Photo by Matt Hoffman via Unsplash

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Today’s prompt asks us “to make use of our resource for the day. First, make a list of ten words. You can generate this list however you’d like – pull a book  off the shelf and find ten words you like, name ten things you can see from where you’re sitting, etc. Now, for each word, use RhymeZone to identify two to four similar-sounding or rhyming words. For example, if my word is “salt,” my similar words might be “belt,” “silt,” “sailed,” and “sell-out.” Once you’ve assembled your complete list, work on writing a poem using your new “word bank.” You don’t have to use every word, of course, but try to play as much with sound as possible, repeating  sounds and echoing back to others using your rhyming and similar words.” ~ NaPoWriMo, Day 3

I ended up using only a few of the words in my word bank, but the ones I played with took me on quite an unexpected journey. I’m totally in love with the sounds of leaf, bullet, bulb, belly, oblique–pronounced in that order and very fast. It’s like droplets of rain on my lips.

In fact, this is my new mantra: leaf, bullet, bulb, belly, oblique. Leaf, bullet, bulb…
All right, all right, don’t get mad, I’ll stop right there.

(2x faster): leaf, bullet, bulb, belly, oblique.

PS–Most of the poems written this April will remain online for up to five days, after which they will be replaced by an excerpt, an erasure, or a thoroughly amateurish art piece that will only allow for bits of the original poem to peek through. At least, this is the plan. The reason being that, at some point, in the hopefully not too distant future, these drafts will undergo revision and begin their multiple-year pilgrimage through the slush piles of many a literary journal. So help me, O Muse.

PPS–Alas, five days have passed, so the original poem must give way to a slimmed-down version of itself. Here are some lovely angel seashells. They flew in to help me stage this erasure.

Poetry from the trenches, Day 3

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