Category Archives: challenge

2023 NaPoWriMo #2 (The Surrealist)

April is here again and that means its National Poetry Writing Month and for my second year I’ll be joining the 30 poems in 30 days challenge hosted by napowrimo.net. For this challenge, a poetry prompt will be provided daily during the month of April and if I can keep on track I’ll achieve the 30 poems in 30 days goal. So enough chatter…let’s go! It’s time for NaPoWriMo!

Pick 5-10 words from the list provided (click link to see), write out a question for each, then write a one-line answer using descriptive imagery. Finally construct a poem from just the answers.

napowrimo.net

Wow. This one is intricate and intriguing. I really hope the result is too. I’m looking forward to discovering the poem that comes out of this process.

Seeking Poetry

Weaving waters, beautiful harmonies,
Flowing, begging me to sing along with gravity,
Just beneath the soil, shy and inward,
Uncertain, unsure, raw and on ice.
About snout deep, just past six.

Well that was fun and the poem came with surprising ease. The words I chose were river, song, truffle, elusive, and oyster and a mixture of 5W questions. I ended up splitting up and re-splicing the answers to create the flow I wanted. I think it lives up to the surrealist intent. What do you think?

Be well,

Monty

Nonce Poetry: Inetersperse

In celebration of National Poetry Month @murisopsis from A Different Perspective is once again hosting a poetic scavenger hunt. This year’s theme is “nonce” form poetry. What is nonce form poetry? Well, it’s basically a form that was created by a poet for their own use. What’s interesting about a nonce form is that if it is adopted by other poets and used more often it will no longer be considered a nonce form, but rather become recognized as a “valid” poetical form.

The scavenger hunt features thirteen nonce form challenges all to be completed within the month of April. I highly encourage you to check out the prompts and participate here.

Ok, now onto the third challenge…Inetersperse

Inetersperse

A poem of at least five lines where the last word of every line must be monosyllabic, different from the last word of every other line, and occur in one additional place in the poem.

Bonus: include a color

David Bogomolny

Yet to Bloom

Tall, thorny and green
The rose bush yet to bloom
It’s green stems reaching tall
Drawing from my hands blood red
Awaiting her to bloom, her color known not yet
Perhaps a gentle pinkish white, a truly subtle rose
Or maybe matching my spilled red blood.

Weaving in the repetition of the end-words was harder than I anticipated, but I’m pretty happy with the result. This poem was inspired by yesterday’s garden project pictured below.

Rose Yet to Bloom

Be well,

Monty

Nonce Poetry: Melinda’s Whimsy

In celebration of National Poetry Month @murisopsis from A Different Perspective is once again hosting a poetic scavenger hunt. This year’s theme is “nonce” form poetry. What is nonce form poetry? Well, it’s basically a form that was created by a poet for their own use. What’s interesting about a nonce form is that if it is adopted by other poets and used more often it will no longer be considered a nonce form, but rather become recognized as a “valid” poetical form.

The scavenger hunt features thirteen nonce form challenges all to be completed within the month of April. I highly encourage you to check out the prompts and participate here.

Ok, now onto the second challenge…Melinda’s Whimsey

Melinda’s Whimsy

A poem of three quatrains with rhyme scheme A/a/a/b, a/A/a/b, a/a/A/b where “A” represents the same end word. The meter is iambic trimeter for lines 1 through 3 with line 4 having 7 syllables.

Bonus: include a whimsical creature.

saintvi

Whispering Whimsy

Upon the fern she’d play
Hanging in the cool shade
Beneath it’s dark green blades
Whispering whimsy to me.

A faerie of the glade
She’s always quick to play
Dancing all night and day
Beneath her little fern tree.

Down on my knees I prayed
For my wish true be made
To freely dance and play
To feel her whimsy in me.

Well there you have it. What are your thoughts about the form? About my execution of the form. I’d love to get your feedback.

Be well,

Monty

A is for Alliteration (#AtoZ 2023)

Alliteration is repetition in two or more nearby words of initial consonant sounds.

literarydevices.net

Alliteration is a device I often use in both my prose and poetry. I find the effect playful and a great companion or alternative to rhyme. In fact I used both alliteration and rhyming in the title of this series.

To illustrate the use of alliteration, here is a poem I wrote last year using the form of Amanda’s Pinch which is a syllabic form with both rhyming and alliteration. This poem was originally created for the poetic ‘scavenger hunt’ designed by @murisopsis from A Different Perspective.

Dangerous Detours

Amanda’s lush lips plumply puckered for a kiss
Her eye shadow’s shade saying come hither hither
Curves cutting close corners without warning
Dangerous detours are ahead
Dangerous detours are ahead
And I’m so so ready to start swerving
In wild wanton ways together with her with her
And Amanda’s baby blues beg me not to miss

The letter A is also an interesting form itself visually, especially in the Zapfino typeface I’ve chosen here. Through a repetitive process of rotation, and scaling of the above image, I created the below “found pattern”.

Zapfino ‘A’ Found Pattern

I hope you enjoyed this first post in the series. Now only 25 more to go. No pressure! Haha. I hope to see you here again tomorrow.

Be well,
Monty

2023 NaPoWriMo #1 (The Cover)

April is here again and that means its National Poetry Writing Month and for my second year I’ll be joining the 30 poems in 30 days challenge hosted by napowrimo.net. For this challenge, a poetry prompt will be provided daily during the month of April and if I can keep on track I’ll achieve the 30 poems in 30 days goal. So enough chatter…let’s go! It’s time for NaPoWriMo!

Write a poem based on a book cover.

napowrimo.net

Ooh! This sound both challenging and fun. I’ve never used any art on my site other than my own. I could “cheat” and use one of my own book covers but then that would just lead to republishing one of the poems inside. This is the first day so let’s live into the intent of the challenge and do something truly original.

Here is the book cover I selected. I found it interesting visually.

Arthur Stringer, The Loom of Destiny,
Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1899

What are your thoughts? Do you think this poem might be something you’d find if you opened the cover? What cover would you choose if you were to take this challenge (the link below the cover will take you to a wonderful gallery of historical covers).

Be well,

Monty

My First A to Z Challenge Anniversary: A is for ‘And Silly Be’

On this anniversary of my first A to Z challenge, I’m posting each of the illustrated “seriously silly poems” from my book Apples Eating Zebras and other seriously silly poetry — a carefully edited and polished compilation of my A to Z posts from last year. Enjoy!

A is for ‘And Silly Be’

Stay tuned for more silly poetry from A to Z!

Pick up a copy of this silly collection dedicated to the child in all of us and enjoy with a loved one. Or stick around as I’ll continue posting each illustrated poem one letter at a time throughout the month of April. Have fun and stay silly!

Be well,

Monty

Nonce Poetry: The Tail

In celebration of National Poetry Month @murisopsis from A Different Perspective is once again hosting a poetic scavenger hunt. This year’s theme is “nonce” form poetry. What is nonce form poetry? Well, it’s basically a form that was created by a poet for their own use. What’s interesting about a nonce form is that if it is adopted by other poets and used more often it will no longer be considered a nonce form, but rather become recognized as a “valid” poetical form.

The scavenger hunt will feature thirteen nonce form challenges all to be completed within the month of April. I highly encourage you to check out the prompts and participate here.

I’m also very grateful that my very own “Silver Lining” nonce form has been selected for inclusion in the challenge. This is a modified Golden Shovel form (which is a great example of a nonce form created by Terrance Hayes that has since graduated to a recognized form used by many poets today). A big thanks to @murisopsis for it’s inclusion.

Now onto the first challenge…The Tail.

The Tail

The Tail is a poem of single syllable lines with loose rhyme and a “tall tale” theme.

Michael “Mouse” Murdoch


Did You Hear The One…


Did
you
hear
the
one
a
bout
the
rat
that
ate
the
cat?
When
the
rat
had
ate
it
all
it
spat
out
a
big
fur
ball
and
said
with
a
purr:
me
ow!

What do you think? Did I stay true to the intent of the form? I’d love to hear your feedback. Stay tuned for more from this series throughout the month of April!

Be well,

Monty

2023 NaPoWriMo #0 (Early Bird Special)

April is here again and that means its National Poetry Writing Month and for my second year I’ll be joining the 30 poems in 30 days challenge hosted by napowrimo.net. For this challenge, a poetry prompt will be provided daily during the month of April. I’m also participating in the the A to Z Challenge, so this could be a bit tricky in making the timing work, but I’m going to give it a try. Worst case I stretch into May a bit. That is what happened last year.

Anyway, napowrimo.net was nice enough to provide an early bird special for those of us spinning across the international dateline first. And since I’m sitting home sick today I thought I would take up the chance to give it a go rather then just wallow in my ‘mucous-sy’ existence. My first task was to create a graphic for the series. I’ve kept it simple. Hope you like it. Ok, here we go! Welcome to #NaPoWriMo 2023!

Write a poem that plays with the idea of a “fun fact”

napowrimo.net

Did you know…

Did you know there are more “germ-cells” living in and upon our bodies than human cells? By a factor of 1.3 in fact. Our bodies host 10-100 trillion microbial cells. Without these microbes we couldn’t function. We’d die. Or more accurately, we would never have lived. We exist as a symbiotic living ecosystem comprised of trillions of life-forms.

That is a fact. Arguably a fun fact. Certainly interesting at the very least. But a fun fact doesn’t make a poem.

Fair enough. I could argue that what makes poetry poetry is in the eye of the beholder. But let’s not debate the point. I’ll give it a go.


Ode to Microbial Me

I write this ode to the many microbes
making me their permanent abode
From those of you living in my gut to those hanging out in my butt,
I owe you a big thank you;
For without you I couldn’t eat, let alone poo.
But I’d also like to thank the silent heroes,
More of you than I can count…way too many zeros,
Without you I’d be inflamed
Riddled with more diseases than I could name;
So thank you for making your home me
Thank you, thank you, Microbial Me.


Be well,

Monty

#AtoZ in 2023 Theme Reveal

Well it’s coming on April and that means its time to prepare for another #AtoZChallenge. Last year was my first year participating and my theme was “seriously silly poetry from A to Z”. It was a ton of work, but also a lot of fun and even led me to publishing a book! As a bonus during this year’s challenge, I’ll be posting the fully illustrated poems from my book letter by letter throughout April. Stay tuned for that.

This year, I’ve settled on a theme that frankly I’m a little nervous about as I’m not sure how I will manage it. It will consist of two components. The first will be a bit of writing inspired from a literary device or form. I’m not restricting the type of writing — it could be poems or prose or essay, but each piece will be inspired by and illustrate the use of a literary device or technique (some may be formal while other may be more informal). For example “A is for Alliteration” will showcase the use of alliteration. As for the rest of the alphabet…I’ll let you know as I go along because I’ll be figuring it out on the fly.

The second component of the challenge will be visual. I’ll be constructing a black and white “found” pattern from each of the letters. By “found” pattern, I mean that I will discover the pattern organically without any predetermined outcome but all starting from the physical shape of the subject letter of the alphabet. My graphic for the series below exemplifies this.

I’d love to hear your thoughts regarding my theme and welcome any suggestions on specific literary devices/techniques to consider during my alphabetical journey.

Be well,

Monty

My First A to Z Challenge Anniversary

Last year I participated in my first A to Z challenge and I must say I’m still pretty impressed with what I managed to put together for my theme of Seriously Silly Poetry. Each post included a silly (or sometimes a bit more sweet than silly) poem with a fun illustration.

To celebrate I published a book! Apples Eating Zebras and other seriously silly poetry is a compilation of my A to Z posts (with a lot of editing and polishing of illustrations). This 100-page fully illustrated book is beautifully silly. Check it out!

Pick up a copy of this silly collection dedicated to the child in all of us and enjoy with a loved one. Or stick around as I’ll be posting each illustrated poem one letter at a time throughout the month of April. Have fun and stay silly!

Be well,

Monty