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Phoenix  Dec 2015
NYPC #8
Phoenix Dec 2015
How to be a great tweaker

1) Go get some drugs
2) Don't take them yet
3) Go get some tweaker friends
4) Go get some snacks and take a shower
5) Put on clean clothes
6) Go to a tweaker friend
7) Give them the drugs
8) Walk over to a light post
9) Give it one dollar
10) Go eat that food
THE END.
No clue. Write a How-To poem. Write a poem instructing someone how to do something – could be something you know how to do very well (I can bake a great loaf of bread) or could be something you have no idea how to do and are working out the steps toward (Fixing a hard drive is beyond me) or it could be something completely imagined. Consider writing the poem as a series of numbered steps with no step being longer than 2 lines
Phoenix  Jan 2016
NYPC #26
Phoenix Jan 2016
Rhyming in a scheme
You should totally try it
It is not as easy as it may seem
Like finding a shoe that fits

Rhyming cannot be implied
It cannot be faked
It must be applied
It is like a good steak

A rhyme a day
Or is it an apple?
Will keep the lame away
But do not grapple

For it is rhyme time
Time to rhyme
Rhyme scheme counts. ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Phoenix  Jan 2016
NYPC #18
Phoenix Jan 2016
The fringe of my pillow
Makes me cringe quite oddly
As it reminds me of our night out
I singed my hair
Only to binge on Netflix
In the dark with you
I unhinged when you left
Because you left for Vinje...without me!
Okie...
Use the words fringe, cringe, singe, binge, and unhinge in a poem, and if you can, Joe's bonus word: mandolin. Do not use any end rhymes, whatever you do
Phoenix  Dec 2015
NYPC #6
Phoenix Dec 2015
Macaroni and cheese,
It will never cook for me,
It is a pimple on the face of humanity

The water is too watery,
The fire is too firey
The cheese is never too cheesy

Macaroni is the goal that I can never reach
It is the bird that will not screech
I think I want some peach.

Peach cobbler
Always such a blunder…
Are you overcooked-- or under?
Write a poem about cooking or baking -- something delicious, something that didn't turn out, something burned, something better than expected, something simple, something beyond reason, a surprise, a treat, an old favorite, a brand-new dish.

I am so hungry, it isn't even funny anymore. Include at least three metaphors and/or similes in a poem no longer than 15 lines. (Keep in mind that your poem is about the creation of the dish itself.)
Phoenix  Dec 2015
NYPC #1
Phoenix Dec 2015
There is the sparrow
Calling out to everyone
Not ever caring
I am in a poetry challenge, so I have different prompts everyday, today was write a poem including a sparrow
Phoenix Jan 2016
I have so much self hate*
But  *I am so vulnerable
  But
I just  When I cry  I just
Can't  But I cry too much  Can't
Seem  So I think  Seem
To  That I may just  To
Evict  Give up  Evict
It all  One day  It all
**Maybe it will consume all of me.
So, Read one side of bold for poem "1" And then read the italics for poem "2"
Write a poem that has a crunchy outside and a soft center.
(from Joe)   Hmmm...Does this have to do with subject matter? with sound? with shape? with something only you would think of?
Phoenix  Jan 2016
NYPC #20
Phoenix Jan 2016
It was just another day
We were going to worship and pray.
We didn't know that we were prey.
In God's own house-
Sacred house-
We were just nine.
Nine people.
Nine families.
Nine Deaths.
Shot and killed like fish in a pond,
Not a single chance to escape.
I chose the church shootings in june...? I think they were in june... Write about a news story from 2015
Phoenix  Jan 2016
NYPC #15
Phoenix Jan 2016
We had fun,
Throwing rocks at every beach we stopped at.
Kids yelling,
throwing sand.
Little baby boys screaming,
Face-planting the sand...
Beach to beach
Pebbles and stones
Into the water
Until there was one,
With rocks not for throwing,
But for stacking.
Not destroying,
But building.
EERRGGHHHHHHH I AM SO BEHIND.
Think of landmarks you know. There are the big ones, nationally known, touristy places. There are the landmarks that are more personal to us -- in our towns, in our relationships. Write a poem about landmarks, big or small. Here's a parameter you are welcome to ignore if you'd like, but if you don't, try to write this in at least 4 3-lines stanzas.
Phoenix  Jan 2016
NYPC #16
Phoenix Jan 2016
Bread and butter
Bones and blood
Air and water
Life.
EERRGGGHHH I AM SO TERRIBAD AT POETRY *** I GIVE UP FOR LIKE 20 MINUTES.Write a poem no longer than 5 lines about bread -- every day bread, holiday bread, the best bread, the worst bread, communion bread, Wonder bread, lefse, pita, metaphorical bread, etc, etc. But no longer than 5 lines!
Phoenix  Jan 2016
NYPC #19
Phoenix Jan 2016
Top ten reasons I don't like spiders and you shouldn't like them either

10) They are eight legged legos on the floor
9) They crawl around like spider plants
8) They make the walls have eyes
7) Spiders are EVERYWHERE
6) There are 34,000 DISCOVERED species
5) They are small- they can get anywhere
4) They can sneak up on you
3) Some of them jump!!
2) Spiders are lethal!
1) Spiders Plot Ingenious ******* Extravaganzas Rudely

Top reason to enjoy killing spiders

1) If I hurt one I wouldn't have to make amends
*shudder*
Write a poem entitled “10 Reasons I Don’t Like _________________ and You Shouldn’t Like _____________ Either.” Your poem should include 10 numbered sections, at least one metaphor, a reference to a plant in home or backyard, an example of onomatopoeia, and a line from your favorite song.  

But what don’t you like? Mayonnaise? Birdsong at 5:00 in the morning? Rock gardens? Trump? FaceBook? Crocheting? Mean people? Guns? Hillary? Cold pizza? Polar bear swims? Poetry?
Phoenix  Dec 2015
NYPC #9
Phoenix Dec 2015
Play ball!
It is in your court
will you aim for me
or try to trick me?
My heart is in your hands
and you need to decide what to do with it.
Write a poem around the topic of Play Ball. This could be about baseball or it could be about another sport or it could be about a more metaphorical type of ball playing. Optional parameter: write your poem in four stanzas of no more than 9 lines each (4 bases, 9 innings – baseball’s my game) or 9 stanzas of 3 lines each (9 innings, 3 outs)...and oh, you could even make that terza rima! Serious poetry chops there -- Dante would for sure give you a thumbs up. (See below for more on that rhyme scheme.
Phoenix  Jan 2016
NYPC #25
Phoenix Jan 2016
We are the "minority"
We are the "weird ones"
We are the "crazy people"
We are the "Oh, they should be locked up!"
We are the "Honey, let's go somewhere else. SHE is here."

We are the light
                    in an otherwise dark world
We are the color
                    in an otherwise grey world
We are the art
                    in an otherwise lame world
We are the curves
                    in an otherwise straight world
**We are the poets of the world
In the recent New Yorker, writer Elizabeth Kolbert has a great article on rising sea levels and how they will especially affect south Florida. Here's a link to the article: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/21/the-siege-of-miami
In the penultimate section of the article, Kolbert writes that Bruce Mowry, city engineer of Miami Beach, muses, "I'm sure if we have had poets, they'd be writing about the swallowing of Miami Beach by the sea."  

How very odd that he thinks Miami Beach does not have poets and that he also feels their lack in new poetry about sea level rise which truly threatens their city. We must help! Let us step in and write some poems on their behalf. Write a poem about Miami Beach (I've never been there, but I won't let that stop me), the rising sea levels, climate change, flooding, or the strange ignorance of the poets in our midst
Phoenix  Dec 2015
NYPC #7
Phoenix Dec 2015
On my way
       to recovery
              I hit bumps
                     I crossed chasms
                           I defeated my monsters
                     as they defeated me
       I took two steps forward
and three steps back
       but recovery isn't always positive.
                            I have spent my fair share
                                                              of crying
                                                   of drinking
                                                          of hating
                                                               Hating me
                                                 Hating my family
                                    Hating my decisions
                   but I can see the finish line
        There is just one more leap
             but it is my biggest.
                   Apologizing and forgiving
                                    I hope that one day
                                   soon
                                    I can do just that.
                      But until then,
I will take a water break.
Okay, this was too fun.
I just want to say: Mom, I am sorry for all the hell I have put you through and the hell that I will put you through. I love you so much.
Jason, I want to forgive, but I will never forget what has happened. I hope we can still be friends. I will never be your daughter again though. Too much has happened. But I want you walking down the isle with me. I want you to meet my boyfriend, be a grandpa and be like a dad. What you did was not being a dad. That was a monster and I know you are better than that.
Okay, now that that is over (urg) the prompt was Trails and Paths. Think about trails and paths, real and/or imagined that you have traveled or would like to travel. Imagine those trails that loom large – the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trail, the Camino, and imagine those that loom close and personal – a path to recovery, a path to a career goal, a path to a poem, a path toward…whatever we all take paths toward. Write a poem. If you’d like a parameter, make your poem look path-like – a few words on each line perhaps; a long, skinny poem perhaps; playing with spacing

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