Sarah L Dee Napowrimo 2025

Compare your everyday present life with your past self. I wasn't sure of anything and am less sure now. It's possible to calculate your days, some say By working out the average and then subtracting. I can say this was something I never thought of  I can work out the passing of time in bluebells, I can work out the passing of seasons and lessons. I am more sure of this as every year leaves traces,  The fallen petals of the flowers' birth rebirth  I can work out the trajectory of things By the direction of the flight of birds Only now do I recognize the effort They tire of, flying back to us

 Day 28  A six-line poem comprised of a statement, a question and a conclusion.  There is a red kite above the houses -  is it bird or a child's  toy? Please specify. So it is bird- nested in my knowledge, its cry twice on the website, listed as call and begging. It is calling and I hope the birds tend to their chicks - when there is a storm, it sends the trees to swaying

  The villanelle Speak of souls born other than our kind, A deer in the shopping mall, spine taut and front legs funny - Seeking some purchase in this country of money   These creatures redefine theory of mind - They say we are less rational than monkeys - Speak of souls born other than our kind   We are puzzling and puzzling the true design, How honeycomb becomes the honey - Seeking some safety in the country of money   So the young deer careers as if he’s blind At the smell of some pale hunter coming - Speak of souls born other than our kind,   He runs for sanctuary, if there’s sanctuary to find Among the flowers and the river running Seeking some purchase in this country of money   The silver deer is the lone deer child And the parents will search in vain for something, We speak of souls born other than our kind, Seeking some purchase in this country of money

Love is a breach in the walls, a broken gate, Rupert Brookes I used to read of the siege of Constantinople But did I compare it to love Well no But the sultan did Drop a massive iron chain Across the narrow neck of the Bosphorus And dragged it so no ships Could pass And later, some greedy greek official may Have opened a forgotten door In the ancient walls by what is now fatiye Enough to slip a spy through- Poison the water  Or  Later, the sultan fired bombardments  And bombardments of great cannon Which staggered back after each volley The stones splintering like teeth   Old city quaking And maybe people All across this grand sickbed of a  city Of our love are waiting. Future  defenses To be breached and the bricks Painted in blood or gold And maybe we are tired As sad faced businessmen At the ending of a  millennia old empire A woman can be only so much A creation in a  dress made  from peace time years If bureaucracy was A paper flowe...

 Portrait of a child as Frank Sinatra It was not the music itself But the way the record settles on the player And the unexpected weight of it The 78 And it was as if evenings We’re bottled and poured as measures One for my baby Me and lotte lenya Tilly Loch, Lotte Lenya's lover and surrealist dancer Getting out of the bath And waking up the staircase of the central hall Of her husband’s mansion Left wet footprints on the carpet Which he later would have woven Into the design And followed when he was lonely Oh Lotte of the 4 husbands I would sing odd and lonely in the evenings The songs of Brecht and Weill Listening to the original recordings That sublime rasp of a voice Everything the absolute opposite. To my sheltered self Who would never dare but had such Fascistic control over myself. Lotte Lenya smoked and married  and was alone and loved and sang And the ship  The black freighter  Hauled its weight , sloughed anchor, And settled in port  As the pirates sto...

  The venn The venn diagram of us interacts  Not so much intersects  as breaks their bubbles and swallows up When we're cold, the barriers immutable  Are solid You know the magic trick where the rings interlap That’s us that’s us  That’s us Unless it can be proved that  We are not And the rings fall apart The venn diagram of us interacts  Two become trefoil Or some rough alchemy You know the new leaf That is three in one. From two That’s us that’s us You know the lonely petals. That’s us too We have likes in common But we also have hatred This is where your worst behaviour. Seeps into and joins into the best of mine. Reverse it . Make it thoughts. Make it colours For too long we've been subset Facing subset. Allowing statistics to map  And to define geometry, Laying out The diagram of us