The Light
However I dismiss the light
as white concrete
or the sun as a still-standing cube,
now here’s something to be unconcerned about,
absolutely.
(Including humans…)
Aircraft
In the beginning,
it was so much more
than the girl’s real biplane
beneath the distant desert,
where you ran with me.
And we stood up
to ignore them departing,
their black stumble proud
with achromatic darkness,
the early moon
silvering the stillness
that dragged them down,
your aircraft leaving
without their emptiness of despair.
Kim M. Russell, 3rd April 2023
Image by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash
NaPoWriMo Day three has us writing ‘opposite’ poems.
Firstly, find short-ish poems that we like.
Then rewrite each line, replacing each word (or as many words as we can) with words that mean the opposite. For example, turning “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” to “I won’t contrast you with a winter’s night”.
Finally, the first draft may need a little polishing.
This is a fun way to respond to a poem, while learning how that poem’s rhetorical strategies really work.
I have chosen two poems by Carol Ann Duffy, one of my favourite poets: ‘The Dark’ and ‘Ship’.
writing in north norfolk 
you make this seem easy
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Not so easy. I think I need to work on them.
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Very nice! An interesting prompt!
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The prompts for yesterday and today were both quite time-consuming, which can limit the length and quality of a poem. But then, the poems we post are usually first drafts. I tend to go back to them at a later date and they become something different all on their own!
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The first one is brilliant.
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Thanks Marilyn!
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Very well done, Kim!
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Thank you, Punam! It’s this kind of poem that I will return to and hopefully turn into something else.
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You are welcome. Yes, I think most of the poems we write this month, will need a relook and maybe a rewrite later.
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This was such a fun prompt to do. Loved your contributions!!
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Thanks Brian!
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Lovely work, Kim!
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Thank you!
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You did well, Kim. I especially like the second poem.
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Thank you Sherry. I hope to come back to them later and do some more work on them.
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Your poems arrived just when I was preparing dinner. Read and fell for them instantly. But then wanted to read the original before replying.
Thanks for introducing me to Carol Ann Duffy.
And yours are splendid. To me they read like edited pieces.
The first one is adorable. Switched aliens for humans. Hehe it’s a fact. A sad one.
And the second: well the second. Yes! All of it. Thanks, Kim. Lovely. Blessings.
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It’s early morning here, Selma, and your lovely comment has given me a boost and a great start to my day! Thank you so much!
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Hope they lasted for you all day. I. So glad to have helped somehow. Blessings on the rest of your day. Mine is coming to an end. Wish I did t need to sleep so I could read more poetry. Do it for me, please.
📚 💗 thanks, Kim
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