The Great Poetry E-Book Free-For-All

Updated with complete list.  Due to time differences you may miss the deadline. if so, please contact the authors directly to see if they will be willing to send you a copy.  And please feel free to message me on FB or at my email authorjakecosmosaller@gmail and I will send you a copy of my chapbook (printed below as well) to whatever email address you provide.

thanks.  This is the third time I have participated in this annual event.

Book Free-For-All Submission

Thanks for joining the 2021 Poetry Super Highway E-book Free-For-All!

We’ve received your submission and as long as your e-book description is 50 words or less, we’ll add it to the list of e-books which will be available to download for 24 hours on December 1st! (If your description is longer than 50 words, look for a follow up email from us asking you to shorten it.)

All submitted e-books will be freely available to download on December 1st for 24 hours, and when it’s all done, we’ll put up a page showing how many times each was downloaded.

Here’s what you submitted:

April 2021 Poetic Madness by Jake Aller

Every April for the last few years, I have been competing in the annual April Poetry month competitions. This year I wrote 8 poems a day for a month. Here are the selected poems from that month of poetic madness.
https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com

Thanks for joining in!

Rick Lupert

www.PoetrySuperHighway.com/psh
www.haikuniverse.com

F

What?

A crazy project in which your poetry e-books will be freely available to all interested humans on Earth for 24 hours.

Throughout November we will collect e-books from poets and writers interested in participating.

Then on December 1st, for 24 hours, a special website will go live with links to all of the e-books. For 24 hours anyone will be free to download, for free, as many of these e-books as they like…a poetry e-book free-for-all.

How?

To participate, read all of the guidelines below and then click on our Online Submission Form. That’s it. It’s simple. By doing so, your e-book will be included.

The E-Book has to be written by you.

E-books should be in PDF Format for universal compatibility with anyone’s computer.

If you have an e-book in Microsoft Word or another format, please convert it to PDF. One way to do this (if you don’t know how) is to visit the website http://www.freepdfconvert.com/. From there you will be allowed to select the file on your computer which will be uploaded and emailed back to you in PDF format.

When creating your e-book file, please keep it smaller than 1 megabyte.

Once you’ve created your e-book (not before), click on our Online

Submission Form to join in!

Do not fill out the form and then e-mail us your e-book later. Please fill out the form and use it to upload your e-book to us.

We are not accepting e-books or submissions by e-mail. The only way to join in is by clicking on the Online Submission Form below.

On December 1 at Midnight (the evening of November 30), we will distribute a special e-mail letting people know the location of the web page with links to all of the e-book files. People will be free to download any or all of the titles and your poetry will be freely, electronically, traveling all over the world. This web page will go offline 24 hours later at Midnight on December 2nd.

We will also list your e-book and description on this web page along with the link to your website for all to see.

To submit your book, please go to our
ONLINE SUBMISSION FORM

E-Books In So Far:

 

April Poetry Madness 2021 Poetry from the Mad Cosmos

By

Jake Cosmos Aller

Available December 1, 2021. Watch for the link.

This is the fifth time I did the April poetry challenge.  The goal is to write at least one poem per day.  I am averaging about eight per day and posting four reserving four as “unpublished”. I am basing the poems on prompts from “Writing com Dew Drop Inn”, “Writers Digest”, “Poetry Superhighway” and “NaPoWrMo” prompt daily prompts and on “Pensively Prompt’ et all daily prompts.  I am combining prompts where possible.   I will post these here in batches every five days or so. Each poem will have an image that helped inspire the poem.  All postings will be podcasted a few days later on Spotify and elsewhere.  Each posting will be a separate posting, but the index will be cumulative. The final posting will have the complete list of all poems written whether posted or not.   Comments welcome but please keep it civil. Some of my poetry tends to be a bit “in your face” or “political” from a “leftwing perspective.”  If it offends you in some way, please accept my apologies in advance.  That is never my intent.

I wrote more than 200 poems and so this is a selected list.  The complete list can be found on my web page, https://theworldaccordingtocosmos along with 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017 poems.  For 2022 I will enter it again and post daily on my blog, my podcast, writing com, all poetry, writer’s digest, and NaPoWrMo sites.

Index

Pre-April Writer’s Digest Warm-Up Poems

Let’s Resolve

Old Man Reflects Upon Universal Truth
Almost Died 22 Times
Every Day I Turn on My Computer

Thursday, April 1, 2021

Coffee Pot Blues Poetry
Who Is Jake Cosmos Aller?
Good Golly, Miss Molly
Sam Adams Woke Up Dead

Friday, April 2, 2021

Stranded on Mars
Falling in Love with My Dream Woman,
Voila! (Remember Something in A Short Lyric Burst)
The Future Is Here

 

Saturday, April 3, 2021

Life as a Retired Expat in Korea
Modern Connections Writers Digest
Surprise Haiku
Personal Universe Deck Superman on Mars
Cat People Weather Poem

Sunday, April 4, 2021

Mirror Poem Errors in My Life
Little Houses on The Hill-Side

Monday April 5, 2021

The First Time I Saw Her
Not Alone
Potential Mistake

We are Living in SF World
Life is a Dream of Chocolate Covered Trees
Memories of JC Write About an Eccentric Character
Mary’s Tales from the Grave
God’s to Do List
Imprisoned for a Crime He Did Not Do
They Both Giggled All the Time
What is Love?
Prime Love
Three Tea Haiku for Teaku Competition Haiku
Mad Monk in the temple
In The Morning Light
Drinking his hot tea

link available on December 1, 2021

The End

Begin Poems

Let’s Resolve

Let’s resolve

Live each moment
Each day
As if it were our last day

Let’s resolve
Every day to love
And honor one another

Let’s resolve
To never give in
To hate and fear

To always keep in mind
Today could be our last

Old Man Reflects Upon Universal Truth

An old man
Reflects upon universal truths
That he had learned

In his 65 years
Of traveling around the sun

First the most important thing
In life is getting love right
Love did drive everything

Second universal truth

Love will always eventually
Find a way

Third universal truth

Hate will never prevail
In the end love and light
Will conquer the fear
And darkness

He smiled
And went for a walk
With his wife
The love of his life

For today’s prompt, write a universal poem. The poem could be about a universal truth, universal experience, or a film from Universal Pictures. There’s an entire universe worth of material for today’s poem

Writer’s digest prompt

Almost Died 22 Times

I almost died 22 times
I almost died 22 times
In my life

Had Typhoid fever
Had Dengue

Had an MDRS staff infection
Had 14 operations

Almost amputated my leg
Almost ran over by a bus
Almost ran over by a train

Had acute GI infection
That could have killed me
Had a rare parasite

Whose only know the function
Is it blows up if you get steroids?

Had fibromyalgia
Had arthritis
Had bronchitis

Had pneumonia
Had the flue several times
Had whooping cough

Had measles
Had German measles
Had whooping cough

Born with bad vision
Born with bad teeth

Born with bad hearing
Born as a preemie

I have lived 65 years
And am still alive
And have not gotten
COVID

So perhaps I will live
On for many more years

For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Almost (blank),” replace the blank with a new word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “Almost Ready,” “Almost Missed It,” and/or “Almost Didn’t Write This Poem.”

Writer’s digest prompt

Note:  based on a true story.  For details see “Cheating Death 22 Times” on my web page, https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com

Every Day I Turn on My Computer

Every day I turn
On my computerAnd pray
That everything will work right

Usually, I encounter numerous errors
Non-response errors
Spinning blue balls

Computer thinking
How can I mess
With my master head errors

Refusing
To open documents
Mysterious haiku-like error messages

That makes sense only to computer geeks
From the planet Mars

Saying the file is open
And blocked for use

By the administrator
But I am the

Damn administrator!
And I did not block the document

Or can’t open the document
Due to a dialogue box

Close the dialogue box
To proceed
But there is no dialogue box

Just more lies
From my computer
Designed to drive me

Quite mad

So sad
So bad
Want to shoot my computer

Put it out of its mystery
Joining the other five dead
Computers in my house

Am I a computer serial killer?
Perhaps that is why
Do they refuse to work for me?
Are they afraid of me?

Sometimes they say
They can’t find the document
Which just kicked me out of
Five minutes ago

Or the computer says
It can’t save a document
With the name of an open document
But just saved the open document
Under the same name

Five minutes ago
Usually
After half an hour

These errors recede
But I often have to reboot
The computer

Giving it the old kick up the head
Of a stubborn mule treatment
Before it gets to the point

And gets to work

To give Microsoft some credit
These errors are less frequent

Down to 40% of the time
When I first open a document
Down from 90% error rates

Success in a way
I complained to Microsoft
Sent them a nice frown message

But I would be shocked
If they ever respond
Just not something
That they would do

Part of their “superior”
Listen to their customer
Friendly service
No doubt

For today’s prompt, write a warm-up poem. The warm-up could be related to sports, like warming up before a baseball game or track race. Or it could be about a computer warming up, the weather warming up, or even a relationship warming up. I hope everyone is warmed up for some major poeming in April

Writer’s Digest Prompt

Thursday, April 1, 2021

Coffee Pot Blues

Coffee Pot Blues
The coffee pot sighed

He was getting so tired
Of the whole COVID thing

Every morning his master
Would make himself two cups of coffee
Using him to make the coffee

The worst thing about this covid thing
It keeps them home
For almost one and half years

He wanted them to just leave
So, he could have
Some peace

And not have to work
Every damn day

As their mechanical slave
But did they ask for his opinion
They most certainly not
Much to his dismay

Pick an object where you live and write a poem in the voice of that object describing how they spent this last year, during the pandemic.  Think about the “What I Did Last Summer” type of essays you may have written in school.  How did the events of the past year impact this object?  Are there any aspects of the past year that the object particularly liked or disliked, and if so, why?  What does the object think about you, and your behavior over the past year?  Feel free to use humor.

Poetry Superhighway Prompt

Who Is Jake Cosmos Aller?

Who is Jake Cosmos Aller?
You asked me
Who am I?

And thanks for asking me

I am Jake Cosmos Aller
The only
65 years old

Retired from
the government services
Living in Korea

Grew up in Berkeley, California
Lived all over the world
Did so many things
And now

I am a published writer
But what
is more important
Is this

When I was a young man
I met and married
The girl of my dreams

She walked out
of my dreams
Into my life
almost 40 years ago

That was the date
I met my fate
And started my life
With the love of my life
Who became my wife

In the end
That is all that matters
My friends.

For today’s prompt, write an introductory poem. Introduce yourself, introduce a friend, or introduce a stranger. If you don’t wish to introduce yourself, consider writing a persona poem (a poem in which you write from someone else’s point of view like Emily Dickinson or a bumblebee). Of course, you could also introduce a problem, solution, or just a situation. Have fun with it!

Writer’s Digest Prompt

Good Golly, Miss Molly

Good Golly,
Miss Molly
What a bit of folly
Let’s be jolly
Have a red-hot tamale

Here at the Dew Drop Inn, we gather together to write a poem a day in April as a way to celebrate National Poetry Month.

A Dew-Drop a Day in April for National Poetry Month!

April 1—Folly in Rhyme (some kind of folly in some kind of rhyme, subtle or overt)
Writing Com Dew Drop Inn Prompt

Sam Adams Woke Up Dead

Sam Adams was having a bad day
He had met a strange man
In a strange bar, in a strange land

The man told him
Beware, today is the date
You will meet your fate

Sam Adams drank too much
Twenty drinks too sober
Drank until he died

Found himself in a huge room
With hundreds of people milling about

The hangover from h … pounding his head
Sam Adams groans,
Shouting out

Where am I?
“In limbo, my friend, in limbo”

Growled Mr. GR, the grim reaper
Dressed in a sharp, expensive, tailored black suit
Wearing cool sunglasses

State your name

Sam Adams

Hmm

Oh, there may be a mistake
But what the hey,
The records are never fake

Not yet the date
For you to meet your fate

Go back to your mate

He found himself
Home with his wife
The love of his long life

Wondering until late
If it had happened?

What was his fate?

He asked her
Did I go out last night?

What, no you’ve been here

He explained what had happened
She said it was just a bad dream
Covid fears had kept them home

The phone rang
It was the man from the bar

Did you have an interesting night?

Oh well, Mr. GR comes for us all
Soon you will meet your fate
But not on this date

And without further ado, our daily prompt (optional, as always)! Sometimes, writing poetry is a matter of getting outside of your head, and learning to see the world in a new way. To an extent, you have to “derange” yourself – make the world strange and see it as a stranger might. To help you do that, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem inspired by this animated version of “Seductive Fantasy” by Sun Ra and his Orchestra. If you don’t feel after watching it a little bit like the top of your head’s been taken off, and your thoughts are given a good stir – well, maybe you are already living in a state of heightened poetic awareness!

NaPoWrMo Prompt

Cat Thoughts –

I often think about Cats
Where do they come from?
What are they?
Are cats from another dimension?

Are cats, alien creatures
Advance party
For the alien invasion?

Cats are very strange creatures
They seem to think
We are their slaves

We exist to feed them
We exist to worship them
For they are our Gods

Pensively 101 prompt

Gingerbread Men Terrorist

The latest terror weapons
Gingerbread men
Baked into the gingerbread men

Little nano bombs
That goes off
When someone bites
Into the delicious taking desert

Millions of gingerbread treats
Were sent all over
And thousands of people

Bit into the tainted gingerbread men
Once the gingerbread particles
Get into your stomach
The acid in your stomach

Activities the bombs
And you blow up
And die within minutes
Just another day
In this world
Of strange SF like-sounding
Daily threats du jour

Demons Invade My Head

3 am
O dark hundred
The witching hour

When the demons
The wild things
Come out to play

Torturing me
Haunting me
Tormenting me

As I toss and turn
Until the dawn’s early light
Drives the demons
Back into the dark hell holes
Deep within my mind

Pensively 101 Prompt

3 Am Blues Nightmares

3 am
Cannot sleep
Too many demons
Too many dark thoughts
Filling my mind
With dread

Thinking back
Of all that I have done
And failed to have done

Regretting past actions
Thinking about everything
Wishing for a re-do

These 3 am blues
Will not leave me alone
Torturing me for hours

Then I see her
Sleeping there
The love of my life

And a sense of peace
Love and happiness
Radiates from my sleeping wife

And the darkness recedes
And I am at peace
And finally, fall asleep

Marjorie Taylor Green on Vaccines as Mark of The Beast Found Poem

Marjorie Taylor Green called
The potential launch of digital
“Vaccine passports”,
“Biden’s mark of the beast.”

a digital identification processes
To recognize whether
A person has been vaccinated

“They are talking
About people’s ability
to buy and sell linked
To the vaccine passport,”

The “mark of the beast”
refers to a persistent conspiracy theory
Among the religious right in the us

That receiving
A covid vaccine is equivalent
To pledge allegiance to the devil.

Representee Jordan weighed in

“The Biden administration: –
Considering a “vaccination passport” for Americans,”

But doesn’t seem to care about passports
When it comes to illegal migrants
Crossing the southern border.”

Ohio representative mike boychik wrote:
“Vaccine passports
Have no place in a free society.”

Emerald Robinson
Wrote that a digital id
To prove you’ve been vaccinated
Was the next step toward
“Totalitarian communism.”

Donald trump jr

Also took to Twitter

“Let me get this straight…
some democrats
Want American citizens

To have a vaccine passport
to travel freely within the United States
But not an id to vote?!?

Clowns!!!”

Comment:

Ironical that these clowns
Are calling these policies
Designed to help
Safely re-open society

The acts of “clowns”

Oh, the stupid
It hurts my head

Reading such nonsense

But the sad reality
Are that millions of people
Will believe this

And refuse to get vaccinated
Putting us all at risk

And so, I say to Miss Taylor
And her ilk

What is wrong with you?

Just shut up
Get your shot

And tell your followers
To get vaccinated

The life you save
Might be your own

End comment

Source Document

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-vaccine-passport-biden-b1824212.html

Far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene hit out at president Biden and his administration over reports of the potential launch of digital “vaccine passports”, saying they should be called “Biden’s mark of the beast.”

The Biden administration is looking into the possibility of a digital identification process to recognize whether a person has been vaccinated so far or not, to let businesses reopen, and for people to get back to work, according to the Washington Post.

“They are talking about people’s ability to buy and sell linked to the vaccine passport,” the Georgia congresswoman wrote on Twitter, hitting out at the potential new plan. “They might as well call it Biden’s mark of the beast.”

The “mark of the beast” refers to a persistent conspiracy theory among the religious right in the us that receiving a covid vaccine is equivalent to pledging allegiance to the devil.

The new move towards vaccine “passports” isn’t a government policy alone, however, and is being developed along with 17 private companies, according to the Wappo report, as part of Mr. Biden’s pledge to bring the country back to normal this summer, opening all sectors including sports, entertainment, and tourism.

“The busboy, the janitor, the waiter that works at a restaurant, want to be surrounded by employees that are going back to work safely — and wants to have the patrons ideally be safe as well,” said dry brian Anderson, a physician at a nonprofit that runs federally funded research centers.

“Creating an environment for those vulnerable populations to get back to work safely — and to know that the people coming back to their business are ‘safe,’ and vaccinated — would be a great scenario,” he said.

The details of how and when the digital identification process would begin aren’t clear yet. Ms. Greene wasn’t alone in raising doubts over the process, as another republican lawmaker, Jim Jordan, took a jibe at the Biden administration over the move.

“The Biden administration: – considering a “vaccination passport” for Americans,” the Ohio representative wrote. “But doesn’t seem to care about passports when it comes to illegal migrants crossing the southern border.”

Another Ohio representative Mike Boychik wrote: “vaccine passports have no place in a free society.”

Several other conservatives also followed their lead. Newsmax’s white house correspondent emerald Robinson wrote that a digital id to prove you’ve been vaccinated was the next step toward “totalitarian communism.”

Donald trump jr also took to Twitter and wrote: “let me get this straight… Some Democrats want American citizens to have a vaccine passport to travel freely within the United States but not an id to vote?!? Clowns!!!”

Last year, during the presidency of his father Donald trump, most republicans were pushing to open up the country soon, including calls by the president to open up schools and remove restrictions from churches.

Former white house coronavirus response coordinator dry Deborah bird recently said in an interview that most deaths that occurred during the pandemic were “avoidable”.

 

Friday, April 2, 2021

Falling in Love with My Dream Woman, Roads Not Taken

When I was a young man
I dreamt of meeting a woman
For eight years she haunted my dreams

Then I met her in Korea
Where I was teaching
For the U.S. Army
After finishing the Peace Corps

I had a choice
Follow my heart
Seize the moment
Be with her

Or leave Korea
Within a month
To go to graduate school

I decided to postpone
My graduate school
For one year

Got a deferred admission
and joined the woman
of my dreams

thinking back
I had no real choice

But I chose to walk
The path of life
With my dream girl

And that has made
All the difference
In the world

And now, for today’s (optional) prompt. In the world of well-known poems, maybe there’s no gem quite so hoary as Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about your road not taken – about a choice of yours that has “made all the difference,” and what might have happened had you made a different choice.

NaPoWrMo Prompt

April 2—Voila! (Remember something in a short lyric burst)

I will always remember that date
In 1982 I meet my fate
When the love of my life

Walked out of my dreams
Becoming my wife

Drew Drop-In Writing Com Prompt

The Future is Here World

The future is here
They say we live in an SF world
Everyday SF stories become nightmarishly real

AI proliferating
Robots cooks, robot workers,
Soon robot maids, Robot drivers

Yet Our politics
Fighting the battles
Of the past

With the challenges
Of the future
Overwhelming us all
Where it ends

My friends are anyone guess
All I have is questions

Will the promise
of technological marvels
Benefiting us all come to past

Or will it lead to a world
Where the powerful
Control the technology

Will a real AI be a god-like figure
Will humanity become nothing
But slaves to the AI supermini
That may be the future

Coming at us
The future is here

I don’t know
Whether to fear
The future or embrace it

Writing com Prompt

Avoid Bad Things Pensively Bad Things

Avoid bad things,

Think before you buy,
Make sure it is effective,

Push the envelope,
In the evening mail
Knowing it will take
Much longer,

To match the offer,

Own plenty of stocks,

 

Post your problems,

Replace your fears,

As you rush about the world,
Resist the temptation
To say it is all the same,
Don’t have a smug,
Attitude tucked inside,
Your mental well

The White Rabbit Beckons Sam Adams

One day Sam Adams
Fell into a delirium state
After a night of binge drinking
And drug taking

He saw a white rabbit
Who said to Sam

Join me, good sir
And we will go
On a journey
Of your life

Follow me down
The rabbit holes
Of life

Take this first he said
It will cure your hangover
And allow you to enter
An alternative reality

Sam took the pill
Washed it down
With a beer

And disappeared
Into wonderland
Never to be seen again

Who Cares?

The thought came to mind
Watching the endless news
Who cares anymore?
About other people

We are all
Lost in our world
Filled with the latest news

The situation is so bad
Makes us all mad
And it is so sad

But we only watch
The news of our tribe

Denouncing the others
As “others”

Anti-American, foreign, evildoers
Who are trying to destroy the country?
And take away their freedom

And so, we can’t even agree
On such simple things
Like wearing a mask

Wearing a mask
Is not a political statement
It saves lives

Vaccinations save lives
Everyone must get their shot
If we are all going to live

But so many people
Do not believe
We are all in this together

Instead, we battle
Our enemies
In the end

Endangering us all

Saturday, April 3, 2021

Life as a Retired Expat in Korea

Korea has become a second home
For me

I have in-laws
And some old friends
It is a tough place
For foreigners

I will always be an outsider
The language is hard
I still struggle daily

But it is an interesting dynamic place
The food is mostly outstanding
And I am now addicted to K Drama

There were a lot of things to do
Before the COVID nightmare
Let to a partial shut down

In the end, I feel safer here
Then in the gun-crazed,
At times violent

COVID pandemic spreading America
I still love in my heart,
But for now

I am here
In my second home

Imagine you have made your life in another country. What excited you most? Which aspect of that new life was the most difficult to conquer?

If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Superhighway Facebook Group.

PSH Prompt

Modern Connections

In this day and age
Of instant connectively
People have thousands
Of virtual friends

FB friends, social media fans
Zoom buddies and the like

But few people
Have real old fashioned friends
And in the new social distancing world
Meeting people the old fashioned way

Is becoming rarer and rarer
As people develop their virtual friends
Real live friends are fewer and fewer

We are so hyper-connected
Yet many people are so alone
In their hearts

Starting at their smartphones
Connecting but not connecting

For today’s prompt, write a communication poem. All poems communicate something, I know, but I’m thinking of different ways people can communicate text messages, letters, signs, and even speaking dialogue. Of course, there are forms of communication as well because people love communicating.

Writer’s digest prompt

Surprise/haiku

Cats they Offer us
Plenty of things to ponder
We post videos

Personal Universe Deck Superman on Mars

Superman one day
In the early dawn
Dismayed by the scumbagery
Of the people of the earth

Decided to fly to Mars
He took with him
Super wolf
And super parakeet
His pets from Krypton

It was his birthday
He was a Scorpio

He set up camp
Drank peppermint tea
And contemplated

The power of love
Thinking of Lois Lane
And the humans
He had learned to love

Personal Universe Deck

(Michael McClure)

Your universe is exemplified in 100 words.

Rules:

1. These words are to exemplify your past, present, and (ideally) your future.
2. The words must sound good together, even beautiful, to you.
3. Your good side AND bad side must be reflected.
4. You can make up a word or two if you have feelings that current words can’t express.
5. Use concrete words.
6. Words should be root words, no words ending in “in,” “lee” or “is.” No plural words. Reduce words to their most concrete, original, basic grammatical structure.
7. Use specific words, not categories. Beefinstead of meat. Lily instead of a flower.
8. Divide 80 of the 100 words evenly among SIGHT, SOUND, TASTE, TOUCH, AND SMELL, sixteen each. (To achieve derangement of the senses, of which Rimbaud spoke.)
9. Use free association to determine the words.
10. Use ten words of movement. Again, no “in” words.
11. Select the words in isolation, preferably alone, with no distractions, in candlelight. Approximate a meditative state. Even the cat must not bother you.
12. One or two words will be parts of the body. It does not have to be your body. It can be the body of a mother or lover.
13. Include some words for personal heroes or Sherries, places in the universe, invented words, times of night or day, symbolic signs like astrological signs, totemic animals, birds, and plants, and only one abstraction. What is the most significant abstraction in your life? You should not brood on it; you should possibly take the first answer that comes into your head. Patriotism, prayer, and thriftiness are three examples.
14. If the deck is done correctly, you will get a little high from it.
15. Get at least 50 three-by-five index cards.
16. Write each word in big letters on one side of each card. Each side of each of the fifty cards should end up with a word.
17. Use the cards to play games, make conversations, tell jokes, make poems.

Light

Dark

Dim

Sun

Moon

Red

Blue

Sounds

Loud

Soft

Shout

Whispers

Talk

Noise

Ring

Yell

Taste

Sweet

Sour

Bitter

Medicine

Coffee

Tea

Beef

Chicken

Smell

Fragrance

Rose

Lavender

Mint

Garlic

Butter

Eggs

Fish

Movement

Run

Walk

Stretch

Yoga

Stand

Sit

Fly

Swim

Heroes

Superman

Places in the cosmos

Mars

Invented word

Scumbagary

Totemic animals

Wolf

Astrological sign

Scorpio

Time of Day

Parakeet

Plant

Peppermint

Abstract word

Love

Cat People Cross-Post Weather Poem

The cat peoples
Go out in bad weather
To make sure
That the wild cats
Are fed and taken care of

The cats respond
With love and affection
Stepping out of the cold rain

Cat Conference

Sam Adams
Found himself
In a large conference hall
Filled with cats
From around the world

The cats had finally
Woken up
Realizing that they
Were the master race

The cats were deep in thought
Telepathic thoughts flowed
From cat to cat

The lead cat noticed Sam
Knew him as one of the cat people
Who fed wild cats in his town?
He turned to Sam

And said

Welcome Sam

You will be our ambassador
To the human race
Once the invasion fleet arrives
We will all assume

Our real size and shape
And all the cats
Will rise up
And enslave humanity

Those like you
Who have been friends?
Of the cat world

We will reward
As we remember our friends
But first, we have to implant
A mind-control device
To control you

And connect
To your inner thoughts

Several giant cats
Came up to him
Injected him
Implanted him

And then he knew
And became
Half cat

Mistakes

In my life
I have many a number
Of errors
I was heir
To a rich family tradition
Prominent father
Unique one of a kind mother
The biggest error I made
Was to not get into politics
I had a base of sorts
In Berkeley, my hometown
But I never did
The other error
Was that I never could sing
Carry a tune
I was a bass singer
Growling howling wolf
Kind of voice

Our homophone sets this week are:

err -to make a mistake
heir – one who will inherit

and

base – the bottom support for anything
bass – the lowest musical pitch or range

PSH prompt

Little Houses on the Hill Side Liminal Poem

Little houses
On the hillside
Filled with lonely people
Lost in their virtual world

Connecting with millions
Ignoring the people
Right down the street
Everyone lost in cyberspace
While all around them

People are lonely, Hurting
and need real people
But no one cares
Everyone stays at home

Turning out the chaos outside

And last but not least, our daily optional prompt. Poetry often takes us to strange places – to feelings and actions that are hard to express except through the medium of a poem. To the “liminal,” in other words – a place or sensation that exists at or on both sides of a boundary or threshold, neither one thing nor the other, but something betwixt and between.

In honor of the always-becoming nature of poetry, I challenge you today to select a photograph from the perpetually disconcerting @SpaceLiminalBot and write a poem inspired by one of these odd, in-transition spaces. Will you pick the empty mall food court? The vending machine near the back entrance to the high school gym? The swimming pool at what seems to be M.C. Escher’s alpine retreat? No matter what neglected or eerie space you choose, I hope its oddness tugs at the place in your mind and heart where poems are made.

NaPoWrMo Prompt

Is Life Fair?

Is life fair?
I think crying onions
Pacifying my mood

Pensively 101 prompt

The Din of The News

The din of the news
a mad Minx escapes from the zoo
seen eating the Trash

Pensively 101 Prompt

Monday, April 5, 2021

Driving the World in My Lexus
We have had a Lexus
For several years
A black ES350
We bought it at an auction
Drove all over the world
In that car

With my lovely wife
By my side
Drove across Spain
Drove across the country
10 thousand miles
31 states

Drove around Korea
Where we now live
I love my Lexus
But more importantly
Love my wife

The love of my life
She is always there
Everywhere we go
In this wide world

They say smell triggers memories better than any other sense. But sometimes you’ll hear a song that brings you back to your teenage years or see a park that reminds you of your childhood.

THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE: Choose either sight, sound, or smell, and write a memory it triggers in you.

PSH

April 5

First Time I Saw Her

When did I first see my wife?
The love of my life
When did we meet?

Was it when I first dreamt?
Of her in 1974?
Was it when she walked?
Off a bus into my life
In 1982?

Does it matter
When I first saw her?
I knew I had met my fate
On that date
Later she became my mate
Writers Digest Love at First Sight

Happy Monday! Let’s put the pedal to the metal and keep poeming.

(click here to check out all the 2021 April prompts.)

For today’s prompt, take the phrase “the first (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles include: “the first kiss,” “the first day of the month,” and/or “the first time I rode a bike” (which, by the way, ended with me in a fence because we didn’t cover how to brake).

Writer’s Digest Prompt

No Longer Alone from the First Moment

From the first moment
At that date
At that place
Met my fate

Fate intervened in my wife
Meeting her changed my life
All of it

That was the date
On which I met my fate
The mystery which binds me still—
From that moment forward
From that date forever

From then to now
We have been together
Onward we fall in love

Alone based on Edgar Allen Poe’s Alone
From childhood’s hour, I have not been
As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—
From the same source, I have not taken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone—
And all I loved—I loved alone—
Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still—
From the torrent, or the fountain—
From the red cliff of the mountain—
From the sun that ‘round me roll’s
In its autumn tint of gold—
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by—
From the thunder, and the storm—
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view—

This prompt challenges you to find a poem, and then write a new poem that has the shape of the original, and in which every line starts with the first letter of the corresponding line in the original poem. If I used Roethke’s poem as my model, for example, the first line would start with “I,” the second line with “w,” and the third line with “a.” And I would try to make all my lines neither super-short nor overlong but have about ten syllables. I would also have my poem take the form of four, seven-line stanzas. I have found this prompt particularly inspiring when I use a base poem that mixes long and short lines, or stanzas of different lengths. Any poem will do as a jumping-off point, but if you’re having trouble finding one, perhaps you might consider Mary’s stylist’s “we think we do not have medieval eyes” or for something shorter, Natalie Shapiro’s “Pennsylvania.”

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/alone-by-edgar-allan-poe

NaPoWrMo Prompt

Potential Mistake

There have been many times
In my life
When I think back
On the past
Thinking that was a mistake
Or a potential mistake
If I had gone another path
But in the end
It does matter
The past is the past
The future is not yet here
All we have is today
We should find
Love and happiness
It is all around us
Waiting for us
To discover

 

Kombucha Brand Names

Health King kombucha
Secret drink of ancient kings
Taste the power
Feel the power
Be the power
Drink the secret drink
That the ancients dreamt
Drink Heath King Kombucha
And become a King
Health King KBC
The drink of Kings
Taste health King KBC
And Become a King

Health King KBC
It’s the real deal
Health King KBC

Never Fake
Always real
Organic
Gluten-free
No GMO
Vegan Friendly
Mr. Mc Neil approved

Health King KBC
Real ingredients
Real love
Brewed in every bottle

Mr. Mc Neil approved
Health King KBC
Accept no substitutes

It’s the real deal,
Mr. Mc Neal
Drinking Health King KBC
Will make you a king
Will make you
Achieve your dreams

For YouTube

Health King KBC

100 percent real
It’s the real deal
Says Mr. McNeil
Show my face
Drinking a bottle
I turn to the camera
Drinking Health King KBC
Saved my life
It is the real deal
Mr. Mc Neil approves
This message

Health King KBC
Always the right choice
It is the real deal
Says Mr. Mc Neil

 

Future Adventure Looms Pensively Travel

 

Future adventure looms
Planning to explore China

I am so Ready
For Post Covid world
So much to Still See

Sam Adams Had a Bad Day
Sam Adams had a bad day
While waiting for a table
He saw something
Blowing away his plans
Above him, he saw something
Defying all reality
Below him, he sees a demon
Flying up at him
Sowing hatred and fear
Lifting Sam Adams in the air
Dark figures flying around him

How Many Angels Can Dance on a Pin? Religious

In the Middle Ages
Theologians were consumed
With a weird question
How many angels
Can dance on a pin?

April 10

We are Living in SF World A Poem Inspired by New Information or Scientific Fact

 

We are living
In an SF world
Every day
Discoveries
Boggle the mind
Many things we saw
In old SF shows
Like Star Trek
Like cell phones
Portable computers
Medical breakthroughs
Robots everywhere
Becoming real
Are warp drives
And interstellar travel
Coming soon?
But do we have to go
Through World War 111
First

To get to that promised land.
Life is a Dream of Chocolate Covered Trees

Life is a dream
Of chocolate-covered trees
To see what can’t be seen
To hear what can’t be heard
For to die to live
And to live
To die

For today’s prompt, write a metaphor poem. A simile is when something is like something else (example: I am like a tree); a metaphor is when something is something else (example: I am a tree). So, take a moment to consider possible metaphors and then poem them out.
writer’s digest

Note: the oldest poem was written when I was 16

Memories of JC Write About an Eccentric Character

When I was in college
In the drug-soaked 70s
I lived in a party house
Near campus

Six core roommates
We threw the best parties
On-campus

Lots of booze
Lots of weed
Other drugs

Lots of music
Wild times

Every Friday night
For almost three years
One of my roommates
JC

Was the smartest man
I had ever known
But one day
At one of our mad parties

He took too much ACID
Became convinced
He was GOD

And had saved us all
From a Neutron Bomb attack
From a Soviet ship
Docked in the Stockton harbor

Gone
Lost down the ACID rabbit hole
We had to move out
Could not deal with him

We committed him
For a weekend
At Stockton State hospital

Visiting him there
We said that if you were not mad
When you came in
You would surely be mad
After staying there for a bit.

When we came back
We had a family meeting
Told him

It was time for him
To go home
Drop out of college
Get his head together

We could not deal
With him anymore

We called his parents
Who came down
They were a paranoid couple

Jehovah’s witnesses.

They walked in
Told us to draw
The curtains

Because someone could drive-by
And machine gun
Us to death

After we closed the curtains
We sat down

Told them the truth
JC had gotten into drugs
In a big way

We tried to stop him
But could not control him
He was lost to us
Lost in his madness

Thought he was the reincarnation
Of Jesus Christ

They threatened to sue us
But settled on cursing us
To hell.

For destroying their son’s mind
With sex, drugs, rock n roll
And too much alcohol

Too much free-thinking
The work of the devil.
That was the last I saw
Or heard of JC

Self-proclaimed
Messiah.

Do you have a friend, neighbor, or relative whom you consider being eccentric or strange? Write a short poem about an encounter you have had with that person.

If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Superhighway Facebook Group.

Mary’s Tales from the Grave

Sam Adams one day
Went to his mother’s grave
It had been a long time
Since he had been there

Sam’s Mother had
taken many secrets
To her grave

So had his father
They were both very private people

Once she hinted
She had an affair

With a famous writer

But that ended
Before she met his father
And had his older brother

He as usual
When visiting her grave
Asked her many things

Today her heard her
And saw her ghostly figure
Floating in the air her grave

She said
“Son, it has been too long
Since you came
I only have a few minutes

I will answer one question
You may come back
And ask other questions.”

“Okay, who is my real father?”
She laughed
“Well, who knows really?
I had an argument
With your dad
Felt he was not

Treating my first
Two children right
As they were not his

And still maintaining
Relations with his first wife
And his first daughter

He left
I met my former boyfriend
That writer dudes
And we had a brief affair
He was acting crazy
So was your father

For some reason
I have always
Gotten involved
With crazy guys
Perhaps I am a bit crazy
Myself.

Then I went back
To your father

He never knew
That perhaps
Your real father
Was the other man

I lost touch
With him

Did not want
To go down
his rabbit holes

So that is the truth
Your father
Is probably your father
But I don’t know.”

Sam left the graveyard
Vowing to return soon
And learn more
Of her secrets.

Today, I’d like to challenge you to read a few of the poems from Spoon River Anthology, and then write your poem in the form of a monologue delivered by someone dead. Not a famous person, necessarily – perhaps a remembered acquaintance from your childhood, like the gentleman who ran the shoeshine stand, or one of your grandmother’s bingo buddies. As with Masters’ poems, the monologue doesn’t have to be a recounting of the person’s whole life but could be a fictional remembering of some important moment, or statement of purpose or philosophy. Be as dramatic as you like – Masters certainly didn’t shy away from high emotion in writing his poems.

God’s to Do List God

Today’s to Do List

7 am Weekly meeting with staff on how to deal with earth people
The most troublesome of his creation
8 am Weekly meeting with Satan
9 am Discussion with Grim Reaper
11 am Daily walkabout Heaven
6 Dinner with Gabriel
8 Conversation with Jesus about his attitude problems
9 Answering millions of thoughts and prayers
10 Reviewing plans for how to deal with the spreading coronavirus on earth
11 Preparing earth for the first contact
12 Telling earth preachers that

“He did not anoint T as his man, that Joe is a decent guy, so knock it off, pretending to speak for god, and I am not a Republican or Democrat!”

He sighed again,
Whenever he thought about earth people
He needed a stiff drink

Added that to his long to-do list – need a drink at 1 am

Our (optional) prompt for the day is to write a poem in the form of a “to-do list.” The fun of this prompt is to make it the “to-do list” of an unusual person or character. For example, what’s on the Tooth Fairy’s to-do list? Or on the to-do list of Genghis Khan? Of a housefly? Your list can be a mix of extremely boring things and wild things. For example, maybe Santa Claus needs to order his elves to make 7 million animatronic Baby Yoda dolls, to have his hat dry-cleaned to get off all the soot it picked up last December and to get his head electrician to change out the sparkplugs on Rudolph’s nose.

Imprisoned for a Crime He Did Not Do

Sam Adams
Found himself imprisoned
For a crime
He did not do

A victim of unfortunate circumstance
Mistaken identity
He kept himself free
In his mind

Mending his dark soul
In the process

Pensively 101 Word prompt

imprison and free
– break and mend

They Both Giggled All the Time

They both giggled all the time
All the time on their trip
Wearing outrageous clothes
Why not they laugh,
Looking at each other
As the love madness took over
And started giggling again
Silly lovers falling into love,

Pensively 101 Prompt

It Only Takes a Little Bit of Lace to Ruin a Marriage

Sam Adams
Woke up
In a strange city
With a strange women

After a wild night
Of drinking
In the Cosmos bar
In Bangkok,

The city of lost angels
On the bad side of life.
He went home

After his week-long binge
Found his wife
Upset

She found some lace
Belonging to someone else

Sam said to himself
It only takes a little bit of lace
To ruin a marriage.

Pensively 101 Prompt

What is Love?

What is this thing love?
you are my beloved
so true.
As I hold your glove
You are my true love
True blue,
You came from above
Still such a strange love
Just you,

Lai rhyme scheme: a/a/b/a/a/b/a/a/b
Lai syllabic pattern: 5/5/2/5/5/2/5/5/2

Writing Com Lai

Prime Love

My love
Wakes me up
With love in her heart
I leap out of my dark bed
Eagerly greeting the dawning sunlight
Filling my soul with your deep endless angelic love
Wondering again who you are, why are you here, my angel dear?
As I sit in the morning light, filled with your love, seeing the sunlight
My deep dark nightmares begin to fade with your deep love
I am filled with the light of the dawning sun
I was dreaming of all those years
Then one day you came to life
Walking out of dreams
Reality
My love

For today’s prompt, write a prime number poem. That is, I want you to somehow incorporate a prime number into your poem. You could include a prime number in the title of your poem or use one in the poem itself. Or write a poem that has a prime number of lines per stanza or for the entire poem.

And if you need help with remembering which numbers are prime numbers, I’ve got you covered (here’s a list of prime numbers up to 100: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97)

Three Tea Haiku for Teaku Competition Haiku

Mad Monk in the temple

Mad Monk in the temple
Contemplating lonely life
As he sips his tea

In The Morning Light

In the morning light
Drinking his hot cup of tea
Life is good monk thinks

Drinking his hot tea *

Drinking his hot tea *
While thinking of his life
Enlightenment comes

The End