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    NPAD 2008 Recap
    Friday December 12th 2008, 8:13 am
    Filed under: Scribbling on the wall

    I’ve been trying to put together some kind of fancy schmancy wrap up for the November Poem A Day project, but I’m busy and fried.

    Obviously the daily posting of the poetry being generated fizzled. I’m not terribly concerned about that.

    In the end, I generated over 20 poems and fragments that I can possibly use. I didn’t generate 30, but I was pretty close. Closer than I ever was to completing NANOWRIMO. I’m feeling pretty good about that.

    Also, while I didn’t consistently produce something everyday, I was thinking poetically everyday. I was observing closely and germinating everyday. Then I’d have some spurts of ripping off two or three ideas in one go. The poetical thinking on a consistent basis is something I thought was a good thing.

    So, overall, I’m quite pleased.



    Fear Not
    Tuesday November 18th 2008, 8:59 am
    Filed under: Scribbling on the wall

    NPAD 2008 has not died an ignoble death. I was out of town working for ETS, and between the internets not always being right close, actually working hard all day, good dinner conversations, and avoiding doing my day job work, I simply didn’t have time to post. However, I was scribbling away all weekend. Hoping to have things caught up online by the end of the week.

    Until then enjoy this moldy oldy from the archives (with a hidden toy surprise!):

    Shiver me timbers and batten down the
    hatches on the bow. Posiden’s
    out tonight with the fire in his eyes!
    Tether the rafts and
    gather up the rations.
    Unless I’m wrong (and I am
    never wrong)
    A storm the sight of which has
    never been seen since
    God’s washing of the
    earth is the fate that
    lies before us.

    02/26/91



    NPAD 2008: Day 10
    Monday November 10th 2008, 9:04 pm
    Filed under: Scribbling on the wall

    On NPAD

    That feeling when you open up the bath
    Room door expecting an empty room
    But find instead your guests arrived and
    You clothed only with a broom,

    Or when you’re working hard away to cook
    A complex, untried recipe,
    And family members mumble, over-cautious,
    Doubts of your sobriety,

    Is nothing weighed against the red-faced terror
    Of posting the roughest, most larvae-like
    Spoutings of a rusty pen daily upon
    One’s little-read internet site.



    NPAD 2008: Day 9
    Sunday November 09th 2008, 7:10 pm
    Filed under: Scribbling on the wall

    the poem for day 9–
    a rumination fundamental
    about a grumpy prophet’s
    constitution–
    will, when ready, be
    posted in its entirety
    in this bland space
    reserved for its posterity



    NPAD 2008: Day 8
    Saturday November 08th 2008, 10:42 pm
    Filed under: Scribbling on the wall

    Miller’s Crossing

    The smallest of crackles halted my walk.
    Things twitched beyond the tree wall
    Off the path through the twigs two eyes then four
    Pinned me to ground. Like some opitical
    Puzzle, my brain slowly decoding, the
    Shapes in the forest became two white
    Tailed deer. One minute. Three minutes.
    Seven minutes in, a cramp strangled my calf. Still
    This unequal trinity stood in percolating silence unsure
    Of the protocol for just this sort of meeting.
    The one deer, confident, impatient, or comfortable
    Moved its neck. Raised its head. Gave a look
    To its partner and walked, two steps three.
    The cautious one maintained his thorax piercing stare,
    Ten minutes of stillness still not convincing him. He
    Turned his back and hopped over a log, white
    Tail flashing against dun colored bark. I stretched
    Out my calves, raised up on toes
    When I then saw the third one
    Scamper down the ravine to my right.



    NPAD 2008: Day 7
    Friday November 07th 2008, 5:12 pm
    Filed under: Scribbling on the wall

    Ohio Nature Preserve

    Rising out of a level farmland desert,
    An oasis: trees, creek, a path.
    Asphalt manufactured outside of town,
    A train from Baltimore rumbling past,
    Footbridge from Alabama fashioned from
    Pennsylvania steel. Gravel, chalky
    White shards of limestone quarried nowhere
    Near here, compacted by mechanized thumpers
    Purchased from Mr. Smith-Jones on the other
    Side of town. In fields to the east, athletes
    From seven states run, drill, practice their
    Athletic arts. Hwy 18 flows on to the west.
    Along the stone path this steel autumn noon
    Rain hangs in the air awaiting permission
    To fall. Ambling along prescribed paths, now
    Coated with discarded leaves, spent
    Engines no longer digesting the sun into
    Oak, elm, and shagbark, locust or maple.
    Limbs all akimbo, trunks standing or
    Fallen or felled line artificially meandering
    Footpaths. Crickets unused to the twilit
    Noon sing one last song hoping for
    Summer’s last tumble.



    NPAD 2008: Day 6
    Thursday November 06th 2008, 6:02 pm
    Filed under: Scribbling on the wall

    Found Haiku

    Ohio Buckeye
    Twigs emit a foul odor
    When broken

    Original source material found in A Field Guide to Eastern Trees: Eastern United States and Canada by George A. Petrides, 1988.



    NPOD 2008: Day 5
    Wednesday November 05th 2008, 4:59 pm
    Filed under: Scribbling on the wall

    Cure for Warts

    Bread soda fig trees stolen meat
    Rotting onions corn kernels rain
    Dripping from a house knotted string
    Tossed over left shoulder standing
    On a bayou bridge moonlit night
    Dirty dishrags a cross scratched tree
    Backwards said prayers over numbered
    Peach pits unbidden neighbor
    Caterwauling in a darkened
    Cemetery plot



    NPAD 2008: Day 4b
    Tuesday November 04th 2008, 11:58 pm
    Filed under: Scribbling on the wall

    Essays in the craft

    Scattered leaves strewn on the lawn
    Browns and oranges, red highlighted yellow,
    Dessicated husks discarded
    Left to decay, nutrition for next year’s growth.

    Signs of perfection. Tracings gone to nowhere.
    Faltering logic flowed from simple footings.
    Well-trod pathways taken again and again
    Novel paths petering out in too few steps.

    False starts or aborted prize-winners. Who
    Can tell? Word collections displayed, ironed
    Between wax paper tied with yarn.
    Once alive now fused in wax.

    Crumpled sheaves of life giving tatters
    Fallen in rings round the gnarled trunk
    Year, each year, spring life trials
    Seeking final ecstatic expression



    NPAD 2008: Day 4a
    Tuesday November 04th 2008, 8:51 pm
    Filed under: Scribbling on the wall

    The Word

    A prophet breathes.
    Inspiration enters buttressed
    Caverns hung with alveoli
    Chandeliers giving light
    To bent cave dwellers.

    Rush wind cascades through
    Open doors regulated by
    Tie-burdened ushers. Doors
    Vibrate, humming harmonic
    Sympathy to passing exhalations.

    Respirations was through waxed
    Canals crashing in on taut sails,
    Ebb and flow; tidal energy transferred
    by Rube Goldberg contraptions
    To the seat of knowledge.