The Poet and her Pen

Her mind is a cauldron of chaos,
her own doggerel has made her vomit, 
the bitter taste thick on her tongue -  
some words give her indigestion.
Vincent must have felt the same
painting a starry night in Saint-Remy.
But she loves the fruity fragrance of words
that fly in her mind like a sunny day.
She sees them falling into aerobatics,
like flocks of birds delighting in the sky,
clapping their wings in applause
as they descend into stanzas,
oscillating until they are satisfied.
Whenever she writes poetry, leaves 
fall, brittle and brown, swirling down
until she can’t see the wood for trees,
and her handwriting is on the huh,
a scribble in autumn air – she wishes
every day was autumn and embraces
mist and fog, the great camouflages.
The distant smudge of poetry turns 
into a puff of grey and white feathers 
and everything swirls earthward,
to be grounded by hard pen on paper, 
and the poet jumps up and dances,
fast and furious. She will be dancing
until she shakes off every poem she will
ever write into an anthology of shimmies.
And yet, these unfermented verses
must rest in the Weingut of her mind,
until the sediment has settled still, 
imagery adjusts brightness and volume,
and a feather becomes a taming quill.

Kim M. Russell, 8th April 2023

Image by Julian Hanslmaier on Unsplash

It’s Day Eight of NaPoWriMo and the optional prompt has us working hard, ‘really pushes you to use specific details, and to work on “conducting” the poem as it grows, instead of trying to force the poem to be one thing or another in particular’. It’s called the ‘Twenty Little Poetry Projects’ and was originally developed by Jim Simmerman. The challenge is to use all of the twenty little projects in one poem:

1.  Begin the poem with a metaphor.

2. Say something specific but utterly preposterous.

3. Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem.

4. Use one example of synesthesia (mixing the senses).

5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.

6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.

7. Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.

8. Use a word (slang?) you’ve never seen in a poem.

9. Use an example of false cause-effect logic.

10. Use a piece of talk you’ve actually heard (preferably in dialect and/or which you don’t understand).

11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: “The (adjective) (concrete noun) of (abstract noun) . . .”

12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative qualities.

13. Make the persona or character in the poem do something he or she could not do in “real life.”

14. Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.

15. Write in the future tense, such that part of the poem seems to be a prediction.

16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.

17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.

18. Use a phrase from a language other than English.

19. Make a non-human object say or do something human (personification).

20. Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but that “echoes” an image from earlier in the poem.

N.B. ‘On the huh’ is Norfolk dialect and means not straight or wonky, and ‘Weingut’ is German for a winery.

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37 thoughts on “The Poet and her Pen”

  3. Kim, wow: “she loves the fruity fragrance of words that fly in her mind like a sunny day.”

    “like flocks of birds delighting in the sky,
    clapping their wings in applause
    as they descend into stanzas,
    oscillating until they are satisfied.”

    “will be dancing until she shakes off every poem she will ever write into an anthology of shimmies.”

    “ a feather becomes a taming quill.”

    What glorious imagery you included. You sure don’t need to tame the quill. Your quill writes beautiful words. Thanks for sharing them with me. Xoxo

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  4. This is an interesting prompt. You conducted it so well. Your imagery is wonderful, and I love the closing lines. Your quill has sparks in it today. Smiles.

    Liked by 1 person

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  6. Pingback: The Poet and her Pen – Fulton the author’s blog

  10. It was so fun to read what you did with this challenge. I tried it and found it to be a moving puzzle.
    I really enjoyed reading your poem. I was especially drawn to these words,
    “She will be dancing
    until she shakes off every poem she will
    ever write into an anthology of shimmies.”
    Not surprised since I love to dance.

    Liked by 1 person

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  11. Brilliant, Kim!! I loved your writer, when she started with Van Gogh my interest was at high, “Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy in southern France when he painted The Starry Night.” We stayed in St. Remy for a week back in 2006, spent over half a day at the asylum grounds overlooking his famed orchard, have a picture that I took on my other blog (same URL as my poetry blog minus the “6”). My orchard photo even caught the little mountain he painted behind the orchard maybe three miles away. On my few posts I’ve also posted his painting. We spent another afternoon over in the area where the mountain is.
    You could drive there in a day going through the Chunnel. It took a lazy day for us in a car we rented in Milan.
    Cheers,
    ..

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Thanks so much Jim for your detailed response to my poem! I’ve loved van Gogh since I was a child, visited the museum in Amsterdam, but never Saint Remy, where I would love to go one day.

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  13. “But she loves the fruity fragrance of words”
    and she dances joyously and creates an anthology of shimmies…
    I LOVED it when you read it for OLN LIVE today…and I love it even more readining it!
    Just makes me smile 🙂 THANK YOU, my friend across the pond!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Have a great trip, Lill! It’s a shame you aren’t coming up to Norfolk. You would love Norwich and the north Norfolk seaside towns, such as Cromer, Wells, Cley and Blakeney.

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  14. Busy challenge, you made it seem pretty effortless in response except for those first few lines. (Ick.) I’ll fault the challenge for that, because the poem gets quickly out of the mud into a lilting reflection on how poems come to be. Last line is peaches.

    Liked by 1 person

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  16. Brilliantly done, Kim. So many wonderful lines.
    I agree with Brendan about the first few lines–maybe not quite as strongly 😉– they’re visceral, for sure, but when you get to
    “But she loves the fruity fragrance of words
    that fly in her mind like a sunny day.” I really went, “oh!”

    It was great to hear you read this. I hope you’re feeling better.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Thanks Merril. I treat all poems I write for prompts as drafts, so I’m come back to it later and do something with those opening lines.

      I might have to see the doctor again about my cough, which is still bad, although I am feeling better than I did a week ago. Thank you for your kind thoughts.

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  17. Pingback: The Poet Gives Up – writing in north norfolk

  19. Whoa – you set the bar very high! I salute your skill and also that swirling cauldron of chaos that eases into flow and feather frond. You might love the dance/movement meditation practices such as 5-Rhythms – groups in Norwich I believe?

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