NaPoWriMo Day 28, 2022

Photo by Nathan Dumlao via Unsplash

Today’s prompt asks us “to write a concrete poem. Like acrostic poems, concrete poems are a favorite for grade-school writing assignments, so this may not be your first time at the concrete-poem rodeo. In brief, a concrete poem is one in which the lines are shaped in a way that mimics the topic of the poem. For example, May Swenson’s poem “Women” mimics curves, reinforcing the poem’s references to motion, rocking horses, and even the shape of a woman’s body. George Starbuck’s “Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas Tree” is – you guessed it – a sonnet in the shape of a potted Christmas tree. Your concrete poem could be complexly-shaped, but relatively simple strategies can also be “concrete” —  like a poem involving a staircase where the length of the lines grows or shrinks over time, like an ascending (or descending) set of stairs.” (Full NaPoWriMo post available here.)

The response below could have been shaped as a number of things, but I went with hourglass. It seems to represent the closest the state of the world right now–and its effects on our minds.

PS–The posted draft has expired, but here are some images of night-time Prague, taken mostly on or around Charles Bridge this April.