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Kat's Conundrums
First poem written in over a year. I used the anaphora technique.
Post Chemo Now
Waiting
for my hair to grow.
Waiting
for the cold to go.
Waiting
for my mind to clear.
Waiting
for an end of fear.
Waiting
for strength to run.
Waiting
for the luxury of fun.
Waiting
for word(s) to come.
Waiting
for that old ho-hum.
Waiting for a new
normal to commence.
Waiting as if the future
is not an electric fence.
Last edited by Katlin, Mar/10/2015, 4:01 pm
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Mar/10/2015, 12:54 pm
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Oh yes. Waiting for your body to talk back to you.
Tere
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Mar/10/2015, 11:42 pm
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Ah yes, "that old ho-hum." What an extraordinary treat that would be. I love this poem, Kat. It's good to read you again.
Chris
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Mar/12/2015, 3:03 pm
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Hey Tere and Chris,
I've tweaked the poem and added a companion piece:
Post Chemo (Now)
Waiting
for my hair to grow.
Waiting
for the cold to go.
Waiting
for my mind to clear.
Waiting
for an end of fear.
Waiting
for strength to run.
Waiting
for the luxurious of fun.
Waiting
for word/s to come.
Waiting
for that old ho-hum.
Waiting
for new normal
to commence.
Waiting
as if the future
is not an electric fence,
just another simple tense.
(Post Chemo) Now
Dammit!
Don’t wait
for hair to grow,
the cold to go,
your mind to clear,
an end of fear.
Don’t wait
for amusement or the muse
to return,
for boredom to come
back or strength to burn.
Don’t wait
for a new normalcy’s recompense
or the future’s invisible fence
to disconnect. Don’t reject
the body’s plea. Respect
the present tense. Genuflect
and resurrect (the) now.
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Apr/1/2015, 9:48 am
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Excellent Kat. An escape from prison and a new life.
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Apr/1/2015, 11:09 pm
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Arka, so good to see you! Thanks for stopping by this thread and for your ongoing concern and support. I've read your new poems in the Poetry Spectrum and plan to comment soon.
Today's poem comes from the prompt: write a poem in which each line is a lie:
Black and White Lies
I wasn’t frightened by the diagnosis
or the prospect of surgery.
I wasn’t troubled by catheters,
and the blood thinner I injected daily
into my thighs didn’t faze me.
The prescribed painkillers worked marvelously,
with no disturbing side effects.
The same can be said for 18 weeks
of chemo drugs, anti-nausea meds
and steroids.
I didn’t cry when my head was shaved.
I enjoyed sporting bandanas, chemo caps
and wigs. I didn’t miss my eyebrows.
I thought a pale, swollen, woman-in-the-moon
face was a good look on me.
I called my 103-year-old grandmother
on Mother’s Day and told her I had cancer.
I didn’t experience brain fog, fatigue
or the obsessive need to google.
(What’s neuropathy?) I wasn’t angry.
I didn’t hunker down like a fallow field
or try to live on automatic pilot.
I didn’t feel blessed. I never lost hope.
I always knew I’d beat it.
Last edited by Katlin, Apr/2/2015, 4:04 pm
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Apr/2/2015, 12:57 pm
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
A conundrum worth the name, Kat. Call it life as we know it or how you must have known it, unthinkable but always close, during the past months. i cannot dare to guess at where it has taken you. but the poem is a gift I am keeping.
P.s. coming back to this, realizing I haven't really taljed about the poem. The prompt has worked out really well here and the title to go along with the poem. Surprising metaphors, a slow contained vouce all through. Beautiful work here indeed. Kat, woman on the moon or not, you shine!
Last edited by arkava, Apr/3/2015, 6:22 am
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Apr/3/2015, 4:50 am
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Thank you, Arka, for your response. Your presence over the past months has been one of the constants in my night sky.
Trying something really different today:
Small Unsentimental Machine
A poem is never about one thing.
Terrance Hayes
a poem is never about one
a poem is never about
a poem is
never
a poem
is
a poem
a
[?]
You want it to be as complicated as your feelings.
Terrance Hayes
You want it to be as complicated as your [fill in the blank].
You want it to be as complicated as [. . .].
You want it to be complicated.
You want it to be.
You want it to [?].
You want it.
You want.
You.
"There’s nothing sentimental about a machine, and: A poem is a small (or large) machine made of words." Williams Carlos Williams
http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/introduction-wedge
“A poem is never about one thing. You want it to be as complicated as your feelings.” Terrance Hayes
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/magazine/galaxies-inside-his-head-poet-terrance-hayes.html?smid=tw-nytmag&_r=2
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Apr/3/2015, 3:31 pm
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Ha ha. This is awesome. Funny and insightful. Love the title too, small unsentimental machine. It did remind me of this Leo Marx book we had to dip into at college. Machine in the garden. Here the machine narrows things down, getting to a, getting to a. Yes a mesg. Yes an interrogation/staging of the quote. Good placement of the interrogatives as well. It's a smart machine.
Loved the article on Hayes. Surprisingly balanced. That discomfort with labels. I so get that. Also, that portion where the students are checking their mobile phones, bored. Whew. I have been there. Teaching is a horror story sometimes.
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Apr/3/2015, 9:00 pm
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
arka,
One of my friend's who also teaches college says he sometimes takes a box into the classroom and has all the students put their mobile phones in it, telling them, "You can pick them up after class."
A Charm Against a Friend’s Fear of Change
3 radishes & 1 orange pepper
milk thistle, turmeric & the spot of a leopard
2 green tea capsules & a dash of sea salt
a cup of pickled dreams with a pinch of no-fault
toss these together in a blender
please let fluidity mend her
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Apr/6/2015, 10:24 am
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Looked at this stuff you've written. Good commentary on what you're going through. Glad to see you're doing this. More here than meets the eye. Zak
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Apr/6/2015, 10:37 am
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
It's so good to see/read you here! These poems are terrific.
Chris
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Apr/6/2015, 10:47 am
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
"please let fluidity mend her"
Awesome!! love the poem and have to echo Zekean d Chris here. You are on a roll, Kat!
Last edited by arkava, Apr/6/2015, 2:03 pm
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Apr/6/2015, 2:03 pm
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Hi guys, lovely to see all of you!
Chris, I wish you were writing too.
It doesn't feel right doing this without you.
This Is Just to Say
I’m sorry
I didn’t write
a poem
today
I took
a long,
slow walk
instead
This is not
an excuse
just
my reason
Written to the prompt: "Write an 'excuse' poem. This is open-ended and could apply to anything."
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Apr/6/2015, 11:27 pm
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
This is not
an excuse
just
my reason
Cool line breaks on this one. an excuse just my reason. Ha!
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Apr/7/2015, 4:07 am
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
arka's right, the line breaks are awesome.
I know I should be participating and feel bad about it. Who knows?...maybe...
In any case, I love reading you here, it makes me very happy,
Chris
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Apr/7/2015, 8:13 am
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Hey arka and Chris,
I was ripping off WCW:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/245576
Probably should have made that clear(er)!
Chris, I miss your company and would love for you to join me, but don't feel bad if you can't.
I was reading an article on collage poems this morning, and the idea of writing one appealed to me. I took the prompt a step further and decided to write a collage poem on an actual collage I made a few months ago. There is one problem for posting purposes: the words "meant to" in the penultimate line should have a strikethrough, and I don't know how to do that here, which ruins the whole meaning of the poem, so please imagine a strikethrough there:
Vision Board
Open suitcase
and a health plan I can follow:
Tomato smoothies
with celery garnish.
Sun salutation
on the sand.
Yellow map
and a manual typewriter.
New black T-shirt
(“Thank You”):
I meant to
do that.
Notes Toward a New Language: The Collage by Cynthia Cruz
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2015/04/notes-toward-a-new-language-the-collage/
Last edited by Katlin, Apr/7/2015, 1:47 pm
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Apr/7/2015, 1:30 pm
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Well, now WcW has a reason to be envious. your poem does
quote: What some of these artists have done is curated the work of other artists into their own shows which, again, creates a missing link (between the artist’s own work and the curated artist’s work) which the viewer must now come up with. But what I find perhaps even more interesting about all of these artists is how they curate their own work without providing connective tissue so that when one views the works of these artists one must come up with a connective tissue between the artists own work.
It seems as if you are doing something like that with this latest series of poems. On the surface there is resemblance of openendedness and playfulness and like Zeke said more connective tissue if one looks closer.
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Apr/8/2015, 7:10 am
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
TY, arka, I didn't make that connection.
A friend made up her own prompt and wrote a five line poem with “can” in each line. That looked like fun, so I made up my own variation(s). The result? Some very light verse:
Poem with Cant
I’m not being cantankerous,
but I won’t recant my story.
I ate the cantaloupe
while reading Pound’s Cantos.
Or was it a Canterbury Tale.
I can’t remember.
Patriot Games
After being convinced to play
& unable to contain my enthusiasm,
I won the drinking contest
by continuing
a long con:
reconnoitering
the halls of Congress,
disguised as a concierge,
all while reciting the Constitution
with red wine conviction.
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Apr/10/2015, 6:18 pm
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Another small poem, written while wearing my winter pajamas and staring at my bedroom calendar.
Daybook
There’s a yellow duck
with an orange beak
on the green grass
beside a yellow dandelion.
The calendar says APRIL.
It must be spring somewhere.
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Apr/10/2015, 6:22 pm
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Clear as a bell, sharp as a whistle. Zak
quote: Katlin wrote:
Another small poem, written while wearing my winter pajamas and staring at my bedroom calendar.
Daybook
There’s a yellow duck
with an orange beak
on the green grass
beside a yellow dandelion.
The calendar says APRIL.
It must be spring somewhere.
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Apr/11/2015, 2:36 pm
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
Hey Zak,
Today spring is officially arriving here: sunny & 67 degrees predicted. I am going to take a long walk with a good friend on a nice trail this afternoon. Can't wait!
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Apr/12/2015, 8:38 am
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
The Dark Side of Devotion
When the police showed
up at my door, accusing
me of stalking
you, I knew
we’d gone too far.
Written to the prompt: the dark side of devotion.
Last edited by Katlin, Apr/12/2015, 9:20 am
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Apr/12/2015, 9:06 am
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Re: Kat's Conundrums
that's some devotion loving these. esp
quote: The calendar says APRIL.
It must be spring somewhere.
WOW.sharp as a whistle indeed.
btw hope you had a wonderful walk.
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Apr/13/2015, 2:12 am
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