Interfenestration: National Poetry Month, Day Four

Today's vestigial word, "interfenestration" means the space between two windows. I decided to riff on opening up "the dirty window." Post your riff on your blog or enter the National Poetry Month contest at Writing Knights.

The Interfenestration
by Jack V Sage

The interfenestration

cannot be my motivation.

It's the space between the windows

but it doesn't have a view.

I need more inspiration than 

the interfenestration,

so I sit behind my window to

the world and peep at you.

I read about your children,

whether fuzzy or just fussy,

I check out what you had for lunch

and maybe dinner, too.

I read your darkest moments and

your biggest celebrations and

the interfenestration

seems to shrink between us two.

You read about my nightmares

and my wild imanginations,
celebrate peregrinations as
we lose a pound or two.

The interfenestration

cultivates imagination

as we all make art together,

and we write a poem or two.

Khaki Nation: National Poetry Month Challenge, Day Two

Not all laughter is good. When I read today's National Poetry Month word, "cacchinate," and listened to it's pronunciation, I heard a laugh that smacked of death and decay, not encouragement and enlightenment. I chose to use a form of the word, rather than the word itself, because it brought to mind the concept of a Khaki Nation, conforming out of fear of being cast aside. The Khaki Nation is the opposite of of the AWOL Nation, the nation whose citizens are out there flying like squirrels, jumping off buildings like characters in a video game, living lives in fast-forward. Don't forget to submit your poems to Writing Knights Roundtable, or post them on your blog.

Khaki Nation
by Jack V Sage

They drive along in electric cars,
with khaki pants knife-pressed,
blue collars pretending to
promotion to white.

Ash rises to form a humanoid shape.
Aswirl with ambition,
it cacchinates,
its laughter writhing toward the ear.

They hunch their shoulders
as they drive along, heedless.
Ignoring the wraith
as it cacchinates once more.

All they see is the finish line,
hazy in the distance,
as they ignore the chest pains
to stay in motion on the wheel.

Cacchination underpins the Khaki Nation.
It prods its victims toward its greedy maw,
chewing their lives and spitting
the bones of their dreams in a heap.

How to pronounce "cacchinate."

The Agelast: National Poetry Writer's Month Challenge, Day One

This year's National Poetry Month writing prompts are based on vestigial words. Vestigial words are those that no longer are in common use, or their current meaning no longer connects with their physical origin. For example, fewer and fewer people read a newspaper that can be touched, smelled, seen and heard. Most read their daily news on a mobile device or from a computer screen, instead.

Part of poetry comes from the sounds of the words being used. Since fewer people listen to poetry, the sounds of archaic terms are passing from our common consciousness. By using vestigial words as writing prompts, we can all help prevent the loss of the sounds that make up our language.

The Agelast
by Jack V Sage

The agile-assed agelast 
walked right past the fragile ghast.
"I'll live forever," said the gent,
"It was from laughter that ghast went."

And so away he, mirthless, ran.
And never did he laugh again.
Outlived his grandkids, one and all
refusing each of Laughter's calls.

Today's word, "agelast," means "person without mirth," or "one who never laughs."

Here is how to pronounce agelast.

Writing Knights Roundtable: NaPoWriMo Poetry Contest