Category — Poem a day Challenge 2009

This is one of my poems from the Poem a Day Challenge 2009, the writing prompt was “landmark”:

Siebengebirge

The last hills along the Rhine
before the land flattens down
one were the hero fought the dragon
one were the government quarter their guests
on the highest one you find the best onion tart
and the small one in the north
looks like a bread cut open

Many narrow paths
lead through the forest
hornet and bee
boar and deer
just behind my house
just up the street

The last hills along the Rhine
before the land flattens down
many poets have described them
many painters have portrayed them
but to my heart the sight of those hills
mean only one thing

home

© Julia Nickel

View of the Siebengebirge © 2007, Julia Nickel

The naming sounds as if there were seven hills, but actually it comes from “siefen”, which means raining a lot - and I can tell you, yes, it does!

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.

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

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!