Too many times you disregard the missing element–
yes, you know it exists–
but you don’t care—and so you refuse the idea of death,
deny that any element exists that is universal. You
feel you can ignore as pointless any mention of death–besides, the Universal
bores you–and you retreat into your tiny world without a care.
I’ve tried to combine two prompts here–the NaPoWriMo prompt was to rewrite a poem with opposite words, and I promised Muri I would attempt some of her April nonce poem forms. Since I needed to choose one with a poem to make opposite, I decided to work with David Bogomolny’s Intersperse, from the project he and Sangeetha have been doing, inventing new poetic forms. Below is his original poem.
I for one wonder about the point–
No that’s not true;
Good grief…How I wish Man’s life
Had a true point of its own–That one
Need not devise for life a purpose of his own
making to avert great grief.
I had trouble with both the opposites, and making the form flow. But I decided to stop revising it and just post it. It’s late and I’ve still got a lot to get done this evening.
K. 
I don’t know the ‘nonce’ form. I can’t help thinking that the name is unfortunate though.
The point is a good one. Too little thinking that embraces the whole, too much navel-gazing, making everything about ‘me’.
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“Nonce” is the name for a made-up poetry form–although even the sonnet was originally made up by someone–so perhaps it means modern as well. Not sure where the name came from–but I agree, not that appealing.
I’m so tired of everyone’s self-centered whining. Not that I’m never guilty of it, but at least I try to tone it down. Now that Trump has gotten himself back into the headlines, the chorus from him and his followers is deafening.
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They should definitely think about changing that name if it’s a modern invention.
I am just sick to the teeth of Trump, that distasteful cretin Dylan Mulvaney, Disney characters, celebrities I’ve never heard of, speeches (sic) by US congressmen I’ve never heard of filling every inch of my social media feed. I don’t care, don’t want to know, and you get a higher level of intellectual debate from a bunch of oysters.
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Oysters are much more intelligent.
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Very likely.
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Much different from your usual style of shorter lines–but a portal image. 🙂
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It is. Not a bad thing to do something different. I’m trying to be more open-minded this year about the prompts.
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I agree, it’s good to try new things.
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I like both poems, Kerfe. It’s hard to keep this up, I know.
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Thanks Colleen. David’s words are always thoughtful. Today I was a little less frantic. Not sure why. But who knows what tomorrow will bring?
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I think you did a great job!
It is good to try something different.
I will attempt Val’s prompts a bit later, when hopefully NaPoWriMo poems will flow more easily.
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Thanks Punam. I hope to get to some more. I’m always looking to combine prompts.
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You are welcome, Kerfe.
Combining prompts leads to very interesting poetry. I too try to do that.
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It does.
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I think this is a wonderful co-mingling of the 2 prompts! The word nonce means a one time use which is the original meaning. In the UK, in modern times, N.O.N.C.E. has come to refer to a person serving time as a pedophile or other criminal deviant. The acronym for “not on normal courtyard exercise” entered the mainstream and now it seems people only know the new meaning instead of the original…a sad state of affairs.
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The original meaning doesn’t fit the idea of an invented form either, at least not to my mind. I know it as “for the nonce” meaning for the moment. But that has nothing to do with inventiveness or form or words either.
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