Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Triptych

Wow. This was one mega-challenging challenge.

In honor of the Chinese New Year, We Write Poems put forth the plan that all of us savvy writers should make a triptych (or three diverse columns) which are to be headed: Heaven, Earth and Man.  Then, we should write a list under each category which may be comprised of words, ideas, phrases, thoughts, etc. which interconnect them - and when we have enough of these notions on our lists, create a poem from this cryptic, elliptic triptych.

For reasons that I can't explain, I started listing things beginning with the letter 'C' as you can see below:


and my idea was to list Heaven as divine foods, Earth as veggies or fruits which come from the earth, and finally, Man as stuff that men and women have invented or manufactured (for better or worse.)  They're pretty cool lists, if I do say so myself!  But anyway, from these lists, I chose one from Column A, one from Column B and one from Column C - and wrote a triple Novelinee poem.


Heaven, Earth & Man

Cannolis are…

…pastries loaded full of Italian cream,
often with chocolate chips (just an add-in.)
Some people think they’re a pure, divine dream,
a gift from the gods, designed to gladden.
I like to eat mine with cappuccino
that’s dusted with a dash of cinnamon,
topped with whipped cream and a maraschino.
I know these treats won’t help me to stay thin
but cannolis are my heavenly sin.

Cucumbers are…

…long skinny tubes of this green seeded veg
which you can slice or dice for a salad -
it’s tasty when tossed on a lettuce wedge
and Kirby and English are cuke-valid.
Some like it on bagels with cream cheese, lox
and onion and a smidgen of smoked fish.
You can carve ‘em and sculpt ‘em into blocks
or any other shape that you might wish.
Yep, cucumbers rock as an earthly dish.

Crappy is…

…cringe-worthy reality TV shows
like The Bachelor or Wife Swap.  Man, they bite.
Every ‘real housewife’ just seems to expose
how boringly trivial, and how trite
television has gotten.  Still, we watch.
The Marriage Ref along with Jersey Shore
have me wishing they’d kick it down a notch.
The Kardashians are a crashing bore
Reality TV? Man, who wants more?

###

(I'll be back later with another post based on inspired prompting from Three Word Wednesday, Sis/Few Miles and Poetic Asides.)                                              

12 comments:

  1. I agree with you on all three! And now I'm craving some real Italian cannoli and espresso.... :)

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  2. RJ, Jeez, this had me laughing. Especially the part about Reality TV.
    Those people are incredibly boring.
    I love what you did with this prompt.
    Nice one!

    Pamela

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  3. Love the humor throughout. Like that you took the prompt to this very real and human place. Great idea and really good fun,

    Elizabeth

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  4. Elizabeth J - thanks! Totally yummy!

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  5. Elizabeth - thank you so very much!

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  6. You have done a brilliant job with every aspect of the prompt, and made me laugh out loud as well.

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  7. Oh Viv - thank you so much! I'm glad you got a laugh from this!

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  8. well done RJ...not familiar with those shows...after sports...news and docs...so keep up the writing....after youur words and the smell of the baking my partner is doing im........oops she just passed me a cookie...

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  9. Wayne - hope the cookie was good! Mmmmmmmm...

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