It’s a ghost in the night that keeps me awake
with whispering, muttering, sighing,
and nudges in my poetic ribs.
It pokes me with imagery
and ties me up in allegory
until I reach for notebook and pen.
It’s a ghost in the early morning, a wisp
of verse draped across my aching neck,
a metaphoric albatross
checking rhymes, ensuring
enjambment and caesura make
sense, without a syntactical break.
By dawn, it’s drifted into early sunlight
with the spectral grey remains of night.
Kim M. Russell, 29th April 2024
Image by Paul Carroll on Unsplash
It’s day twenty-nine, the penultimate day of Na/GloPoWriMo and, at NaPoWriMo the optional prompt is Taylor Swift based. Not my musical cup of tea, but I’ll give it a go. In recognition of her new double album, Merriam-Webster put together a list of ten words from Taylor Swift songs. The challenge is to select one these words and write a poem that uses the word as its title. I chose ‘albatross’ and rewrote an old poem.
And… this is simply wonderful Kim. The parts about allegory and cesurae 🙃 made me smile.
Wonderful poem. Thanks
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Thank you, Selma, I’m delighted you like it!
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enjambment and caesura. 😉
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Love this!
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Thank you, KIm!
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I like it Kim. ”keeps me awake” beginning made me think of it hogging you our of your bed.
..
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Thank you, Jim!
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A poetic curse well captured.
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Thanks so much, Ken.
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