Souls (NaPoWriMo Day 12)

Image from Wikipedia's puddle page

Introduction

A soul is a small accumulation

Of liquid 

It can form either by pooling

In a depression

Or by tension

Upon a surface
That is flat

A soul is generally small enough

For an adult to step over

Souls can be a source of fascination

For small children

Small wildlife may be attracted

To souls

History

Medieval legend spoke of one man

Who was desperate

To find building materials

For his soul

So he stole cobblestones

From the road surface

The resulting hole

Filled with water

And a horseman who later

Walked through the “soul”

Actually found himself

Drowning

Effects on Transport

Souls commonly form in potholes

On a dirt road

Or in any other space

With a shallow depression

And dirt

In such cases these are known as

Mud souls

Because mud tends to form

In the bottoms

Resulting in dirtied wheels or boots

When disturbed

In cold conditions

Souls can form patches of ice

Which are slippery

And difficult to see

And can be a hazard

To road vehicles and pedestrians

Soul Management

Souls tend to evaporate quickly

Due to the high surface-area-to-volume ratio

And tend to be short lived

Souls that do not evaporate quickly

Can become standing water

Which can become polluted

With decaying organisms

Natural Souls and Wildlife

Souls in natural landscapes

And habitats

When not resulting

In precipitation

Can indicate the presence

Of a seep or a spring

And provide

Essential

Moisture

***

Napowrimo Day # 12: Today’s (optional) prompt is a “replacement” poem. Pick a common noun for a physical thing, for example, “desk” or “hat” or “bear,” and then pick one for something intangible, like “love” or “memories” or “aspiration.” Then Google your tangible noun, and find some sentences using it. Now, replace that tangible noun in those sentences with your intangible noun, and use those sentences to create (or inspire) a poem.

My "soul" information is from the Wikipedia page on puddles.  

Common

From Great Expectations, Chapter 9




...she had said that I was common,
and that I knew I was common,
and that I wished I was not
common,
and that the lies had come of it
somehow,
though I didn't know how.

But Joe
took the case altogether out
of the region of
metaphysics,
and by that means,
vanquished it.

If you can't get to be oncommon
by going straight
you'll never
get to do it
through going crooked.

Pause you who read this,
and think
for a moment
of the long chain of iron
or gold,
of thorns
or flowers,
that would never have bound you,
but for the formation of the first
link
on one
memorable
day.

Hello, blogworld!  I've been gone a long time, so I'm not sure if anyone is out there!  I'm trying to get back into the swing of things by using We Write Poem's prompt #109, which asks us to make a poem from another writer's prose. All credit for this, then, must go to Mr. Charles Dickens.  Please note: "oncommon" is not a typo.  It is how the character Joe says "uncommon."

I hope I die before I get old

Roger Daltrey fears end of Who,
says Pete Townshend’s hearing problems
may finally be too big

to overcome
If carrying on is going to mean
Pete going deaf, let's stop now,
he says,
entering old age in a silent world –
nothing is worth that
Our bodies are beginning
to give up on us
you have to be realistic—
I am 66 years old

And back in Hollywood
Bill Murray says that
Ghostbusters 3
will happen
over his dead body
It’s ridiculous,
he says,
a horrible rumor
The first one was still
the better one
so another one
wouldn’t be any better
The studio wants to make it
because they can re-create the franchise
and put new Ghostbusters in it
That's what it's about

Meanwhile handwritten lyrics
to a John Lennon masterpiece
made the news today (Oh boy)
the sheet of paper
is to be sold at Sotheby’s
in New York
on June 18
priced at $500,000 to $700,000
but is likely to fetch more
than the record $1 million
paid for the lyrics
to All You Need is Love
in 2005

Today's NaPoWriMo prompt from readwritepoem asked us to use headlines for inspiration. So, I came up with a kind of found poem based on three entertainment-related news stories I read on 3 different websites today. Links to the news stories are in the poem.

The poet realizes she has NEVER had an original idea...

This week's readwritepoem prompt was to cut up the words in a text (newspaper article, memo, anything), draw the words randomly, and write them down in that order. Then, we were to see what poem we could make with them. I used a memo about ordering textbooks for next semester as a vehicle for purging my poetic insecurities. The actual purge was less than successful, but I got this poem out of it. The words from the memo are in bold.


I’ve got that fraudulent feeling,
Like my work is nothing more than gum
On the bottom of a real poet’s shoe.

Like I’ve enrolled in a course
Without meeting the prerequisites.

Like the stanzas I send out into cyberspace
Have already been written,
Are in fact illegal adoptions,
Botched abortions,
Of select, sacred texts.

Like I’ve acquired my images by requisition,
Didn’t even say please,
For ideas illegally confiscated.

And soon,
I will be found out, punished.

Sentenced to a life term
At open mic night
In a bookstore coffee shop.
Where I am forced to read
My bastard verses
In an endless loop
To the English faculty from my alma mater
While I am naked
And they are clothed
In caps and gowns
And righteous disappointment.

Royal Pain

This week's readwritepoem prompt asked us to imagine an encounter with an historical figure. I've had Henry VIII on the brain lately...



I would go back in time
and teach you about Xs and Ys
and why your daughters
were your design, not
failures of your wives

And how they more
than lived, they thrived,
ruled after the passing of
your son, with daughters
there may be damage done
but they pick up their
skirts and carry on

One called bloody,
one called virgin,
neither of them
produced a son
both failures by
the standards you set
with daughters, you’d say,
that’s what you get

And yet each was stronger
than her brother
one lived to avenge
her pious mother
the other looked back
and saw the signs
a woman who rules
forgets the moon and tides

Unlike you she refused
to come undone
and place all her hopes,
in an imagined son.

All glory to the unwanted
daughter! Whose power
eclipses that of her father.

Science Proceeds (Found Poem)

Today's napowrimo prompt from readwritepoem is to write a found poem, in which you take a passage from someone else's prose and turn it into a poem. The following is from Mappings in Thought and Language by Gilles Fauconnier (google books).

Science proceeds
Indirectly it correlates
Surface phenomena

Interpreting them in
Certain ways
At the observational level
And hypothesizing deeper
And more general.

Relations and principles
Underlying the phenomena
Of our knowledge...

The universe is
Indirect!