2025 NaPM 4 April
#1
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 great mystery or mysteries, from those celebrated at Eleusis to that obsessed over by JFK conspiracists (if the latter is a mystery at all. The joke goes that, when a JFK conspiracist went to Heaven, he asked God, "God, who really killed JFK?" God answered, "Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, using his own Carcano M91 rifle." The conspiracist reacted, "Wow, this goes even deeper than I thought.")

((the advantage of being the one to post these prompts is i get to think about my entry a full day before everyone else xD))



Our beater's often parked beneath some trees
that weep when summer falls upon this isle.
In this inhuman tropic heat,
there's pleasure found in crunching fallen leaves

of which the cats who often make their bed
upon that old grey roof would much partake
if they were not themselves much vexed
when this same arid rain fell on their heads,

wherefore both trees and beasts here value altars lit
in honor of the Universal King
instead of the Protectress of the Fields:

like us, they loathe the summer, love the not-quite-cold
brought in by Kore's exit from this world,
and seek to gentle him whom all ends owe.
Reply
#2
Twelve men walked
with the Christ.
Twelve men walked
on the moon.

Is there more evidence
for one than the other?
I guess it depends
upon what you choose

to believe. And there-in
lies the tricky part, what
to know in your mind, what
to feel in your heart.

I only try to understand;
balance both in one hand.
Reply
#3
(04-03-2025, 07:01 PM)RiverNotch Wrote:  The joke goes that, when a JFK conspiracist went to Heaven, he asked God, "God, who really killed JFK?" God answered, "Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, using his own Carcano M91 rifle." The conspiracist reacted, "Wow, this goes even deeper than I thought.")

Hysterical Hysterical Hysterical Hysterical


What is Mystery
to the Sabians and Mandeans
lies not in history,
nor science, why the Lagrangian
works, or the equivalence principle.
Why Argentinian municipal
bonds aren’t worthless 
The Chinese mirthless
good geishas girthless -
no, not in these.
They don’t marvel that geese
cackling saved Rome.
That Berlin lagged Bonn
at one time.
But that Jesus, poetaster
trumped his divine master -
the Baptist called John. 
From dazzling heights Andean
John was dragged through mud.
Now only the Mandean
keeps the original flood-
-of-river baptism. 
John paid with his head.
Jesus usurped his blood.
Reply
#4
Every one of us
is distinctive, unique
from our forms to our fears.
But how did this come about?
Were our interests, laughs, and deepest loves
intertwined in our DNA?
Are some of us genetically influenced
to hear the voice of a god?
Does a simple string of proteins
show us right from wrong?
How can
each sponge within a cage of bones
Supported by tissues and liquids
be the same, and yet
so different?
▀▄▀▄▀▄ depressedmetalhead ▄▀▄▀▄▀ ●︿●  ˖ ⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖   
Reply
#5
Null Hypothesis


Once the asteroids were discovered
every stargazer had a theory
of their origin which fell into
one of two classes.

Either there had existed one great
planet lying between the paths of
Mars and Jupiter which thereafter
suffered destruction

or the rocky and chondrite objects
had all coalesced from the solar
dust cloud with all the other planets
nothing to see here.

Now an even more bland contention
that this space never grew its tenants
but rocks tumbled from inward outward
roosting like squatters.

[Form:  Sapphic stanzas]
feedback award Non-practicing atheist
Reply
#6
(04-04-2025, 12:18 AM)dukealien Wrote:  [Form:  Sapphic stanzas]

Damn duke, yer nailin it, and going for GOLD. I hope yer head holds up.
Reply
#7
(04-04-2025, 05:39 AM)Mark A Becker Wrote:  
(04-04-2025, 12:18 AM)dukealien Wrote:  [Form:  Sapphic stanzas]

Damn duke, yer nailin it, and going for GOLD. I hope yer head holds up.

Probably run out of forms first, also worrying there's a subject at the far end of the pipeline that will sit up and demand a form already committed.

Thereby saving yer humble svt from keeling over a la Pheidippides on the first of May.
feedback award Non-practicing atheist
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#8
Of all the great mysteries that there be
on this voluptuous rock we call home;
none are as alien and strange to me
as the fox-like ways of the sonnet poem.

There's them syllable counts and rhyming schemes
that flirt with a metrical ball and chain,
lost in enigmatic opiate dreams
iamb da-DUM - repeat - da-Dum - again.

Like a boa; ev'rytime I inhale
these rules coil tighter around my rib cage.
In the noble quest I shall always fail
to commit a sonnet onto the page.

I kid myself into thinking I'm free,
not jealous of the sonnet mystery.
feedback award wae aye man ye radgie
Reply
#9
Love Handles

Black and White Sphinx,
which should I choose
knowing which I prefer
and which is available?

You are two versions
of the same Thing.

Through You,
comes difference
depending on
what we share.

Raring to go,
standing in one
place.

I am a god and You,
You are a god to me.
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