter.

Let's do this!

---

If you see a Weeping Angel, don't blink!
Keep it entirely in your sight.
Your eyelids may be on the brink,
But the urge to close them you must fight.

Don't move, don't breathe, don't talk or think.
Just stare and watch despite the light.
Keep both eyes open, or if you must, wink:
If you blink, you'll open your eyes to quite a fright.

But you can't just stand and stare forever.
Eventually you'll avert your glance.
You'll have to get a little clever,
And take a little bit of a chance.

It will freeze at anything living's gaze,
Including its very own.
To freeze it for the rest of its days,
And leave it safely alone,

Place a mirror in front of it to show it its reflection,
And you can escape from it without detection.

---

Yup, that's a sonnet about Weeping Angels. Not in any particular meter, but there it is. Enjoy that.

NaPoWriMo: Day 2

Today, I'm going to attempt a villanelle, which you may remember has this format:

Refrain 1 A
Line 2 B
Refrain 2 A

Line 4 A
Line 5 B
Refrain 1 A

Line 7 A
Line 8 B
Refrain 2 A

Line 10 A
Line 11 B
Refrain 1 A

Line 13 A
Line 14 B
Refrain 2 A

Line 16 A
Line 17 B
Refrain 1 A
Refrain 2 A

---

The Secret

The secret is very old;
It's known by all and said by none:
The secret mustn't be told.

It has waited in the dark and cold,
And will wait until its wait is done.
The secret is very old.

Those who know it must withhold,

To protect it, many lies are spun:
The secret mustn't be told.

The secret is more precious than gold,

But its treasure cannot be won.

The secret is very old.

Complete destruction is foretold;

The telling has begun:

The secret mustn't be told.

There is nobody left to scold;

The secret is undone.

The secret is very old;

The secret mustn't be told.

NaPoWriMo: Day 1

It's the first day of NaPoWriMo! (It's also the first day of Camp NaNoWriMo's April session, which I am also doing.)

For my first poem, I will be writing a series of haiku.

---

Sun, clouds; warmth, then snow.
Spring weather is confusing.
Is it summer yet?

Wearing a sweater:
Not necessary today.
It's finally warm.

But today it's cold.
Bundle up; hot chocolate.
Tomorrow: warmer.

Icicles still there,
People walk past in flip-flops.
Spring in Virginia.

In late summer, we
will complain about the heat
and wish for the cold.

---

I know these make it sound like it's freezing outside, but it's actually supposed to hit 70 today. It's just been a back-and-forth couple of weeks, weather-wise. And since haiku are supposed to be about nature, it was an easy target.