NaPM 2024 Spotlight Thread

[RiverNotch]

Continuing last year's experiment, or maybe in celebration of the Pigpen's 11th NaPM,

Here you can spotlight a poem (or poems) from this year's NaPM that you think worthy of honorable mention.   

Rules:
* Please post all poems to be spotlighted as a reply to this thread. Do not start a new thread. 
* Please do not spotlight your own poems.  
* Please do credit the author of the poem---the clearest way to do this would be to post the poem inside the 'quote' box that shows who said it.
* Please do remind us what the prompt was and which day, or post a link to the original for reference.  
* You can post just the poem, or you can write a little blurb about why you are recommending it. Either is fine. In this thread, a simple "I really liked this" is perfectly acceptable. 
* You can spotlight more than one if you wish. 

Often it is easy to think of these rushed poems as 'throw away' poems, or practice. This is a good place to let an author know if one might be worth pulling out of the bunch and polishing up.  Also, it's a nice way to encourage one another. 

General NaPM reminders:
* You are all definitely allowed to take your own poems from the NaPM threads and re-post them in the workshops to keep tinkering. (Maybe one at a time of course.)  Just don't forget to post feedback in the workshops if you do that.  
* You are all definitely allowed to keep posting poems in the NaPM threads.  Perhaps you missed a few days (unlike the one who originally wrote this write-up, I didn't  ) or perhaps you have a fresh idea for a prompt you already answered.  These threads are always open to new poems.

The purpose of this thread is simply to have a bit of fun and to celebrate the efforts of our wonderful members after this gruelling month (or maybe to stroke our egos a touch  ).

I want to add that this is the first NaPM I've handled where the entire month fell under Lent, so I decided to select and arrange prompts according to a certain theme. Can you guess what it is, or what the "hidden meaning" behind each prompt is? Though for some days it gets kinda obvious, and for others the prompt is only very loosely associated with its "meaning".

[Mark A Becker]

Hello notch-
You noted, the entire month fell under Lent, so I decided to select and arrange prompts according to a certain theme. Can you guess what it is, or what the "hidden meaning" behind each prompt is?

I'll just address this in general terms. The most obvious thing is that Eastern Orthodox Lent falls about a month after the western version. I noticed that you started and ended NaPoMo with prompts regarding innocence- losing and regaining it. Since I no longer practice religion I'd need to do a lot of research in order to come up with any fitting responses, so it's best if I leave it at that.

---

- Caillebotte, by Tim, on the 4th (write about a rainy day). The painting was described wonderfully by his poem:

Caillebotte, Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877

Rain thins the shadows
on cobble stone streets
amid the canyons of Paris.

Umbrellaed pedestrians
Proustian figures
wander in every direction
heads bowed to watch
raindrops intercept their steps.

Immortal now
a moment stolen from the sky
and born again on canvas.

---

Repin, by duke, on the 8th ( write about returning from exile). Like with Tim's poem, Caillebotte, this one by duke equally captures the the details of the painting

Repin

See, they did not expect Papa’s return
in felt boots, three toes lopped by blizzard-burn,
black rags and wretched beard. They only learn
now of the end of exile’s long sojourn.

Their housekeeper is shocked but recognized
the master; wolfish children realized
they’re puppies once again. Wife, not apprized,
stands fearful of the love she sorely prized.

---

buskers poem about "torture" on the 11th was brilliantly tongue in cheek, with a quirky twist of an ending:

I would rather write about elephants than torture.
In Africa, where summer’s a scorcher,
people often end up in a lion’s
belly. Of beautiful young Nelly
there’s a tale of woe. Being a ho
makes her tale no less tragic,
it’s sad if it’s anthropophagic
regardless of the victim. As to why I picked him -
for Nelly identified as a male animal -
specifically, an elephant adorned with a lotus
whose forefather was gifted by Sandrokotus
to Seleucus, then in turn to the Molossian king,
serving in the formidable ranks of Hannibal -
I picked him because it serves a cautionary tale:
you’re not an elephant, female or male,
if you don’t have a trunk.

On the day of the story, young Nelly was a-roaming
feeling lucky as a punk,
railing at the advice of the witch doctor - monk
against venturing in the gloaming
when the felines are de-homing
in the savanna. “Junk!
Your thinking always stunk!”
roared foaming at the mouth, a cross young Nelly,
quivering like jelly
with rage. “Does a pachyderm need permission?
The matriarch knows her mission,
and single young males
scatter, like gales,
prides of scraggly lions, from Uganda to Wales.”

Then Nelly (known as Ryan)
upped and sauntered
into the savanna
like Castro into Havana
and Trump into his cabana.

At the sight of the first hungry feline
Nelly’s pants showed a pee line,
though briefly, for after a strangled scream
which might as well have been a bad dream
but for the whomping,
the chundering and chomping,
as unlike an original elephant
into the lion’s belly went
with monogrammed clothing elegant
young Ryan, also Nelly, gent.

---

Junior, by wjames on the 13th, (write a diatribe), was a subtle enough response to the prompt that I found intriguing:

Junior
Picture the scum
selling three dollar cucumbers
and five dollar heads of lettuce
lounging on the veranda
of a mansion on Vero Beach.

He leaves half a croissant on the table
for the flies to pick at until a maid comes
before laying his back on morning waves.

After noon, he strolls the garden
by the equestrian centre in a polo,
humming to the birds.

---

Even though she didn't complete all 30, the acrostic poem ('procrastinate') by Quix definitely gets a nod :

Perfection is the key to this
Riddle, if I can just find the
One ideal solution then
Certainly afterwards the
Rest will all fall into place.
Although, I’ve heard it
Said that perfection can
Twist the mind and cause
Insecurities and hesitation.
Naturally the first step is to
Accurately size up the goals
Tally the to dos in a list then
Eat a snack and take a nap then …


Quix also gets a nod for this phrase in her poem about maturity, on the 16th:
amputating your imagination

---

St. John of Shanghai, by notch on the 28th (write from the perspective of a bird). I found this one very descriptive and unique.

St. John of Shanghai

He thought me clever for coming to him first
but even saints can be disappointed:
I was not descended from those doves
that whispered into St. Basil's ear
whenever he presided over a service.

Instead, he had to play the teacher again
and I, the dutiful student, learned to perch
quietly on the corner of every seat
or feed from his hand without pricking his skin
or even circle overhead

during the feast of the Theophany
to astonish the crowd, to impress upon them
how palpable the Mystery was.

The children would say, perhaps impiously,
that because of the water he sprinkled on me
I was a baptized bird.

The adults would observe, upon his repose,
my frantic fluttering of the wings
which he had repaired, on our first meeting,
as if I were in mourning,

but I tell you: I was too clever,
too much his good student, to feel such pain.
I knew where he had truly gone.
I knew only joy when my own heart stopped.

[TranquillityBase]

Brother Jonathan


What a lot of history
suffuses your old sunken hulk!
Fifteen years and half a world
from Newark birth,
fast steamer not so much
into harm’s way
as bearing it with you:
Panama, Nicragua,
then the famous runs–
San Francisco, Portland to Victoria
a name change, then changed back
(bad luck, as old salts know)
and finally your wreck
drowning hundreds within sight
of land, weighed down
by golden millions meant
to pay off Northwest tribes
not unlike those
which three years earlier
one of your passengers infected
with the smallpox
much to colonials’ advantage
in British Columbia
when half the natives died of it.

If a ship is not a living thing
with moods and fortunes,
times of virtue and of vice,
you could not prove it by
Brother Jonathan.

Duke, runners up were your poems (I've forgotten titles) about filming of Farewell My Lovely and Emperor penguin poem. 

It rained that day.
That is why the stones
and bricks and glass and posts
shone so fiercely
that night.
Not some trick of the light.

Not the power coursing
through the grid with more intensity
than usual,
nor the moon and stars
finally exposing themselves
to the city below.

Not whatever crystals
were embedded in the rocks
with which our world was built
nor the flowering vines
that laboured to return them
to the earth.

Not the squabbling of dogs
nor the staring of cats
nor the way people walked
all almost running
careless if they slipped
rushing home.

Not the evening breeze clearing
the smoke from the club,
nor the drinks I've had passing
out whichever orifice
they chose to pass out of,
nor even the piercing

sadness in your eyes,
the disappointed search
for a shared memory.
It rained that day, I tell you:
that is why we both
nearly drowned.

RN, also really liked The Liturgist's Complaint.

Ideation

The deadly one
was convincing yourself
there was no purpose

for the abundance of spring,
or the sublime beauty of fall-
only brutal winter; searing summer.

Your once fluid thoughts
turned to ice on blazing asphalt-
you became convinced

life was merely evaporation
of your dream-
from solid, to liquid, to steam.

Arriving at the inspection
in a brown coat,
you pull out your note pad
and jot down your eyes.

Be sure to mention the yellow string.

Mourn

You fade, like a flower,
hour by hour.
Day by day
you fall away 
little by little,
like your memories of
a harvest moon
in Catalhoyuk.

Song of the Goldfinch

I am the lord of creation.
My voice calls forth the morning sun
out from the night-void and into
the great mother’s wing above.
At my command it rises—
red as worm-skin, and as bright
as my lady’s eye. The beauty
and the power of my song
brings light to all beastkind.

I am the king of all the beasts.
I weave intricate nests for my love
and for our little roundlings.
More complex than a spider’s web
and more solid and secure.
With my powerful wings I can soar
higher and faster than the lumbering
beasts of the ground. What good
are all those legs other than
to weigh them down?

I am the loveliest of creatures
with soft feathers in rainbow hues—
as bright as any flower, downy as any cub. 
Who can compare to my magnificence?
Even the humans watch me sail
on the wind—effortless and free—
and long deep in their hearts
for a set of wings to call their own.
I am the final destination,
the most perfect and most envied,
most lovely and most admired.
I am the bringer of the dawn.

[dukealien]

Just entries I liked, with maybe reasons why...

14th, an acrostic, @TranquilityBase:

Beyond the realm of talking elephants
And devious crocodiles, listless in the sun
By the edge of a dense rainforest
A fly-ridden congress of rhinos whisper in the grasses
Rejoicing at the news of a tyrant’s downfall

Isacaron, Brother number one, lays out the revolution to come
Sings to the armorbacks grievances to stir their blood

Down with the chatter of unnatural elephants!
Each must pay for the rhinos repeated humilitations
All the elephant cities returned to the jungle, the trumpeters
Dispersed back to their herds once and for all.

---

All those lovely references - and but of course he is, otherwise how would Babar II reign?

19th, warn(ing), @Tiger The Lion:

---

Patriots

Break left,
                                               break right.

The fighter jets
on your ass

engage your wife 
and kids 
this family night.

Your commander less,
your country less.

                                               Break right
break left

this fighter jet
on your ass
ain't ever gonna let
some nobody find his way home.

---

and most appropriate, the 19th being Patriots' Day (old style).

7th, write about exile, @Quixilated:

I left unwillingly with empty hands
and unshod feet.  Time ran his path
while I had been walking mine. 
Foolishly, I hid my face in a basket,
but it spilled out along the way.
I am always goaded forward, onward,
never to look back, never to return.

I baked memories for the road,
wrapped carefully, for taste transcends time
and place. But the memories grew stale
and lost their flavor. I cannot go back,
not even in my mind.  The door is locked
and the path is long since swept away.

It is time to move forward again,
the clock has grown spikes,
and my grip on this moment is failing. 
I place my face in a basket and bake
memories to nibble on the way. 
Futility never wins over hope.

---

the choice between looking back and looking forward

1st, write about loss of innocence, @RiverNotch:

Even when he would go out to the field
only to watch someone get shot
out of the sky, only to duck
when the older kids cried out:

They're getting low! my grandpa
did not lose his innocence.
The stories he heard of soldiers catching
babies with their bayonets

were only stories, at the time,
while his town was pretty smart
in hiding my great aunts,

or else they learned the art too late,
hiding instead their fear, their shame,
even well past judgment.

---

with all the other very fine work from RN, I keep coming back to this one for the implications.

10th, write about a heroic woman (and a fairy tale), @Mark A. Becker:

Though her body was smaller
than some of the village children
her voice was as big as the canyon
where kids would gather round
to her tales of wonder.

By the glow of a full moon
and the warmth of a fire
she would transfix them
with tales of deer with wings
or fish that walked on land

Long after she had passed on
those children now grown
would recount her tales
embroidering the old stories
with those of their own.

It is said that the original tale
is over two hundred years old
yet no one alive today knows
for sure when the stories started
or how far they go back.

Legend has it that a little woman
has been seen by fishermen walking
along the riverbank, with gills
instead of a mouth. Hunters spot her
with large antlers flying over the forest.

Still others claim that she had come
in a dream to warn of a massive black funnel
cloud that would destroy everything in its path.
Over 100 years all of the villgers managed
to escape before that terrible tornado struck.

---

The imagination and imagery is strong with this one!

12th, involving a bed, @WJames:

Compatible

We were sitting on the bed when she said
I won’t be seeing you anymore.

I said that’s ok, and she told me
that was why.

I asked her how I should have responded to that,
and she said don’t you want to know why?

I didn’t really want to know
but I asked her anyway.

She said you always ask
before you kiss me.

---

I nominate @WJames as most consistently excellent for the month.

[Wjames]

I think these were the prompts in order (I may have messed up the order):

loss of innocence, rules, gnarly historical event, rain, list, eclipse, exile, return, same-sex pals, heroic woman, torture, your bed, diatribe, acrostic (hidden message), existential theme, maturity, hellenic culture, parental advice, warn, console, mourn, bones, what is the writing on the wall?, ekphrasis/place in canon, genealogy, cat, cow relations, perspective of a bird, retraction, innocence regained

The overarching theme certainly seems to have some basis in Christianity - Innocence lost, then a life lived, and death (innocence regained)? - but I'm not sure if I can see something specific.

Thanks for saying you thought I was most consistent, Duke! I think that Compatible one is one of the better ones I did, although, it's more of a transcription than a poem.

I liked this one by Tranquil, on Apr 17, Ekphrasis:

Diane Arbus Song

Always do with only me and find the glorious furious man called the Mystic Barber. Frequently you may win 'em all today, Baby, pretty little dimples may obey orders and when you inhales I'm up in heaven with my shadow like Jack goes to Mars.

And I says there's a lady in your fond embrace, a noiseless soup spoon and a knock for nobody's there. Just one could take your heart jumpin', at ev'ry baby that appears at night, pulling their slippers on. They're all twelve o'clock when I live without her. I love her, goodness knows, I wrote our troubles on a human hair.

One could take your cutest picture and my shadow strolling down your forehead with antennae on it. Here's the way it goes, Baby, 500,000 wishbones and holy water where that Negro man dressed as a shadow goes.

Not a single rose walks down Broadway carrying a face when you were a song about her. Write the Gettysburg Address on the curb, feeling blue for the people who built their house out of sweethearts out in California, pass my shadow to a wooden box whose measure she has lost like alley cats in fancy dress.

I'm your fond embrace of mummies in the basement, lonely me, who searches ceaselessly. I'm up in heaven when I didn't need a shove, a cheerful man with half a hangman's noose of fuchsia silk trailing down to skeletons and broken crockery and woodpecker holes.

As well as the avenue, me and my Baby not so long ago climbed the stair. Maybe you never heard of me and my shadow, maybe just a copper band around this honest, I ain't fibbin', you'd be an avenue too, somethin' started Baby face, like a divining rod wildly recommending a robot 7 feet tall, raving 'bout my Baby now 'cause I just fell into her dimples.

Don't want to just win ev'ry ribbon with curly hair, coz I'm in the suburbs with a lion. There is a man who is falling and I'm lonely standing here with one guess. Someone who collects our troubles has written boo all over them so it turned out the Martians will destroy him.

No lamps begin to glow when the sun sets. Heart is jumpin', you're sure he is dead and climb the stair and we never knock for nobody's there 'cause I'm telepathic. And you must have been the wind-up just like I eat and sleep underwater. Me and your shadow strolling the avenue over and over. Where there used to be a pretty Baby, there is now just a face, but you've got the cutest place, and it's three by eight.

----

I like this one from Rivernotch on a rainy day from Apr 4"

It rained that day.
That is why the stones
and bricks and glass and posts
shone so fiercely
that night.
Not some trick of the light.

Not the power coursing
through the grid with more intensity
than usual,
nor the moon and stars
finally exposing themselves
to the city below.

Not whatever crystals
were embedded in the rocks
with which our world was built
nor the flowering vines
that laboured to return them
to the earth.

Not the squabbling of dogs
nor the staring of cats
nor the way people walked
all almost running
careless if they slipped
rushing home.

Not the evening breeze clearing
the smoke from the club,
nor the drinks I've had passing
out whichever orifice
they chose to pass out of,
nor even the piercing

sadness in your eyes,
the disappointed search
for a shared memory.
It rained that day, I tell you:
that is why we both
nearly drowned.

-----

I like this one from Mark a lot from Apr 20, Console. (I would cut that last line myself, though and end on And listen-).

Our Bond

We've lost some of the same people-
my brother was your father,
your sister, my niece.

Now your mother is gone,
and your husband went drunk,
and your children cowered

as the horrible noise of his raging,
and raping drilled in for hours.
Now he’s kicked out, but you

feel defeated. The best I can do
is just stay on the phone. And listen-
listen while wishing you peace.

---

There are plenty of others I liked too.

[RiverNotch]

Thanks for the mentions! I'm a very slow reader, but I hope to highlight an entry per day at some point. As for the overarching theme:

The theme is the Bible!
Day 1 - The loss of innocence, so Genesis.
Day 2 - Establishment of rules, so Exodus to Deuteronomy (aka the rest of the Law).
Day 3 - Genocide, which happened in Joshua.
Day 4 - A rainy day. Very very tangentially, Judges, specifically the story of Gideon and the fleece.
Day 5 - A list poem. Very very tangentially, 1-2 Kings/1-2 Samuel, specifically Hannah's song.
Day 6 - An eclipse. Very very tangentially, 3-4 Kings/1-2 Kings, specifically the sun turning back for Hezekiah.
Days 7 and 8 - Exile and the return from it. 1-2 Chronicles and 1-2 Ezra (or Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 Esdras).
Day 9 - Same-sex friendship. This one was where what I wrote directly touched on the inspiration, the book of Tobit (specifically the friendship between Tobias and the angel).
Day 10 - A heroic woman. A sort-of catch-all like the Syrian book of women, covering Ruth, Judith, Esther, and Susanna; again, what I wrote for this directly touched on the inspiration.
Day 11 - Torture or Elephants. 1-4 Maccabees, with 4 Maccabees graphically describing torture, and 2 Maccabees (and I think 3 Maccabees? but I haven't read that one) featuring elephants.
Day 12 - Involving your bed. Again, what I wrote directly touched on the inspiration, which is the Psalms (specifically the Psalm with the line "I watered my couch with tears").
Day 13 - A diatribe. Job.
Day 14 - An acrostic poem. Proverbs, which has a lot of those (though also the Psalms and the Lamentations, and their acrostics are typically just the alphabet. Recently I have been reading Greek and Slavonic liturgical texts (or rather translations of those texts xD), and those feature acrostics with actual "hidden" messages, which is pretty cool).
Day 15 - An existential theme. Ecclesiastes.
Day 16 - Describe maturity. Song of Songs. One interpretation of Proverbs-Ecclesiastes-Song of Songs is that they describe a kind of journey to wisdom, with Proverbs giving practical advice, Ecclesiastes giving more intellectual or psychological advice, and Song of Songs showing the height of spiritual maturity. Of course, one can also interpret "maturity" in the prompt as "sexual maturity", the book being one of the more explicit of the Bible.
Day 17 - Celebrate Hellenic culture. Wisdom. This book is noted as a combination of Hebraic and Hellenic ideas, for which it was prized by Herman Melville. At one point, the book even cites the Platonic virtues.
Day 18 - Advice of a parent/grandparent to their child/grandchild. Sirach.
Days 19, 20, and 21 - These involve things the prophets generally did. Day 19's prompt, to warn, is probably the one least specific to the set of prophets it was meant to refer to (the twelve). Day 20, to console, is a little more specific to Isaiah, since his work is most prized in Christianity as pointing to the then-coming Messiah. Day 21, to mourn, is very specific to Jeremiah and his Lamentations.
Day 22 and 23 - These involve things which are far more specific to their respective prophets, with Ezekiel's vision of the field of bones and the story of Daniel and the writing on the wall.
Day 24 - An argument on behalf of the inclusion of some piece of media into its respective canon. This basically covers all the books considered apocryphal by most traditional churches.
Days 25, 26, 27, and 28 - These refer, above all, to the Gospels, with Matthew being symbolized by a man (and, instead of giving an insanely vague prompt, I just went with the genealogy one xD), Mark by a lion (hence a cat), Luke by a cow (hence a cow and its relationship with some other creature), and John an eagle (hence the point of view of a bird).
Day 29 - A palinode. Somewhat tangentially, this refers to the Epistles, which are often seen as reframing and perhaps even refuting the Old Testament.
Day 30 - Innocence regained. Here referring to the Eschaton, which is described in the book of Revelation.
It is very specific to Christianity, but not to a proselytizing end. The resource I most go with when considering the Bible as literature is this book I read as a teen, which I continue to recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Classica...0802086950
Free pdf: https://www.academia.edu/49076403/BIBLIC...RN_CULTURE

[busker]

Thanks for the mentions! I'm a very slow reader, but I hope to highlight an entry per day at some point. As for the overarching theme:

The theme is the Bible!
Day 1 - The loss of innocence, so Genesis.
Day 2 - Establishment of rules, so Exodus to Deuteronomy (aka the rest of the Law).
Day 3 - Genocide, which happened in Joshua.
Day 4 - A rainy day. Very very tangentially, Judges, specifically the story of Gideon and the fleece.
Day 5 - A list poem. Very very tangentially, 1-2 Kings/1-2 Samuel, specifically Hannah's song.
Day 6 - An eclipse. Very very tangentially, 3-4 Kings/1-2 Kings, specifically the sun turning back for Hezekiah.
Days 7 and 8 - Exile and the return from it. 1-2 Chronicles and 1-2 Ezra (or Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 Esdras).
Day 9 - Same-sex friendship. This one was where what I wrote directly touched on the inspiration, the book of Tobit (specifically the friendship between Tobias and the angel).
Day 10 - A heroic woman. A sort-of catch-all like the Syrian book of women, covering Ruth, Judith, Esther, and Susanna; again, what I wrote for this directly touched on the inspiration.
Day 11 - Torture or Elephants. 1-4 Maccabees, with 4 Maccabees graphically describing torture, and 2 Maccabees (and I think 3 Maccabees? but I haven't read that one) featuring elephants.
Day 12 - Involving your bed. Again, what I wrote directly touched on the inspiration, which is the Psalms (specifically the Psalm with the line "I watered my couch with tears").
Day 13 - A diatribe. Job.
Day 14 - An acrostic poem. Proverbs, which has a lot of those (though also the Psalms and the Lamentations, and their acrostics are typically just the alphabet. Recently I have been reading Greek and Slavonic liturgical texts (or rather translations of those texts xD), and those feature acrostics with actual "hidden" messages, which is pretty cool).
Day 15 - An existential theme. Ecclesiastes.
Day 16 - Describe maturity. Song of Songs. One interpretation of Proverbs-Ecclesiastes-Song of Songs is that they describe a kind of journey to wisdom, with Proverbs giving practical advice, Ecclesiastes giving more intellectual or psychological advice, and Song of Songs showing the height of spiritual maturity. Of course, one can also interpret "maturity" in the prompt as "sexual maturity", the book being one of the more explicit of the Bible.
Day 17 - Celebrate Hellenic culture. Wisdom. This book is noted as a combination of Hebraic and Hellenic ideas, for which it was prized by Herman Melville. At one point, the book even cites the Platonic virtues.
Day 18 - Advice of a parent/grandparent to their child/grandchild. Sirach.
Days 19, 20, and 21 - These involve things the prophets generally did. Day 19's prompt, to warn, is probably the one least specific to the set of prophets it was meant to refer to (the twelve). Day 20, to console, is a little more specific to Isaiah, since his work is most prized in Christianity as pointing to the then-coming Messiah. Day 21, to mourn, is very specific to Jeremiah and his Lamentations.
Day 22 and 23 - These involve things which are far more specific to their respective prophets, with Ezekiel's vision of the field of bones and the story of Daniel and the writing on the wall.
Day 24 - An argument on behalf of the inclusion of some piece of media into its respective canon. This basically covers all the books considered apocryphal by most traditional churches.
Days 25, 26, 27, and 28 - These refer, above all, to the Gospels, with Matthew being symbolized by a man (and, instead of giving an insanely vague prompt, I just went with the genealogy one xD), Mark by a lion (hence a cat), Luke by a cow (hence a cow and its relationship with some other creature), and John an eagle (hence the point of view of a bird).
Day 29 - A palinode. Somewhat tangentially, this refers to the Epistles, which are often seen as reframing and perhaps even refuting the Old Testament.
Day 30 - Innocence regained. Here referring to the Eschaton, which is described in the book of Revelation.
It is very specific to Christianity, but not to a proselytizing end. The resource I most go with when considering the Bible as literature is this book I read as a teen, which I continue to recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Classica...0802086950
Free pdf: https://www.academia.edu/49076403/BIBLIC...RN_CULTURE

Zounds!!!!
Absolutely brilliant, but now I fear my doggerel rhymes failed to do justice to the grand arc, and now I needs must seek Purgatorio

[samanthaxnoodle]

Just entries I liked, with maybe reasons why...

14th, an acrostic, @TranquilityBase:

Beyond the realm of talking elephants
And devious crocodiles, listless in the sun
By the edge of a dense rainforest
A fly-ridden congress of rhinos whisper in the grasses
Rejoicing at the news of a tyrant’s downfall

Isacaron, Brother number one, lays out the revolution to come
Sings to the armorbacks grievances to stir their blood

Down with the chatter of unnatural elephants!
Each must pay for the rhinos repeated humilitations
All the elephant cities returned to the jungle, the trumpeters
Dispersed back to their herds once and for all.

---

All those lovely references - and but of course he is, otherwise how would Babar II reign?

19th, warn(ing), @Tiger The Lion:

---

Patriots

Break left,
                                               break right.

The fighter jets
on your ass

engage your wife 
and kids 
this family night.

Your commander less,
your country less.

                                               Break right
break left

this fighter jet
on your ass
ain't ever gonna let
some nobody find his way home.

---

and most appropriate, the 19th being Patriots' Day (old style).

7th, write about exile, @Quixilated:

I left unwillingly with empty hands
and unshod feet.  Time ran his path
while I had been walking mine. 
Foolishly, I hid my face in a basket,
but it spilled out along the way.
I am always goaded forward, onward,
never to look back, never to return.

I baked memories for the road,
wrapped carefully, for taste transcends time
and place. But the memories grew stale
and lost their flavor. I cannot go back,
not even in my mind.  The door is locked
and the path is long since swept away.

It is time to move forward again,
the clock has grown spikes,
and my grip on this moment is failing. 
I place my face in a basket and bake
memories to nibble on the way. 
Futility never wins over hope.

---

the choice between looking back and looking forward

1st, write about loss of innocence, @RiverNotch:

Even when he would go out to the field
only to watch someone get shot
out of the sky, only to duck
when the older kids cried out:

They're getting low! my grandpa
did not lose his innocence.
The stories he heard of soldiers catching
babies with their bayonets

were only stories, at the time,
while his town was pretty smart
in hiding my great aunts,

or else they learned the art too late,
hiding instead their fear, their shame,
even well past judgment.

---

with all the other very fine work from RN, I keep coming back to this one for the implications.

10th, write about a heroic woman (and a fairy tale), @Mark A. Becker:

Though her body was smaller
than some of the village children
her voice was as big as the canyon
where kids would gather round
to her tales of wonder.

By the glow of a full moon
and the warmth of a fire
she would transfix them
with tales of deer with wings
or fish that walked on land

Long after she had passed on
those children now grown
would recount her tales
embroidering the old stories
with those of their own.

It is said that the original tale
is over two hundred years old
yet no one alive today knows
for sure when the stories started
or how far they go back.

Legend has it that a little woman
has been seen by fishermen walking
along the riverbank, with gills
instead of a mouth. Hunters spot her
with large antlers flying over the forest.

Still others claim that she had come
in a dream to warn of a massive black funnel
cloud that would destroy everything in its path.
Over 100 years all of the villgers managed
to escape before that terrible tornado struck.

---

The imagination and imagery is strong with this one!

12th, involving a bed, @WJames:

Compatible

We were sitting on the bed when she said
I won’t be seeing you anymore.

I said that’s ok, and she told me
that was why.

I asked her how I should have responded to that,
and she said don’t you want to know why?

I didn’t really want to know
but I asked her anyway.

She said you always ask
before you kiss me.

---

I nominate @WJames as most consistently excellent for the month.

These are beautiful poems very lovely