First of all, I’d just like to celebrate the fact that I have written and published here on my lowly blog page 200 poems in three years. Bust out the champagne!
Secondly, for today’s poem, I’ll just paste the prompt from the napowrimo website right here in this spot because it’s nice and clear and features a link to a kick ass poem by James Wright:
And now for today’s (optional) prompt! Today, I challenge you to write a poem in which you closely describe an object or place, and then end with a much more abstract line that doesn’t seemingly have anything to do with that object or place, but which, of course, really does. I think of the “surprise” ending to this James Wright Poem as a model for the effect I’m hoping you’ll achieve. An abstract, philosophical kind of statement closing out a poem that is otherwise intensely focused on physical, sensory details.
Finally, a poem that follows the prompt above (sort of) about the mask in this photo:
Caputlet’s Mask
The green bird nose
flanked with music
on a treble clef staff,
the forehead semetricly
punctuated by loose paisley
in purple, maroon, or green
(they call these figures buta),
a dagger pointing down
right between the eyes
scrolled with undecipherable
latin, all against a shimmering
and antique gold, topped
with a fleur-de-lis to meet
the widow’s peak of the wearer,
if he or she has one: this is all to
describe the mask I will not
be wearing to my masque.
Out there, calling to my guests
and directing the two hours
traffic of this dance, maskless,
still, I am invisible.
michael jarmer 