483 - Creative Bubbles 2023

I present to you 5 texts; 4 were composed during creative workshop streams at LucieBulle, and the last one I composed a continuation of the first text, outside the stream. The whole thing was written between September and December 2023 - with a very small correction at the beginning of January.

Note: I used creative commons, royalty-free images.

482 - An Ode to Birds

This poem was born during a "poetic bubble" (bulle poétique) at LucieBulle's stream, whose prompt was: what do the birds tell you?

In the allotted half hour, I composed the first Francophone version, which was not yet titled, and managed to rhyme only the first half of the poem; following which I decided to add rhymes in the second half, and the title suggested by Lucie herself, giving the second version.

481 - Marianne's Hands - A Poem

 

I initially composed this poem in French, back on 23rd October (2023). I encoded certain information there, including in certain compositional constraints that I chose. You can read the original here. 

In adapting, I had to sacrifice most of the rhymes, in order to keep it flowing. 

480 - Psychotherapy Nov 2023

Given my travel difficulties, I have had several psychotherapy sessions by phone, and yesterday's continued this tradition.

Before explaining the topics of our conversation, I detail what has been happening for several weeks and warn you, the subject is heavy, so a Trigger Warning follows.

479 - American Decay V2

 

Image : one of my own photos, taken during hiking. 

Trigger warnings due to content : suggestive material, anti-religion, anti-guns, critic of usa overturning roe vs wade

I was inspired to compose the text, mixing some Babylon 5's 1st season intro (you can read it here) and some Lord of the Rings reference (the One ring to rule them all...) 

478- The Dragon and the Phoenix poem

 

note : image edit using several copyright free sources, blended into the poem's narrative.

My 17th composed poem since June 2022 was inspired from a phrase that Joyce Lee said in her music stream (homepage here), from 2 or 3 weeks ago, something about a stalemate between a dragon and a phoenix (perhaps not exactly in that wording, I don't recall precisely). 

477- The Chaplet - Poem

The Chaplet is my overall 16th poem since last year (I say that, because I wrote a couple others many years ago and if I find them in my external hard drives, I might share them).

I operated a bit differently than these 15 prior poems : instead of publishing in English, then translating to French and coming back to alter my original entry with new words to match my translation's rhymes, I composed, translated, and adapted on the spot, altering one another until I had the rhymes and all the meanings that I intended. 

476 - Health Updates for the past 18 months

 

Image:  pic of my sprained ankle in the brace, edited. 

Below : 1,238 words long entry

It's been such a long time since I last updated you about anything, so here goes - a whole entry about my health in the past year, or actually year and half. 

475 - Living in a religious cult 7 - failed parenting

When I posted my sixth living in a religious cult entry, back in July 2022, I thought I was done with the series that started in October 2017. However, just like I said back then, it's probably impossible to be exhaustive - at least on a blog - in telling all that occurred in those traumatic years in my father's religious cult. 

Today, I discuss the topic of parenthood : that of his failures as a parent might be evident already from previous entries, but requires expanding and perhaps clarification.

474 - Brainstorm - A Poem

During Emma Mcgann's song writing challenge I was inspired to write a mashup of all her 10 prompts into one poem. I'd taken notes and a few days later, started composing. 

The muses decided to redirect the narrative, to what became Brain Storm. 

473 - Eat the Rich! - Slam Poetry 01

 

It's pretty cool to be present in Twitch streams and get inspired into writing poems. That's how I participated in a challenge, changing it from song writing to poetry - you can read all 10 with the label 'EmmaMcGann'. 

Yesterday, I was in Kelli, aka Kelaska's stream, and during a conversation about rhymes, song VS poem composition with or without them, someone asked what rhymed with 'sausage'. 

472 - His Last Page - A poem

Emma Mcgann's song writing challenge is over, and now I finally arrive to its 10th and last prompt : The last page (e.g. inspiring book, conclusion, bitter end).

I decided to turn to science, using the Sun... with a touch of fantasy and science-fiction : a conversation between the Sun, and... left his correspondent's name out of this poem, but with some nods you may be able to puzzle and realize whom I speak about.... (if not, scroll down past the end to see , and there's also a  nod to Bilbo's butter quote)

PS : I used a creative-commons Nasa image of a Red Giant, and drew a star-looking viewscreen around. 

471- From Wall to Wall a tale of two parallel lives - a Poem

 

I'm working to finish Emma Mcgann's song writing challenge (it lasted 10 days from 17 to 26 April), each with its own prompt. If you recall, I'd converted it into poems, and I now come towards the very end with post #9, for which the prompt was "Parallel lives" (e.g. destiny, connection, contrast).

This one required a lot of thinking, as I wasn't sure how to approach the subject... I already know what I want to use this part of the prompt for my mashup, but inspiration for the main challenge was tardy. 

I read Emma's song, as well as members who posted in her Discord server for it, and it finally hit me with basic keywords, which I built around something that I wish had happened... so I expanded it to a story telling of something else (for which I obviously didn't ever want to participate in, as you'll see from the paragraphs below). 

Once composed, I realized this makes a tryptic with Prison Escape from day 4, and Unsent Letter to a Despot from day 8. 

470 - Unsent letter to a despot - a poem

 Emma Mcgann's song writing challenge is over, as it lasted 10 days (17-26 April), each with its own prompt. If you recall, I'd converted the challenge into poems, and I now post #8, for which the prompt was "unsent letter" (e.g. texts, lost words, apologies). 

I oscillated between trials of a light topic, but couldn't come up with more than a line or two, and a much much heavier topic, presented below. 

I must display a trigger warning, for psycho-emotional abuse, trauma and a tad graphic content - in a 388 word long text. 

469 - Roof of the Mountain - A poem

 Emma Mcgann's song writing challenge is over, as it lasted 10 days, each with its own prompt. 

As I converted the challenge into poems, and being slower, I'm now at my 7th - don't worry, I'll compose and post the others in the next few days, with a bonus in the works...

The prompt for this was "Silence" (e.g. solitude, quiet, abandoned), for which I chose to break from heavier topics, and wrote this about the silence and solace that nature offers, particularly on top of a mountain I love hiking to. 

The image above was taken there, and I took the artistic approach for the text, Mountain going upwards, around the macro attachment's view (this topic is mentioned below) 

468 - Strands of Shadows - A poem

 Day 6 – shadows (light & dark, illusive, ghosts,,,) in Emma Mcgann's song writing challenge - I'll remind you that I adapt the challenge to write poems. 

467 - A wonderful party - A poem

 

I got behind again, so I'm catching up with my poems, adapting from Emma Mcgann's song writing challenge.

Day 5 : Song of the seasons (e.g. autumn, christmas, halloween)

For this, I decided to write a fan-fic poem, and left a small hint as to which "wonderful party" I allude... 

466 - Prison Escape - a poem

 

Slowly catching up with my late poem posting, for Emma Mcgann's song writing challenge.

Day 4 : Time Travel (e.h history, make a chage, end of an era)

For this, I remain with the topics of mental illness, as it regards religious trauma, and thus warrants a trigger warning. 

465 - Shifting Greys - a poem

After several attempts which all stemmed into a current preoccupation of my depression, I kept the topic but managed to find a ray of light to end this poem for day 3's "Colors of Emotion" in Emma Mcgann's challenge. 

464 - Fixed Point - a poem

 

For day 2 in Emma Mcgann's challenge, I struggled so much to come up with an inanimate object, and one of the keywords Emma gave in the prompts was "wall" (that and the other details on her website).

463 - Dreamland : a poem

I wrote this poem because I wanted to stir my inspiration out of its slumber, and used Emma Mcgann's songwriting challenge prompt to create this poem - I'm not a song writer. 

At 197* words, it's shorter than my previous poems, but am still rather pleased with the result.