2025 NaPM Early Bird Special

[RiverNotch]

Rules: Write a poem for national poetry month on the topic or form described. Each poem should appear as a separate reply to this thread. The goal is to, at the end of the month have written 30 poems for National Poetry Month.


This year, there are no form requirements, only "tiers" or "rankings" given informally to all participants:

Bronze Tier: Participate at least once.

Silver Tier: Participate all days.

Gold Tier: Participate all days, and have all entries be the same form or have all entries be different forms.


Write a poem involving a crown: 2 Henry IV, Coronavirus, RuPaul's Drag Race, etc.

[dukealien]

What He Found


They say that Archimedes leaped up shouting from his copper bath

to celebrate discovering that weight and volume meet in math

“Eureka!” cried he, king’s crown isn’t fully made of solid gold

there’s silver in there, contradicting what the jeweler said and told!

The final Syracusan joke, which modern science doesn’t teach

is that a gold and silver alloy, at that time, was quite a peach:

“Electrum,” it was called, and, coined, was valued far superior

to gold alone, soft bendy stuff, of quality inferior.

[Form: Patter song]

[RiverNotch]

Do athletes, poets, or mass murderers
continue to receive
laurel coronets? If so,
I yearn for one:

its leaves, I'm sure, will add
a fine, if subtle, boost
to various soups and stews,

its stems, I'm sure, will prove
a fine, if tiny, scourge
once adeptly plied,

and its buds, if with the others
picked, should compost well,
what use is there in flowers
shorn the chance to fruit?

[busker]

'Crown for king' said the Dothraki
lord, pouring molten gold
like lager from a bubbly flagon
down the head of the golden dragon
for being far too bold.

O, the first four seasons of A Game of Thrones!
They chill my bones.
Even through the boning,
queens and strumpets moaning,
those loan sharks loaning
from the Rock at Casterly
made it masterly. 

Which is more than I have to say about how it ended - 
not as the old man intended,
but in fashion dastardly.
He sits in the Casterly
Rock of his mind
and silently screams.
Utterly resigned
to the death of a dream.

[dukealien]

@busker - Unfortunate, indeed, that a story - even a saga - must have an end.   The central problem is that G.O.T. is a world, potentially (and at its best) without end.  Good poem about it.

(I'm binge-watching House of the Dragon, one year behind when the disks come out.]

[carahmellow]

A little riddle for this prompt, can you guess who I'm referring to?

She danced,
she pranced,
entertained
and entranced,
with a smile to cover the pain.
Though she slipped
from external shame,
and scrambling of the mind—
the echos remain,
remnants of fame
along with her unique sound.
There were kings and queens
that came before,
but she will always wear
her crown.

[RiverNotch]

Ayy your first NaPM! Welcome!

[RiverNotch]

i was thinking, if i collected the least thrown-together of what i produced this month, the idea of the one i wrote here would be a fine opener, just with maybe a more standard form?

Give me a laurel wreath
and I will add its leaves
to various soups and stews
for a classical boost,

and I will weave its twigs
again into a whip---
rather, a little whisk
for beating stiff some cream---

as how the Greeks rewarded
their most accomplished athletes,
even their darling poets,

so did the Romans honor
their most accomplished butchers,
the marshals of their legions.

[Mark A Becker]

crowns

4 year old:
I got a red one,
a green one,
a purple one, too;
LOOK at my crowns!

Mom:
Oh my! They're so
colorful, sweetie;
can you say cray-
ons?

[busker]

Thoroughly enjoyed NaPM this year
The prompts were excellent
Thank you, River

[RiverNotch]

(thank you, but there's one more prompt left)

[busker]

(thank you, but there's one more prompt left)

This was after your 30 April prompt!! :-D