Thursday, April 12, 2018

Day 12 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2018


Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: "For today’s prompt, write a lament poem. Maybe you lament a relationship or a missed opportunity. Or maybe it’s that doughnut (maybe speaking from personal experience). Whatever it is, today is the day to let it all out — in poem form, of course."

Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: "Today, we’d like to challenge you specifically to write a haibun that takes in the natural landscape of the place you live. It may be the high sierra, dusty plains, lush rainforest, or a suburbia of tiny, identical houses — but wherever you live, here’s your chance to bring it to life through the charming mix-and-match methodology of haibun."

This prompt is tied to "Our craft resource for the day . . . an essay by Aimee Nezhukumatathil on writing haibun — a Japanese form that blends prose-based travel writing with haiku." This is a wonderful essay, by the way: "More than the Birds, Bees, and Trees: A Closer Look at Writing Haibun."

Merging both prompts, but not writing about my current landscape. Instead, the landscape where I grew up.

Lament for Childhood

The famed seven hills of San Francisco are actually myriad: hills and steep slopes everywhere in the seven-mile by seven-mile square of the city. Sidewalks that are stairways. Trees and houses clinging to ground that cant seemingly at 45°, climbing upward to starry skies. Small ethnic neighborhoods sprinkled around — Russian, Italian, Chinatown, the Black community of Fillmore Street, the Hispanic Mission District, Gay Castro — and the Haight Ashbury, the diverse, integrated neighborhood where I grew up before the hippies came. Downtown, in the Financial District, when I was a teenager, they built a new peak: the Transamerica Pyramid, tallest building in the city, vaulting up to the sky like the seven hills, a new eighth wonder to rival the world-famous towers of the Golden Gate Bridge. What a marvel, what a miracle, the city was in my childhood. Don’t call it Frisco. Native-born San Franciscans just say, The City. Living now thousands of miles away in snow country, I miss my hometown. Such deep richness and largeness of culture and utter beauty. San Francisco.

steep hills, The City —
pyramid skyscraper glows
in my child mind’s eye

—Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]


Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. To comment, look for a red line below that starts Posted by, then click once on the word comments in that line. If you don’t find the word “comments” in that line, then look for a blue link below that says Post a comment and click it once. Thanks!

Ingat, everyone.   


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4 comments:

Bruce Niedt said...

Hey Vince! I haven't visited your poetry in a while - really like this haibun. Reminds me of both my trips to SF several years ago when my son attended UC Berkeley. Ah, the topography - I remember stopping to lean against a tree during a particularly steep uphill trudge and feeling like I was actually SITTING on it! I wrote a poem about trekking up to Coit Tower - should share it with you. Anyway, glad to see you are again tackling the poem a day (both Robert's and Maureen's prompts I assume) - as am I. Drop by some time!

Vince Gotera said...

Thanks, Bruce! Coming to your blog now.

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