Monday, April 1, 2013

NaPoWriMo! 
Or, to put it in less confusing terms, National Poetry Writers Month.

I am not a writer or a poet except that I write sometimes and sometimes I write things that could be a poem if you are being generous. But, today I will try to use a prompt!

"write a poem that has the same first line as another poem"

Rather than overthink it, I will choose a random first line from my shelf. And the winner is...

What name do I have for you?
(first line of "Just Walking Around" by John Ashbery.)
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What name do I have for you?

You are the nameless one; we call you by all names.
I call you mother, mama, mommy. Or father, daddy, grandpa.
You are my dearest friend and my beloved. You
Are the stranger who knows my deepest secrets.

Sometimes I call you in wordless cries, with tears and moaning.
Or, in silence, in stillness.
Your name is in the wind.
In the call of the whippoorwill, the red-winged blackbird.

Your name is the purring of the cat.
Your name is the shriek of the owl at night.
Your name cannot be voiced; your voice cannot be named.
The name I have for you comes to me clearly only in dreams.

You are eternity.

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