Today, with only one day of this April poetry madness left, somebody will regret coming up with this challenge.
Challenge 29: “Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on the Plath Poetry Project’s calendar. Simply pick a poem from the calendar, and then write a poem that responds or engages with your chosen Plath poem in some way.”
Let’s just say that after writing one poem every single day, sticking to the prompt and all, my obedience is running VERY thin. All admirers of Ms. Plath shall see promptly just how thin. I blame Challenge 18. Remember? (“First, find a poem in a book or magazine. Use a piece of paper to cover over everything but the last line. Now write a line of your own that completes the thought …”)
I took Ms. Plath’s poem Among the Narcissi (see below), started with the bottom line and worked my way up line by line with a twist: I inserted an antonym (or similar) in the place of each of her words. This is the result. Sorry not sorry. 😀
Beyond the Tulips
By Sylvain Plathless (a.k.a. MMM)Rigid, sunny and not gray at all, like those October stones,
Agatha straightens, out of her red beanpants, beyond the tulips. She is falling ill to nothing on the brain.Neither the tulips straighten away from any small soul :
they silence its stripes below the yellow cave, nowhere where Agatha doctors the joy of her wounds, and runs and doesn’t walk.No dignity out of that; here isn’t an informality-
the fruit plain, nothing like wounds, or the women breaking.
We straighten or fall : should we bear other come-hithers?Or is it that preteens hate big loners?
She isn’t very red; the lovely calm can’t try her breathlessness. The tulips don’t look down unlike adults, either slow or black.
Among the Narcissi
By Sylvia Plath
Spry, wry, and gray as these March sticks,
Percy bows, in his blue peajacket, among the narcissi.
He is recuperating from something on the lung.
The narcissi, too, are bowing to some big thing :
It rattles their stars on the green hill where Percy
Nurses the hardship of his stitches, and walks and walks.
There is a dignity to this; there is a formality-
The flowers vivid as bandages, and the man mending.
They bow and stand : they suffer such attacks!
And the octogenarian loves the little flocks.
He is quite blue; the terrible wind tries his breathing.
The narcissi look up like children, quickly and whitely.
And here are some untulips and non-narcissi. I don’t think I have ever seen them before, but this year they are abundant.
Love your untulips and non-narcissi! And the poem held my breath to its very end. You captured Plath’s tone and flow. I enjoyed the playfulness immensely!
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Thank you, clayandbranches. I’m truly glad to hear it because I was expecting to be shot for butchering. 😉
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Not at all–very inventive!
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How fun! Now I want to try that! I could take your poem and write my own opposites to that! Talk about butchering…
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Hihihihhi. Go ahead, Maggie. I certainly won’t mind but Ms. Plath and her camp might. 😀 Since of course it would come back to her poem – not! It’s like a back-translation, never the same as the original.
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Great photos but the poem? Sorry, sweetie!!!! (I’m not very fond of Path either.)
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Hihih, Judy, I appreciate your honesty, always. Funnily, this poem has 20 likes, mostly by people who I don’t know. I don’t know why they would just be kind. I don’t think it’s the flowers. 😀 Anyway, we like different things and that’s the point, or it would get very boring around here.
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Actually, I was talking about the Plath poem. I have never been an admirer of her poetry. I didn’t like the one that was the springboard for my poem, either.
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Oh, I see. I have never read her at all.
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And I’m still rewriting mine! I’m like Bonnard who would sneak into museums to touch up his paintings completed years before!!!
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Hihi, I don’t know this story, will inform myself. And will check your poem later.
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I’ve left the museum and the guards have closed the gates!!!!
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Oops.. Plath.
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Well, Miss Plathless! I must say Agatha and Percy are quite the team! Congrats on sticking with the challenge. I know I could not have done it.
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Oh, Jan, I wasn’t thinking and dived straight in. 😀 I’m glad you like the team, thank you! I know practically nothing of Plath and have never read her.
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I like your approach. Innovative and all you.
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Thank you, Claudia. 🙂 I haven’t seen this done anywhere but I bet there is a clique turning poems inside out like that already…
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Maybe so. I think it sounds really intriguing, I think I might try a variation of it in the next marathon…hmmm, you are giving me ideas!
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Oh yes! I like the sound of that! Maybe you can put inside out an old poem of yours!
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Yes, I’ve been thinking about how to go about this, and what I would be meaning, if I do it.
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You made it through the month! I was breathing poetry for this month too (but on SingPoWriMo).
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I did make it! Amazing! I’m not a poet at all! Still need a good idea for the last day. 🙂
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Ah! Time difference. If you are looking for ideas, here’s our final prompt for the month:
30 April – SINGAPORE – The Boat Prompt – #BoatPrompt
Write a poem where you are on a boat.
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Wow. Who knew there was a Plath Poetry Calendar? I actually am a reader of Plath. You probably already know that. I have been since my early 20s. I thought the Plath poem you chose was very interesting and the poem you wrote was beautiful and powerful and I would have loved it without knowing the prompt. It definitely stands alone. I’m actually hugely impressed that you’ve managed to stick with the prompts for 30 days. I have no patience with prompts at all. I think maybe you are more of a poet than you think. ❤️
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Oh, Robin, if you are happy with this poem, then I’m happy too. 🙂 I’m amazed as well that I did it (still need to write the last one!). I’ve added to my About me that I now consider myself borderline poet. Beware! 😉 Prompts help me much because without them I could be all over the place. I especially liked those that taught me a new form or technique. It’s obvious that my brain is pretty much idle and I enjoyed fulfilling the tasks for a change. Thank you for your support always. All well! ❤
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Good job, but I think you would have killed it if the poem had to be based on a Monty Python theme. 🙂
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Hihih, my thoughts exactly. Now April is finished and no Monty Python in sight. What were they thinking? 😉 And thanks!
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This seems like just the right approach. And wonderful photos as always. (K)
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Thank you, K. It came about organically. 😉
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