NaPoWriMo

Poetry written for NaPoWriMo month

  • NaPoWriMo,  Writing

    When Midnight Comes

    (a nonet form poem…for you dad.)

    I thought we’d have more time together
    but the minutes felt like seconds
    as they slipped from my fingers
    stealing your presence from
    tomorrow’s memory
    with each bitter
    Tick…Tick…Tick
    of death’s
    clock

  • NaPoWriMo,  Writing

    Water

    Whoever said blood is thicker than water
    obviously didn’t know my dad.
    I was only three months old when he cast genes aside
    and chose to be my father

    It was love at first sight he used to say
    Not with the 20-year-old divorcee he found dining alone
    the woman I call mom
    but with the infant bound and sleeping silently beside her
    unaware of the father she didn’t know or the one she was about to.

    My dad fell in love that day with a child that wasn’t his
    He fell in love with me
    And even when a sister came later who shared his DNA
    our bond ran fathoms deep
    His fatherly ocean seeping into every crack and fissure of my life
    in a way blood never could.

    My veins bleed the crystal clarity of his love
    Rivers of calm, sparkling pride I now pour into my own daughter
    A daughter I too chose

    And yes…

    it was love at first sight

  • NaPoWriMo,  Writing

    Life in Winter

    I’m late to the NaPoWriMo party due to a bad fibro/depression double whammy that hit last week. Finally crawling out of it no so here’s my first poem for this’ year’s event. I gave the Blitz form a try (50 lines with strict rules about repeating words) and was quite blown away by both the simplicity and the depth. I haven’t checked any of the prompts, so this one is all me. tomorrow, maybe I’ll follow the prompt…maybe.

    Life in Winter
    Watching tv
    Watching life
    Life faded
    Life unlived
    Unlived dreams
    Unlived joy
    Joy fleeting
    Joy denied
    Denied connections
    Denied purpose
    Purpose unfulfilled
    Purpose lost at sea
    Sea of waves
    Sea like storms
    Storm battered ships
    Storm easing sleep
    Sleep like babies
    Sleep like thunder
    Thunder shaking souls
    Thunder calling heaven
    Heaven answers
    Heaven accepts you
    You, in queue
    You still waiting
    Waiting on dreams
    Waiting for the camper
    Camper bought, then sold
    Camper never used
    Used tissues
    Used prayers
    Prayers for a miracle
    Prayers unanswered
    Unanswered call
    Unanswered goodbye
    Goodbye too soon
    Goodbye, Dad
    Dad fought, lost
    Dad now flying
    Flying the coastline
    Flying kites
    Kites with strings
    Kites tied to fingers
    Fingers touching yours
    Finger growing cold
    Cold seeping in
    Cold like winter
    Winter claims the dead
    Winter freezing hearts
    Dead
    Heart

     

  • NaPoWriMo,  Writing

    And Death Derailed Her

    When I decided to create this website almost a year ago I didn’t realize the amount of work it would be to bring my wild vision to life.  What I thought would take only days quickly became weeks then months of research and educating myself on how to build a professional-ish WordPress website.

    I ignored much of the worn advice that literally everyone with a writer’s blog seemed hellbent to regurgitate ad nauseum in posts like “The Holy Mother Effing Grail of Creating a Freelance Writer’s Website – Niche up!” Instead I threw caution to wind declaring “screw the mandatory niche, all you blogging Karens!” and dove in head first.

    After months of blood, sweat and tears I finally launched in early August. And for a short while, I was excited. Beyond excited actually because, for the first time ever, I had a purpose and a plan!   

    If only I had known all that hard work would be so easily derailed thanks to a pulled back muscle, a trip to the ER, and a single phone call that haunts me still.

    Pooh, they found something in my xray…”

    I lost interest in writing after that call.  Everything just felt pointless and trivial once my dad had been given an expiration date thanks to stage 4 pancreatic cancer that had metastasized to his liver.

    He died December 6th, 2021.  Part of me died that day as well. 

    I now know that the cancer wasn’t just suddenly there overnight, but had probably always been there, living twisted and hidden in dad’s DNA like a ticking time bomb, watching, waiting for that perfect moment to show itself when the emotional fallout would have the greatest impact on all of us. It waited quietly through his early years serving as a Navy Frogman. It sat silent through his knee replacements and countless dermatological skin lesion removals and even waited through a quintuple heart bypass surgery in the 2008.

    It waited patiently through covid and the entire year he and my stepmom lived in hyper isolation from the world to stay safe and healthy.

    What it ultimately waited for was the camper – the one purchased in May to celebrate receiving their 2nd vaccine doses and their all clear to start living again.  The camper they finally stopped dreaming about and made a reality to fulfill their lifelong dream of travelling the country together during their twilight years.

    They never got to use that camper.

    You might think I’d be angry at the disease for taking dad from us. But truthfully, jokes on the cancer.  It finally chose to pounce when people all over the world weren’t just getting sick. They were dying en masse and they were doing it alone – separated from family, forced to spend their final days in isolation with nothing but the hiss of a ventilator to keep them company until the world dimmed and they could no longer hear its voice.

    No, I’m not angry at cancer.  How could I be?! That malignant beast, with all its putrid intentions, was a blessing in disguise and the war it waged against my family became the greatest gift we never knew we would someday need…

    …the gift of knowing that every moment spent together would be the last of its kind.

    And the gift of goodbye. 

    I feel like I still have so much to say about my father. I’ve been mourning for almost 4 months, but I still hurt like the loss was yesterday.  I cry every day and still have moments where it doesn’t seem real.  I feel like I’ve been drowning for months and I’ve grown so tired trying to reach the surface. 

    My dad’s last words to me were “You’ll be a success, Pooh.  Just keep writing.”

    And so I will. 

    I read yesterday about NaPoWriMo and thought this might be a good way to not only jump back in, but do it with a focused theme.  I need to purge before I can heal so for 30 days I’m going to try and write poetry for dad. I hope I can do it. For him. We’ll see how long it lasts.

    Wish me luck.