NaPoWriMo Day #12

Today's prompt: write in secret code. In other words, think of a message and give it to something unusual.

Here's my attempt:

Hope Floats



Clouds act out,
charading—
not movies,
or book titles,
but puffed up
with sage snippets,
corralling birds
into formation.
Together
they paint
the sky
with hope.

by Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 12, 2010

NaPoWriMo Day #11

Today's prompt was to write about the thing you didn't chose and write directly to it.

Here's my attempt:

What Might've Been

Your winds

might have carried me off
whipping off Lake Michigan
chilling me
to my tropical
bones.
Old friends
might have warmed me
like a cup of lemon tea,
but the sour taste
of being far from
home
would linger
reminding me
that this big city
isn’t mine.
Skyscrapers
pushed to the sky
can’t substitute
for the mountains
that I would have missed
if I had made
a different choice.

by Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 11, 2010

Spring Haiku Makes the Roanoke Times

Last month, I had a haiku published in So Salem. Today, one of my haikus was published in the Roanoke Times.

Here's the link. Scroll down (mine is sixth on the page with the animal haikus).

NaPoWriMo #10

Today's prompt was to write about a celebration recently. I experimented with an ABeCedarian form because it seemed fitting for the subject matter.

Easter Egg Hunt

April
Baskets
Carried
Dyed
Eggs
Finding
Grabby
Hands
Instantly,
Jostling
Kneeling
Little
Monsters
Nestled
On
Pillows
Quilted
'Round
Spring
Tulips
Until
Very
Weary
eXtraordinary
Yolk-finders
Zonked out.

by Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 10, 2010

Origami Yoda on a Saturday

I'm always excited when a local author does well. Tom Angleberger and wife, Cece Bell, are two of my favorites.

Tom Angleberger's new book is out, and he was doing a local signing at the very awesome independent bookstore, Ram's Head Bookshop. Even though his new book is too old for my five year old daughter, I took her anyway and I bought the book for myself. Tom kindly showed her how to make an origami Yoda. Here are the pictures.

Makenna makes an origami Yoda. Mommy thinks she needs a new camera. These pictures look a little fuzzy.

This week, I get to go to a Debbie Diller conference in Richmond--alone. I will be taking The Strange Case of Origami Yoda with me to read in the hotel.

I did a review of Tom's (aka Sam Riddleburger) first book The Qwikpick Adventure Society. You can read the review here.

NaPoWriMo Day #9

I've always thought the more you write, the more you get into the habit, the easier it gets. I don't struggle with sitting down everyday to write. But everyday these poetry prompts seem to get more difficult for me. Today, I felt my students' pain when I say write sentences and you must use all of the spelling words.

Today's prompt included a word list, and then a few other rules. I had to use twelve of the suggested words, include something that tastes terrible, include some part of another poem that didn't pan out, and include a sound that makes you happy.

Doing one or two of these things might not have been so bad, but doing all of them was really tricky. Kind of like a puzzle. When you are fresh, it can be kind of fun. On a Friday evening, I was brain dead.

Here's my sad attempt:

On the Fringe

Winter wind scrubs my face
raw
like a pumice stone
against a callous.

I stow hand warmers
inside the flap
of my jacket,
strumming my fingertips
against their heat
until I bruise.
I click my tongue
over the bitter cold.

A campfire by the swishing river
wattles through my mind.
The fringe of my scarf
flapping
startles me back to reality--
I am a marionette
in the talons
of Old Man Winter,

ready for spring
to robe me in sunshine.

by Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 9, 2010

Poetry Stretch: My Own Reverso

The Miss Rumphius Effect put out the challenge to write a Reverso this week. This is a Marilyn Singer special. She wrote this lovely book of reverso poems called Mirror, Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse. They are poems that when you read them down, they say one thing. When you reverse the words, changing punctuation, they can mean something else. All of the poems in Singer's book are based on common fairy tales. It's like getting two sides to each story. She is a master at this technique. She has carefully crafted each poem so that even though they have the same words, the pair of poems means the opposite. I have to take my copy back to the library, but I have to have a copy of this book for my own because this whole form fascinates me.

This week's Monday Poetry Stretch from The Miss Rumphius Effect was to try your hand at it. It was just serendipitous because I had this on my list of things to try this week. I read Mirror, Mirror last weekend and knew I had to try it. Reverso is hard, but very, very fun. I tried several and I am having trouble getting the right effect, but I am going to keep at it.

Here's my attempt:

Poem #1

Rain

washes away remnants of

pollen,
clogging my throat.
I cough
spring
rather than singing
and
flittering about
in the flowers.




Poem #2

In the flowers,
flittering about
and
rather than singing
spring,
I cough.
Clogging my throat?
Pollen—
washes away remnants of
rain.

by Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 8, 2010