Neologisms

Our prompt today (I love the prompts!) is to write a poem which incorporates neologisms. Challenge accepted!

The hidden side

 The hidden side

Fustles and furies 

Against the gories,

It shuvvers and shakes

In astonishing meanger

 The hidden side

Bashles and fumps

 Against the slavenemies

To destrend and condembolish

The horrific dischaoster

Andrea Vermaak

P.S. I set out to write a whimsical poem about about a fantasy world at night, but my thoughts soon turned to 'hiding' the terrible things happening in our world in a few ugly neologisms (ironic, yes, I know). My inspiration came from how we often wrestle with our emotions when we see things are not right with the world because we don't know how to fix things, yet we really want to make things right again and help people.

I feel that we ignore the chaos much of the time and perhaps even try to hide it from ourselves because we feel guilty. We bury it in the recesses of our minds because it is too ugly to process, face, or do anything about. 

We hide the atrocities in politically correct words/phrases and polite conversation because we're too afraid to talk about what is really happening. We're too afraid to use those terrible words: war, disease, poverty, starvation, human trafficking, rhino poaching...just in case we're called to make it right, but we don't know how.

Sweet night

Today's prompt is to take inspiration from the nocturne: a melancholy, but light piece of music...

Sweet night

Sweet night, why are you silent?

The wind neither blows, nor rustles

The leaves above me;

The clear sky

Tells of everything but emptiness,

Yet, sweet night, you are still

No birds, or crickets sing,

No water trickles in the stream;

All, sweet night, is quiet

Sweet night, why are you silent?

 You remind me of my loneliness,

Of the thoughtful silence inside me.

Andrea Vermaak

 

Letter to a friend

Today's prompt is to write a poem inspired by letter writing. It could be addressed to a person, thing, or place. Whom better to address it though than a dear friend whom I miss very much? (This poem is actually addressed to all my friends, scattered all over the world, whom I miss every day.)

I miss

Dear friend of mine so far away

Do you know how much I miss you?

Do you know how much I think about you

And the laughs we had together?

I miss your unsentimental sentimental way

Of telling me you miss me too,

Of how you wish I could also be there

To share new adventures with you.

One day, dear friend, I hope to visit,

Perhaps I'll be fortunate enough to stay,

But until then, I love you, my dear friend

And I miss you every single day.

Andrea Vermaak

 

The middle

Today's prompt, as we reach the middle of NaPoWriMo, is to write a poem that reflects the nature of being in the middle of something. I know just the focus for my poem. It's rather literal and happens to me on a daily basis...

The middle

 I thought I was focussed

When the phone rang;

It undid me some

The buzz and the rambles

Confused my mind;

When I turned back, it was gone

Yes, I was in the middle of something -

Something important, no less -

Guess now, it will never get done.

Andrea Vermaak

Oscar Wilde

Today's prompt is write a clerihew; a four-line, satirical biographical poem. Mmm, of whom shall I write...Who likes a bit of humour?

Oscar Wilde
Was a rather wild child
Though many do not know
Or perhaps they do, but they don't say so

                                                Andrea Vermaak

The stars above us

Today's prompt is to write a ghazal. I had not heard of this form until now, so the poem below is my first attempt...

The stars above us

Look up, dear love, at the stars above us

See how they shine, all the stars above us

Some far, some near, but shining in the night

See how they flicker, the stars above us

Some cold, some hot, some new, but some are dead

We'll stay or go to the stars above us

We'll glide and ride and fly among stardust

We'll laugh and dance on the stars above us

And I, Andrea, won't return to you

I'd stay among all the stars above us

Andrea Vermaak

Longing...

I don't know what else to say other than I've been inspired (again) by my constant longing to go 'home' to the UK. I spent most of 2008 in Edinburgh, Scotland. From there, I travelled extensively throughout the UK. It changed my life forever and I doubt that I will ever stop thinking about my other (no, not even second; other!) home. 

Some who know me may (read 'do') think I am obsessed, but they were not there. They did not experience what I experienced, nor can anyone, least of all the island itself, ever know how much I long to return (it is my greatest wish and sole ambition).

This is a very personal poem inspired by a very British-sounding song (however silly that may sound) that I just heard in a very British television series that I'm watching again (though the title is inspired by part of the lyrics of another song by the same band, and the band is actually American. Weird, I know; but hey, it works).

You don't know what I go through

I sway to your rhymes,

Writhe in the agony of my memories;

You are too far away

Oh how cursed could one be

To be born of nowhere

Yet long to belong

To you?

You don't know what I go through

The long nights

I ache

I cry

I choke on your melodies,

Shed tears on the pages of your history;

Why are you so far away?

 

If only this cursed land

Would spit me out,

but consume my pain

That I might be free

You don't know what I go through

The burning days

I want to forget

I want to leave behind

You don't  know what I go through

Andrea Vermaak