You are currently viewing Day 22: NaPoWriMo 2024–I’m a Lover, Not A Fighter

Day 22: NaPoWriMo 2024–I’m a Lover, Not A Fighter

Day Twenty-Two on APRIL 22, 2024

Welcome back for the penultimate Monday of this year’s Na/GloPoWriMo.

Our featured participant today is Flutterby’s NaPoWriMo, which brings us a purple-themed poem in
response to Day 21’s color-based prompt.

Today’s featured resource is litbowl, an Instagram account and Facebook page that posts poems and
prose with the goal of helping readers find new poets and authors. The account has

Last but not least, here’s today’s optional prompt. This one comes from the poet and fiction writer
Todd Dillard, who provided this idea on his twitter account a few months ago. The idea is to write a
poem in which two things have a fight. Two very unlikely things,
if you can manage it. Like, maybe a
comb and a spatula. Or a daffodil and a bag of potato chips. Or perhaps your two things could be
linked somehow – like a rock and a hard place – and be utterly sick of being so joined.
The possibilities are endless!

Happy writing!


A HAIKU CHAIN

the past–learn from it
the future will soon foretell
if you practiced well

*
the lamplighter–
there when you need a beacon,
wins over the heart
*

across the Tatar Strait,
do you calculate in miles,
little butterfly?
*

the skylark rises,
sadness ignites my anguish,
purl stitch me in joy
*

dignity of cats,
wind that blows their underside,
the butterfly lands
*

emptied from grieving,
ghost cherry blossoms scatter,
fill me with answers
*

the snake slithers off
leaving its red eyes behind
to nourish the grass
*

seagull in blue sky,
how much sky do you cover
before your next catch?

© selma

UMM…
This was a hard one, but I was thinking
how, in haiku, two things are competing for a spot.
But how, rather than
fighting,
they merge into each other.
That’s the subtlety I aimed to achieve
with
this haiku sequence.

Off prompt, or on?
So be it, pardner!
This is all I got.
(I’m a lover, not a fighter)


…Thanks for being here with me as I try to work on these first drafts this month.
Happy writing to you all.

Selma Martin
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This Post Has 21 Comments

  1. beth

    love this haiku chain style, I’ve never seen it before

  2. Elizabeth Boquet

    Good thinking, to use haiku. Now I, too, wonder if butterflies calculate in miles across the Tartar Strait — and I adore “purl stitch me in joy.” That should be a jingle for something wonderful.

    1. Selma Martin

      So pleased you read and commented. Glad you liked purl stitch xoxo

  3. LuAnne Holder

    I love this, Selma. You have encouraged me. I, too, did not want to write about fighting. We have enough of that. Your haiku chain is wonderful. I love the butterflies flitting throughout the poems.

    1. Selma Martin

      Even with inanimate things—I want no more fighting.
      Glad you’re of the same mind, LuAnne. Glad you read dear pardner. 🙇🏽‍♀️

  4. kittysverses

    Wow! I loved your Haiku series, Selma, especially the butterfly, cat and snake. 🙂

  5. sgeoil

    Selma, I so enjoyed your Haiku chain.

  6. memadtwo

    Forget the prompt. An excellent series. (K)

    1. Selma Martin

      Thanks for instilling in me some confidence. Bless you, K. xo

  7. Sadje

    This is an excellent haiku chain Selma

      1. Sadje

        You’re most welcome 🙏🏼

  8. rajkkhoja

    Beautiful haiku chain! Very nice you think & use some different words written in .
    “seagull in blue sky,
    how much sky do you cover
    before your next catch?

  9. Stephanie Malley

    I love the subtlety of your haiku chain, Selma. Lots of beautiful imagery and language. Perhaps most of all, I love your comment at the end. 🙂

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