Yesterday was weird day at work and I didn’t get to the prompt until late in the evening. I have written plenty of villanelles before, but this one took 4-5 drafts before I was marginally happy with it. There were tears and some mild screams of frustration. But it is done. I ended up complying with the prompt, again to challenge myself, but I had a problem with the direction to quote song lyrics. I see this as plagiarism. Lyrics are basically poetry themselves, and too long of a quote is theft. At the same time, references to pop culture are allowed in poetry. It’s a fine line.

I continued with my Idunn theme by quoting a partial line from one of the very few songs that exist about her, from a little-known pagan band from Spain called Trobar de Morte. I convinced myself this was acceptable as it would give them exposure, and anywhere I publish it, I plan to credit them. Give it a listen!

Today’s prompt, I’ll admit, I didn’t even look at until after I wrote my poem. I watched a Youtube video last night called “What It’s Like to Die on Every Planet” (very fascinating btw), and at the end of the video, the narrator discussed Elon Musk’s plan to colonize Mars. I slept on it, and this morning was inspired to write about how much I actually don’t want to go. Younger me would have. But I love the planet I was born to be on, and I want to stay surrounded by my green landscapes, and I’m starting to think maybe the trash will take itself out, if you know what I’m saying.

I used the prompt to expand on my allusions a bit, but that was the extent of it. I’ve still pasted the prompt below for your perusal, and for my own reference in case I want to do something with it later.

Poem #11

Poem prompt (day 11): “Our resource for the day is the online collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, where you can find everything from a pair of bamboo-framed sunglasses to a very silly parody advertisement for talking toilet paper to a rococo coffee pot with a spout in the form of a rather gobsmacked sea-serpent.

And last but not least, today’s (optional) prompt. Take a look at Kyle Dargan’s “Diaspora: A Narcolepsy Hymn.” This poem is a loose villanelle that uses song lyrics as its repeating lines (loose because it doesn’t rhyme).  Your challenge is, like Dargan, to write a poem that incorporates song lyrics – ideally, incorporating them as opposing phrases or refrains.”

The Maiden's Way

A childfree aphrodite shows me the Maiden's way, 
tripping down Pink forests of Granny and Gold; 
I follow her steps like an animal pouncing to play. 

I rub dried blood off my teeth into freshly cut hay 
and consume aged bees rejecting wet pollen as mold. 
A childfree aphrodite shows me the Maiden's way. 

The pollen clings to my own hair, and I fly like the fey, 
pulled along by a call to Yggdrasil’s inner fold. 
I follow her steps like an animal pouncing to play. 

Those pink trees burst to life as slow-dancing ladies gay 
soft-stepping a moss-laden floor in her temple bold. 
The childfree aphrodite shows me her maidens’ way—

There she twirls, blonde-braided Bee, orchard’s shining ray 
choreographing collected powder gone buttery cold, 
and I follow her steps like an animal pouncing to play. 

I add my salvage to the spraying chain bouquet 
tossed to sacred trees throughout this álfar wold. 
The childfree aphrodite shows me her maidens’ way, 
and I follow their steps like an animal pouncing to play. 

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**Italics are quoted song lyrics from "Idunn" by Trobar de Morte, off the album Ouroboros. 

Poem #12

Poem prompt (day 12): “Our daily resource is the collection of the American Visionary Art Museum. Focused on outsider art – which is sort of like folk art’s more bonkers cousin – the museum describes itself as “one small speck in a Bling Universe where art reflects life, both literally and figurately.” I’m not exactly sure what a “Bling Universe” is, but it appears to include automatons featuring bathtubs filled with spaghetti, video tutorials for making sock monkeys, and kinetic sculpture races. Good times!

And after all those shenanigans we, we bring you a very serious (or is it?) optional prompt. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem inspired by Wallace Stevens’ poem, “Peter Quince at the Clavier.” It’s a complex poem that not only heavily features the idea of music, but is structured like a symphony. Its four sections, like symphonic movements, play with and expand on an overall theme, using the story of Susannah and the Elders as a backdrop.

Try writing a poem that makes reference to one or more myths, legends, or other well-known stories, that features wordplay (including rhyme), mixes formal and informal language, and contains multiple sections that play with a theme. Try also to incorporate at least one abstract concept – for example, desire or sorrow or pride or whimsy.”

Mars Doesn’t Have Herons

Mars doesn’t have herons
—can never have herons.
What artificial atmosphere humans create
may be tolerated
by humans with moldable
logical minds
but my spirit
animal would languish
miserable, and perish.

No, there can be no herons on Mars.
Unlike Atlas, his war-torn scarred shoulders 
can carry only
power-hungry billionaires with demigod aspirations, 
smart in tech but stupid in soul.

So go on, Elon, move there, colonize 
the barren wasteland of dust and rock;
build your New Rome,
play at empire, where
moguls rule over nothing and no one.
At least this time no natives will ache.

I’ll stay here, poor and happy,
with robins singing and herons blaring
Terra's music in my heart
as I breathe the pure oxygen 
I was made to love
and die at home, naturally, 
surrounded by skull-softened grass.