Thursday, April 14, 2011

Word & Question 11

I'm always late to my own turn at hosting. I apologize for the delay, but here it is. If you're curious about the game, check out this page. Next month's host will be Lindsay over at Very Sleepy People. Maybe I answered the question, maybe I didn't. It's all very interpretive.

Day, Night, Morning
Carrots and hummus one warm afternoon
Humid spring breezes that search out the room
Playing cards, music, and crape myrtle blooms
Spiced Cajun rum and a hot air balloon

Street preachers call out the sinners who pass
Doormen in tuxes sell gold made of brass
Drunk in a doorway a man sleeps with trash
Somewhere down the street fly beads and a flash

Glowing lights advertise unseemly things
Trumpets play Armstrong and other jazz kings
Hurricanes dance the piano bar swing
Strippers walk home wearing t-shirt and jeans

Early next morning in Jackson Square
Readers and painters set out all their wares
Sinners drink coffee, eat beignets and stare
At penitents climbing up cathedral stairs.

Word: carrot
Question: Have you noticed?

8 comments:

  1. The chap who posed the question (your obt servt) believes you answered it splendidly! Really, Mr B, this is perhaps my favorite of your poems! Vivid imagery, bringing the Crescent City alive, and making quadruple rhyme seem unobtrusively effortless!

    My entry in this month's challenge falls short in a number of ways, but I did enjoy writing it! Here it is.

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  2. Like the imagery very much. The second lines of the first three stanzas particularly.

    Here is my entry this month, a little whimsical, and hopefully as much fun to read as it was to write.

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  3. I enjoyed this. It makes me want to go visit my daughter's friend Kate, who lives there. And it also reminds me that the "poetry" in a particular magazine I read could benefit from the people who play this game. Maybe I should post a link...??

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  4. Dylan,

    Loved the question, once I figured out how to answer it. I'm liking this quadruple rhyme thing, and found the extra effort to maintain a form worth it this time. I'm growing as a person.

    J,

    Glad you enjoyed it. My personal favorite line was the crape myrtles, partly because that's the line where I realized I'd have to work to finish this one properly. It was a sort of break through.

    Ellen,

    Visit away. It's a lovely city, even in its occasional seediness.

    All,

    Thanks for your comments. We still await E and Lindsay. I'm anticipating something brilliant from each of them. For my part, I'll read and comment on everyone's when I return from my travels, that way I can remind you to read my adventures :).

    Cheers.

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  5. +JMJ+

    I love it! =D

    I didn't guess what you were talking about until "beads and a flash" (*giggle*), but that makes me like it even more. Do you live in New Orleans? You have a way of embracing both the loveliness and the seediness in a way I associate with loyal locals.

    Here is my own offering: W&Q 11

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  6. So, finally, my poem is posted. http://salomeellen.blogspot.com/2011/05/word-and-question-11.html

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  7. Mine: http://verysleepypeople.com/2011/05/02/word-question-11/

    I'll be revisiting everyone's poems soon, probably this weekend.

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  8. E,

    No, I don't live there, but my dad's family is from there and I've been many times, both as a child and a few times as an adult. It is a sort of cultural touchstone for me, being full of the south (though it's own unique version), of catholicity, and of blues and jazz and booze and beignets.

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