Tuesday, March 30, 2021

NAPOWRIMO 2021 - The Final Chapter?

 

a photo of burned books and ashes

It is almost NAPOWRIMO 2021. Something I’ve been stumbling through for about 10 years, having fun, pulling words out of the air, some making lyrical sense, some not. Most of the time I didn’t go back to revise, it was on to the next day’s thought. I’ve been writing poetry since childhood, have had a number of publications in newspapers, anthologies and online publications. A picture book idea consisting of poetry won an award, and was presented as a staged reading by a theater company. Had an exhibit of illustrated poetry at a library, lots of readings, including at a presentation when the Anne Frank exhibit came through New Jersey. A few gems among the rocks. My computer and my file cabinets are overflowing with the good, the bad, and the ugly, not sure which category is the largest. It’s been a fun ride, a therapeutic ride, a life-documenting ride. Now as I approach that time of life when thoughts turn to decluttering, downsizing, and even Swedish death cleaning, I wonder what I should do with all this confetti. Maybe, as Jo March did in “Little Women,” I will burn it all. She started over, I don’t think I will.

 

Then again, who knows. It’s like the old story, “The Lady or the Tiger,” firepit or filing cabinet — I don't know what door I'm going to open —  Good, bad or ugly.

 

 

Poetic Revisions

(for all those poems I wrote that should not have seen the light of day)

 

This is a placeholder for the first line of my poem,

Here is where I used an amazing alliterative phrase

But this line was ironically unrelated to

the symbolism taking place here.

 

I deleted these words completely

And replaced them with some even less lyrical

Trying a third time to capture the metaphor

Which sounded too much like a simile

Saying something about how art differs from craft.

 

This stanza sits waiting for wordplay,

a clever conclusion of a profound thought

literally a literary revelation

as soon as I finish revisions.

 

©2021 Noreen Braman