Soundtracked

Lists, Day 5: Some Poems I Wrote In The Last 365 Days.

Cool...this should be fairly easy actually. I'm pretty sure I've written more poetry in 2016 than 2015 and 2014 combined. I'm not doin' that math...I've already tracked down ten items I like that I'm at least somewhat fond of; the hard work will be the physical act of copy/pasting the item numbers.

I wasn't sure if this subcategory, "Poems you've written (or written this year)" meant "any poems you've ever written", or "any poems you've written within the last year", or "any poems written this year (2016)"...leave it to me to further complicate something so uncomplicated; I know what it says . I decided rather than ask dumb questions I shouldn't be asking in the forum or over IMs or emails I'm just gonna interpret it my own way and use stuff my fantastical little mind has committed to paper/server space in the last calendar year. Fair enough? If you're unsure, don't blame me today.

And to further subcategory today's list, I'm adding this caveat: all ten of these are now also my amended I'll Read One Of These (Or More) For "Poetry Readings"  Eventually...yikes! I knew Cinn read a bunch of hers already, and I've seen/listened to a couple others in the forum, but I didn't realize so many more people have jumped on this. Or time has gotten away from me, and I've totally swept this under the rug. And yeah, it was featured the other day in "Newsfeed Highlights"  but damn...there's one hell of a YouTube Playlist roster of WDC All-Pros there and I told people I was gonna do it and I need to just stop wanting to be fancy and hilarious about it and just do it. One of these days...I'm a busy person some of the time .

Anyway, the list, which is what we're all gathered here today to pay our respects to. Numbers 1-6 are taken from an unfinished collection of mostly super-awkward and depressing non-standard poetry-type words in a notebook called "Born Fat, Baby!" ; Nos. 7-10 are part of the perpetually-behind assemblage of non-polished works stemming from near-frustration for a little something known globally as "Give It 100!" , my attempt at "100"  poems in 100 days (which is insane and mentally crippling at times). Ok, enough stalling...

1) "One Less"  -This'll almost definitely be the first thing I read for Elle - on hiatus 's Poetry Reading forum. I uploaded it specifically because after my first failed attempt I wanted something short and easy, and this is. Plus it has absolutely no rhythm for me to get lost in.

2) "Cut Your Teeth"  -There was/(will still be, maybe) a lyrics contest being talked about awhile back (and it was part of the reason for branching off into this blog)...this was gonna be my leadoff piece.

3) "Goodnight America"  -Inspired by songs from Blur and Simon & Garfunkel one noisy late afternoon spent too much in public.

4) "The Broken Code For Remembering"  -I, uhhh, really like the title.

5) "Cryptogram"  -Not gonna lie...this is directly a result of a conversation involving the six words in quotations at the beginning. I don't write a lot of pieces like that anymore; I'm not really into that and it's not something I wanna pursue, but I'm happy with how it turned out more like an explanation than a diss track.

6) "Tired"  -Entered in Lyn's a Witchy Woman 's "Love Shouldn't Hurt Short Story Contest"  (which has just opened up a new round and is also now accepting short stories), and earned a ribbon in a 2nd Chance contest as well. It's a personal reflection on a terrible relationship that was also inspired in part by a blog prompt.

7) "Good Ideas"  -Yup, this is what I first recorded myself reading for Poetry Readings. It turned into hot, wet garbage when I read it out loud in front of my laptop with the webcam rolling. If/when I start reading, I'm gonna hafta get over myself with the quickness.

8) "I machine monster"  -There could be some serious snark if decide to fine-tune this and make it readable.

9) "and, again"  -Too many in the last year that have left us, but they also left us with amazing bodies of work.

10) "Major Bomb"  -Totally didn't see this coming, but I got a supercool MB today from Lostwordsmith because Elle nominated this for "Invalid Item"  (thank you both ). It's like a cousin of "Abandoned Ransom" ...sort of a dystopian, this world is fucked vibe that I've been creepin' on lately. But that's just my opinion.

11) And I haven't properly added it to "100"  yet, but it was entered yesterday in Sally 's neat little "Invalid Item"  contest...

In Dreams?

Wow, that took longer than I thought it would. But it's not a bad list, I don't think. I hope they're enjoyable, if you like to read that sort of thing...it's not "textbook poetry" and that's something I'll never be, but we can have that conversation somewhere else .