You are currently viewing Day 6: NaPoWriMo 2024–Dad Wisdom

Day 6: NaPoWriMo 2024–Dad Wisdom

Day Six
on APRIL 6, 2024

Welcome back, everyone, for the sixth day of NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo.

Today, our featured participant is Skrol an Yeth, where you’ll find a response to Day 5’s prompt in not just English but Welsh!

Our featured resource for the day is “A Poetry Channel” on YouTube, where you’ll find an eclectic array of poems being read with accompanying images and video.

And now for our (optional) prompt. Today’s we’d like to challenge you to write a poem rooted in “weird wisdom,” by which we mean something objectively odd that someone told you once, and that has stuck with you ever since. Need an example? Check out Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “Making a Fist.”

Happy writing

Great prompt. Thank you, Maureen Thorson 🙇🏽‍♀️


For today’s form:

Wales: Clogyrnach – A Welsh syllabic and rhyming form with 6 lines.
The syllable count is 8/8/5/5/3/3 and
the rhyme scheme is a/a/b/b/b/a.

There is no required theme.

Thanks, Val. 🙇🏽‍♀️

***

From Dad to the gang:

Never mix pork, with fish, and beef:
this ratio, fingernails will thieve 
can’t scratch bug bites first 
can’t scrub scull—the worst. 
Boogers burst 
Major grief! 

From Dad to my brothers:

Take her heart but don’t you break it
or she’ll rip yours in two splits
if you start with lust 
grow a heart, seed trust—
be the first! 
or just quit.

© selma

This is my fourth try at National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), and this time
around I’ll try not to spend so much time ‘perfecting’ a task that needs more time
to reach a satisfactory closure. I’m a slow poke after all…

You, my friends, are the first to see me in this vulnerable state. If you think of a
better word to fit in the first draft presented here, please don’t hold back–let me
know. I will be forever grateful. Thanks for being here with me as I try to work on
these poems on my phone–outdoors, weather permitting–and please excuse the
formatting.

Thanks for reading my Day 6:

BTW, Japan is exploding: cherry blossoms everywhere. What joy 🥹

Selma Martin
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This Post Has 22 Comments

  1. Maria Michaela

    I cam across this form while checking what form I’ll try next. Love your poems, Selma but I laughed so hard at the Boogers burst part 😂

    Oh sakuras blooming! What beauty! What joy!

    1. Selma Martin

      Yeah, without fingernails those boogers are bound to explode 🤯 one day. Hahaha. Weird wisdom.
      My father did say that! And we believed the silliness. 😂

      The Sakura. 🌸 oh my gosh. It was overcast but nothing dulled the joy 🥹
      Thanks for reading. 🙇🏽‍♀️

  2. Sadje

    The dad’s wisdom made good sense

    1. Selma Martin

      Haha. 😛 weird things. Somewhere in there lies wisdom 😂 thanks Sadje

      1. Sadje

        Yes, I think all these customs and saying have their basis in some wisdom

  3. writerravenclaw

    Love these poems, especially the one advising their sons and brothers.

    1. Selma Martin

      So pleased you liked that one.
      The full phrase is “she’ll rip yours in two splits (and feed it to the pigs—we always over fed the hogs, really. Remember the apples at Christmas?) but I had to curtail my enthusiasm for the form.
      I’m so happy you liked it, my friend. Blessings and good night.

  4. Cheryl Batavia

    Selma, I remember advice from my grandmother on how to kiss a boy. She demonstrated on the back of her hand how a kiss should be light and brief. Then she had us practice. Your fatherly advice poems cracked me up!

    In my mind’s eye, I see you, Selma, surrounded by sakura. The sun is shining and petals are drifting in the breeze!

    1. Selma Martin

      Oh, grandma 👵. Thats so funny. 🤣 light and brief 👏🏽
      Yes, dad could be funny too.

      It was overcast. But I do t blame the clouds. They wanted to see the flowers too. A real fine day. 👏🏽
      Be well my sweet.

  5. nonsmokingladybug

    We trained kissing in boarding school. Like Cheryl mentioned, we kissed the back of our hand 🙂
    What can I say. It was a girls only boarding school.

  6. murisopsis

    Selma I love the direction of these poems – you used the form to great effect! And the advice was fun and a little funny! My grandmother’s advice was a little cryptic until I got older – “A pretty dish doesn’t guarantee a good meal”…

  7. sgeoil

    Your father gave some interesting advice!

  8. memadtwo

    These are fun Selma. I hope your father was as interesting as his advice. (K)

  9. dorahak

    Quirky and direct, Selma, Your father sounds like quite a character, lol! 💞

  10. Smitha V

    I liked the second one more ‘Dad to my brothers’. Lovely how you met both the prompts beautifully.

  11. Poet Voice

    Day 6 was a tough one for me, and I’m a slow poke too, Selma! Such original wisdom!

  12. rajkkhoja

    Dad and Brother both poem are nice . Both advisable., Selma!

      1. rajkkhoja

        Most welcome Selma ☺️

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