National Poetry Month 2019

Dear Readers,

Welcome (back)!

For the tenth year running - to celebrate the arbitrary designation of "National Poetry Month" - I will be writing and posting a poem here every day for the next thirty days.

Shout out, as always, to the prolific Jon Berger who helped inspire this project.


The rules:

- I have compiled a list of 54 prompts, each assigned to a different playing card


- Every day I will draw a card to select a prompt


- Based on that prompt I will write a poem that contains 280 or less characters


- By the end of the day I post it here


The complete list is below:

2	c	Sandy Hook Truthers
2	d	Two and a Half Men
2	h	The Myth of Sisyphus
2	s	The Myth of Entitlement Reform
3	c	Three Buck Chuck
3	d	The Pythagorean Theorem
3	h	The Angel Number
3	s	The Tripartite Soul
4	c	Spirit Guides
4	d	Spirit Fingers
4	h	Heartland
4	s	Mondo Kim’s Video and Music
5	c	Dying Breeds
5	d	Artifice
5	h	Harmonicas
5	s	Tofu Cream Cheese
6	c	Clam Jerky
6	d	TV Repairmen
6	h	Statue at Lee Circle
6	s	The Sandwich Question
7	c	Bedford-Stuyvesant
7	d	Friends With Benefits
7	h	Tombstones
7	s	Pack Animals
8	c	Subway Riders
8	d	Taxi Drivers
8	h	Water Wings (TM)
8	s	Abandoned Names
9	c	Christmas Ornaments
9	d	Hanukkah Gelt
9	h	Easter Eggs
9	s	New Years Regrets
10	c	The Fall of Communism
10	d	The Fall of Capitalism
10	h	The Fall of the Monarchy
10	s	The Fall of Your Scene
J	c	Bodhisattvas
J	d	Sudden Death
J	h	Dylan Going Electric
J	s	Two-Spirits
Q	c	Sworn Virgins
Q	d	Cam Girls
Q	h	New Mothers
Q	s	“The Divorce Capital of the World”
K	c	Burger King (Revisited)
K	d	Thin Elvis
K	h	Zach Adler, 2005
K	s	Never-Kings
A	c	Small Victories
A	d	The Greater Good
A	h	Helium
A	s	Impermanence
Green Joker		The Analog World
Black Joker		The Digital Word

Thanks to all of you friends and bots who have read over the last decade.

Poem #290 will be posted here sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the remaining hours of National Hexagonal Awareness Month(?)

- Z

April 30th - Steamed Hams

Nine of Spades - Steamed Hams

Steamed Hams But It's An Elizabethan Sonnet

The entrance of my lord leaves me abashed

But sated soon he’ll be by luncheon grand

Ye Gods! My special roast is turned to ash

Yet yonder dive ignites a cunning plan

(musical break)

My reckless tongue declares I’ll serve steamed clams

When Chalmers comes inquiring o’er the smoke

With ostentatious plating of Steamed Hams

I misdirect him trying not to choke

My lies proliferate beneath his gaze

I use my humdrum manner as a ballast

When Chalmers sees my kitchen all ablaze

I tell him it’s Aurora Borealis

Though Seymour you strike me an offbeat man

I must declare you steam a damn good ham

Smell you jerks later!

April 29th - Ba'al

King of Diamonds - Ba'al

The Cult of Ba’al Hammon

In Carthage they killed children

If the Romans are to be believed

Infanticide as tribute to a god

Who from wizened hands could

Birth a winter foal or smash ships  

And men to oblivion –  whose mercy

Came in mild droughts

In summer rains

In the name of Ba’al Hammon did

Learned loving parents put their children

To the knife and when completely bled

They burned the tiny bodies

Till their little ones were

No more than ash

For the offering

We may be wise not to trust the Romans or

To want to think of slaughtered babes but

Now we know how easy it can be for any

Learned loving empire to sacrifice its children

For imagined safety

In exchange for nothing
But an idea

April 28th - Parabolas

Seven of Hearts - Parabolas


The Use of Calculators

You giggle with your friends

About a raunchy program 

Someone coded and was

Passed around to almost 

Everyone’s advanced machine

Your teacher doesn’t turn around but

Clears his tired throat and tugs

The collar of his short-sleeved shirt

He wonders where there could be 

Humor in parabolas

April 27th - Black Holes

Jack of Clubs - Black Holes

Sometimes you are so crushed

By the density of your own

Mass that it seems impossible

For light to enter anywhere

But if you dive head-first into 

The Blackness you can open

Your eyes to the dazzling of

Galaxies never before seen

April 26th - The Big Bang Theory

Two of Clubs - The Big Bang Theory

The Seagull in the Auditorium 

The moment you see the gun

On the classroom desk

Lit conspicuously 

Made of papier-mâché

You can picture the teenager

Responsible for the big bang 

In the final act backstage waiting

Stomach upset bouncing knees 

Gripping their wooden plank

As if it were the most important thing

In the universe

April 25th - The XFL

Three of Diamonds - The XFL

Ball / Control

The concept of 100 million dollars

Becomes real as soon you spend it 

Aware of growth potential but really 

Yearning for control of 

The bodies of better men

You work to take away their options
You want to be the reason that they stand

April 24th - Imagine Dragons

Eight of Hearts - Imagine Dragons

A gecko bolts across

Your bedroom floor and 

Suddenly you wonder what

Caused someone to

First imagine dragons

April 23rd - Twin Paradox

Jack of Diamonds - Twin Paradox

I stand still

Faster than I can comprehend

You continue buzzing l

Am in the same place but you

Keep moving while

My limbs freeze and my

Face drops you keep moving

Away and once you finally

Come back around

I am still

April 22nd - Shea Stadium

Queen of Clubs - Shea Stadium

One Moment, Shea Stadium

It still exists in sense memories

Unsubtle smells of sneakers

And Spring and hot dog water

Cigarettes and layer

Upon layer of lead paint

Aged and mixed to somehow

If by alchemy transform to

Something pleasant and profound

A carrier of old sounds - snippets 

Of Gary Glitter songs of organ music

The comforting unsettling way

Thirty-three thousand voices can 

Disappear and chant as one

And then of course

My grandmother’s voice

I can hear her now 

As I softly pound my fist against

My kitchen wall and I pretend

That this is really orange plastic

Cool and smooth and tensile

That I am testing how it bends

Watching how it moves against

My tiny fist