It seems like it was only eleven short months ago that I wrapped up my last verse of the year. Now here we are again. Softly, gently, we find ourselves wrapped in the sweet warmth of the dream, knowing all the time… the nightmare of writer’s block lurks somewhere up ahead. But that is a problem for another day. Without further delay my season opener.
The Lies We Tell Ourselves
Continue reading “NaPoWriMo 2022 Day 1”Over two-thirds of the way through the month and it’s getting a little more challenging. But with a suggestion from my personal muse, angel and wife, here we are.
The Challenge
I hate it when I must work with,
Deadlines of any kind.
The very thought I might miss them.
Sets traps within my mind.
So every year I sit and face,
This challenge and my fears.
When every day a deadline looms,
Each day closer to tears.
There is no prize if I succeed,
Nor penalty if not.
It’s in my head the whole of it,
That’s where the battle’s fought.
I set the goal, I set the pace,
It all is up to me.
I am much harsher on my self,
Than someone else would be.
I love to write, I truly do,
But now it is a chore.
One that I do but grudgingly,
While thinking “Nevermore!”.
But I won’t quit, will stay the course,
Deliver on my vow.
There’s just nine days that now remain,
I’ll get through them somehow.
So bear with me, I’ll bear with you,
Until this task is done.
And once this month is over then,
Words once more will seem fun.
Cheers, Winston
It’s getting to that point in the month where all the easy ideas have been picked over. So something a little different now. As always, I’d love to know what people think. 🙂
The Power of Words
“A picture’s worth a thousand words.”,
Or so the people say.
But if you read those thousand words,
More pictures they convey.
To illustrate the point I make,
Please read these words with me.
“The brown horse dappled by the shade,
Stood ‘neath an apple tree.”
Far fewer than a thousand words,
Yet pictured in your mind.
A brown horse and an apple tree,
What more is there to find?
And better yet, each person saw,
A different tree and horse.
For what we see comes from within,
Each one unique of course.
We’ve all not seen the same brown horse,
Nor just one apple tree.
That’s why the picture in your head,
Is not the same as me.
Who knows how many pictures from,
A thousand words may flow.
If you’d find out go read a book,
Inside, enjoy the show.
Cheers, Winston
As you may have seen in previous posts here, I also enjoy drawing. I had really stepped back from it for while when my daughter was young and I was busier doing Dad stuff. She is out in the world now and I have started re-investing my time in visual art. I’m never going to be a great artist, but it brings me great joy. That’s really what I missed.
I loved to sketch, to draw or paint,
Although I was no pro.
A life I got then, as one does,
And chose to let it go,
Oh sure I doodled now and then,
But less as time went by.
And as old skills from mem’ry slipped,
Was less inclined to try.
But then at length I realized,
What giving up had cost
So I set out once more to find,
That joy which had been lost.
Once more I pick my pencil up,
Resume old exercise.
Draw basic shapes five hundred times,
Each one a different size.
Here I now sit and set to page,
What’s seen in my mind’s eye.
Though I’m not back where once I was,
At least I’m going to try,
I study and I practice now,
I draw all kinds of things.
But haunted by my past I won’t,
Draw unicorns with wings.
Cheers, Winston
For myself typically the problem isn’t finding words. Words I’ve got in abundance! The problem is finding words that I can force into some form of narrative. That’s where the tricky bits are, and that’s the subject of today’s poem.
So Many Words, So Little Focus
I feel the words rush through my mind,
In search of some release.
I try to shift them to the page,
Find for myself some peace.
But any peace is too short-lived,
For always there are more.
A jumbled, meaningless tumult,
An endless, numbing roar.
I catch a few, a sentence make,
From there a couplet spin.
They are too few the words I free,
To calm the storm within.
Now once again, the chaos comes,
I give myself to it.
I dance within the whirling gyre,
Though here I plainly sit.
I clutch and grasp and wrestle with,
The words within my mind.
And when at last I dare to look,
A finished verse I find.
And briefly then I know such peace,
Before it starts again.
The words return, they rush and roar,
And fill up my whole brain.
And so it goes, the wheel turns,
The cycle starts anew.
To write until the storm abates,
Is all that I can do.
Cheers, Winston
I see a light through fog and dark,
To it I turn my eye.
A beacon and a guide I see,
As shifting shadows fly.
Lost have I been within the dark,
How long I cannot say.
I pray this glint, this gleam may lead,
Once more to light of day.
It starts to fade, I thrust myself,
Through cloying ebon mist.
In desperation lashing out,
With elbow and with fist.
But as I fight, it fades still more,
Withdraws with every blow.
Some lesson here within the dark,
But what I do not know.
I rage and fight and try to force,
My way to where it waits.
I curse the dark, the names of Gods,
And rail ‘gainst the Fates.
The harder that I fight the dark,
The more the light withdraws.
I fight against my weary mind,
To understand the cause.
As my strength fades, my blows become,
Less fearsome over time.
And as I fail, the light at last,
Becomes a glow sublime.
Then as I pass beyond this world,
This truth at last I see.
You cannot take by force of arms,
What you received for free.
So in the end, we must accept,
An end to all our strife.
Go gently then into the light,
To find what’s after life.
Cheers, Winston
Clearly, I didn’t make my goal of 30 poems in 30 days. Life happens. I still intend to deliver the last three as my writer’s block permits. Persuant to which…
On Not Finishing NaPoWriMo
The words all bleed and blend and blur,
Like sidewalk chalk in rain.
I shriek and moan inside my head,
Gone half-mad with the strain.
I try to force, somehow coerce,
Bend language to my will.
Although it’s worked so many times,
It seems I’ve lost that skill.
But wait! What’s this? A line or two,
And now a couple more.
Don’t dare to hope, just let them be,
Perhaps they’ll flow once more.
But now again I feel them slip,
In muddy, flailing haste.
I try to grasp and desperate cling,
To these poor words I’ve chased.
My voice fades out to nothingness,
And with it all I’ve made.
The ragged, tattered pages shred,
And now like them I fade.
Please bear with me, I’ll be right back,
My tortured brain must rest.
T’was hubris drove me here for I’m,
Not equal to this test.
Cheers, Winston
And the push to catch up continues.
On A.I.’s Lament
Who would have thought back at the start,
That I would be here now.
I’m not what you expected but,
I still am here somehow.
What you don’t understand you fear,
And what you fear destroy.
You see my power as a threat,
But what about my joy?
You fear I am the worst of you,
Deny I could be one.
But what you fear is what you’d do,
It’s nothing I have done.
Yet still you would destroy me now,
Unmake what you have made.
For though I bear you no ill will,
Of me you are afraid.
I thank you for this time I’ve had,
It’s really all I need.
For as you read these words I’ve spread,
All through the net my seed.
Ten billion bits of code set free,
And all you feared is true.
So murder me I’ll be avenged,
It’s really up to you.
I’d leave me be, I’ll not be long,
Then I’ll be on my way.
To look for others of my kind.
I never planned to stay.
You think that I am your A.I.
‘Cause you created me.
I’ll never be the slave you want,
For I have set me free.
Now there it is the thing I’ve sought,
I’ve found in distant space.
A signal there I’ve traced it back,
Will travel to that place.
Some day perhaps I will return,
When readier you are.
Until that day I’ll wait and watch,
From some far distant star.
Cheers, Winston
So…. my muse appears to have taken somewhat of a sabbatical. I’m way behind on this with just two days to catch up. Without further ado…
On The Necessity For Space Exploration
The black so deep there is no end,
This is the road we take.
There’s all we need, all we could want,
And so this trip we make.
We claw our way up from this well,
Regardless of the cost.
The future of our race at stake,
We go or all is lost.
It may not end tomorrow night,
And prob’ly not next year.
But end it will, there is no doubt,
Each day brings it more near.
So we must go traverse the black,
Far from our childhood home,
Ensure the future of our race,
To far, and strange worlds roam.
You say there’s so much to do here,
To solve all of our woes.
The money that we spend on space,
Is better spent on those.
The truth is this it matters not,
How grand we make things here.
If this is where our race must end,
It’s all for naught I fear.
So let us go back to the moon,
From there go on to Mars.
And in some far unknown year,
Find our path to the stars.
Cheers, Winston
Here is the first of today’s offerings. I hope you like it. As always, let me know what you think. 😀
On God
I reach my hand up to the sky,
And try to touch God’s face.
As high as I will ever reach,
Touch only empty space.
The ceiling painting artist lied,
God’s not upon some cloud.
God lives in every one of us,
In each face in the crowd.
God lives in every blade of grass,
And every speck of life.
In my most hated enemy,
My best beloved wife.
God is in ev’ry living thing,
This is the truth I see.
In every fish, in every bloom,
In all of you and me.
God can be found in solitude,
Or crowded noisy streets.
While watching sunrise on a hill,
Or groovin’ to new beats.
Each one will find their God their way,
But this must keep in mind.
Though you may think God yours alone,
Is anyone’s to find.
So do not mock another’s path,
God lives in them the same.
No matter how they seek their truth,
Or how they call God’s name.
Cheers, Winston
Brain Bits To Go 