Saturday, April 12, 2025

NaPoWriMo - April, 2025 - Poem: Venus and a Strix Nextdoor

NaPoWriMo 2025

04/12/25 - Day 12 of 30

NaPoWriMo.net Article


NaPoWriMo Prompt

And after all those shenanigans we, we bring you a very serious (or is it?) optional prompt. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem inspired by Wallace Stevens’ poem, “Peter Quince at the Clavier.” It’s a complex poem that not only heavily features the idea of music, but is structured like a symphony. Its four sections, like symphonic movements, play with and expand on an overall theme, using the story of Susannah and the Elders as a backdrop.

Try writing a poem that makes reference to one or more myths, legends, or other well-known stories, that features wordplay (including rhyme), mixes formal and informal language, and contains multiple sections that play with a theme. Try also to incorporate at least one abstract concept – for example, desire or sorrow or pride or whimsy.


My Poem

Venus and a Strix Nextdoor


What is a thirteen year old boy to do

When the duplex next door divides in two

His concept of body, soul, heart and mind

Into a bacchanalia entwined?


In one home a vixen of flaxen flair,

Seemingly innocent, without a care,

Seducing with sensuous curves and stares,

The boy will give all, enthralled by her wares.


Meanwhile thrall in the next house inspired

By a blind vampire in human attire.

Cruel psychic temptress draining his lifeblood.

The boy is dying to pour out red mud.


Venus on half of temptation’s dark shell.

Strix on the other, unseeing his hell.

Together they tether victim to vile.

The boy hasn’t surfaced in a long while.


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