Posts from — April 2009

That‘s how it looked like when I finished the Poem a Day Challenge 2009 - with a netbook in front of my tent at the medieval market…

Finishing the Poem a Day challenge 2009

And here I am completely distressed by writing the sestina….

Writing the Sestina

I published my poem about an object at the Poem a Day Challenge. Some actually asked what it is all about! To give you a clue, this is the shop where I got it: http://www.babeland.com/! And yes, the story is actually true…

And here is the poem:

The last present

you made this last present
without even knowing
from the money
you gave me
for the journey back home

I got it in a side street
in Manhattan
pink and glittery
buzzing and twirling
it’s a delight

I tried it the same night
in my lonely hotel room
it is a replacement for you by any means
just the conversation
is unsatisfying

Caused by D. - inspired by T.

Oh boy, oh boy… Yesterday I was wondering if this challenge does change my style of writing - now I have the answer. For todays challenge “Routine” I wrote a poem about a Crime Scene Cleaner!! I had watched a documentary about this I-don’t-want-this-work-for-anything-in-the-world-job several weeks ago on TV and always thought I have to do something with this. And now I did - the most distgusting, more than gross poem I have ever written! I am not even sure if I am proud of it, but at least I have broadened my writing…

Is it just me or this the way such a challenge works? I can definitely feel a change in my writing after this first week. I put more thoughts into the poems and start constructing them. Before that I merely wrote them down as they came up in my head. I don’t know yet if that change is a good thing, and I neither can assess if my poems are becoming better now. But I have fun and will get on with the challenge. I am really keen on experience where it will take me! Maybe I should participate in the novel challenge in November, hmmmm.

I found
the way back
the pond
is still there
deserted

empty trees
no flowers
but nonetheless
my pond

have to take care
of it
and I am sure
soon it will be
beautiful again
here

© Julia Nickel

As Julia is currently away on a role playing convention we took over and wrote the daily poem for her – of course in guinea pig-ish! Read it at the Poem a day-challenge…

Greetings,
Holmes & Watson

I did it, I did it! Of course, its far from being perfect, but I had to get “moon dance” out of my head…

Moon dance in the night
every night the same route -
on a changed night

It’s only the second day of the Poetry challenge, but I can feel my creative juices flowing as they haven’t done for a long time - at least poetry wise. Normally my poems are a bit of a by-product. I might have a word or even a line in my head and simply start writing. That’s how I have done it for the last 20 or more years. The last prompts for poetry I had back in high school – and at that time of course in German. But I seem to need this kind of challenge as I can feel more and more word rising up within me – all in English. That’s the poem I wrote last night – outside the challenge (and how adequate that todays challenge was “outsider”):

I am sorry
for some of the things
I said
for some
I am not

still
I don’t regret anything
that I said
that I did

I was
No, I am
true
to myself
and that’s
what counts
in the end.

Ok, I will take this challenge: One poem per day through the whole of April!
The ONLY problem is I will be away for a medieval/renaissance fair from the 25th of April. This means: hardly any chance to use a mobile phone (mainly for the lack of power to recharge it, but it looks weird, too) and no internet connection or even a computer.

After losing a night’s sleep I found a solution to this: a friend will text me the daily writing prompt so I can at least write the poem – where is my quill? And on the 30th I will drive to an internet café 6 miles away and upload these last missing poems – of course in my medieval clothes (see pic).

I promise to put a picture of this “event” in this blog!