Well, this is it, guys. As you know, all good things must come to an end, including my friend Muri’s 2023 National Poetry Month challenge. https://murisopsis.wordpress.com/2023/03/31/looking-at-nonce-forms-for-npm/ To be honest, I thought my last post might be it. But a Zig Zag Sonnet (prompt #13) manifested itself before the deadline. A Zig Zag Sonnet is just like a regular sonnet—except for the rhyme scheme. The first word of line 1 rhymes with the last word of line 2, the first word of line 3 rhymes with the last word of line 4, etc, etc. Also, the 14 lines are divided into three quatrains and a couplet.
I’m a decent cook and prepare dinner for myself and my husband most nights. I used to enjoy inviting people over for dinner, but I gave it up because it was too difficult to accommodate everyone’s special needs. How do you whip up a meal that conforms to everybody’s likes and dislikes but is vegan-friendly, gluten-free, dairy-free, MSG-free, and not too spicy? I don’t know either. My neighbor is a military veteran, like us, and he lives by himself. Now and then, if we had extra food at dinner-time, we would take him a plate. I have never met another diner who was so easy to please. He is dietarily un-challenged and willing to try whatever I bring him. Over time, it became a “thing,” and we take him dinner almost every day now. He has loved everything thus far and his high praise makes me feel like a culinary goddess. As if that weren’t reason enough to keep feeding him, he’s meticulous about washing and returning my containers.
SPECIAL DELIVERIES FROM THE GALLEY
Labor of love—fixing an extra plate
at dinner, taking it to our neighbor.
Everything is “the best he’s ever had.”
He’s adventurous; he’ll try anything.
Thai curry too spicy for most doesn’t
rattle him, this Clean Plate Club alumni,
keen to expand his palate and broaden
his horizons. But even quite routine
dinners, like meatloaf and mashed potatoes
or macaroni and cheese, are winners.
“Like living aboard a cruise ship,” he says.
“Another splendid surprise every night.”
Fat-headed and flattered, I ask myself,
How do you not cook for a guy like that?
JUST JOAN 42 
He seems like a guy who’s in little danger of starving to death.
Interesting poetry style, where the first word of a couplet rhymes with the last. Seems like there’s an endless variety of poetry styles, and you’ve introduced quite a few on your blog.
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Thanks, Tippy. Muri’s 2023 NPM Challenge was all “nonce” forms (not recognized in the poetry world, just invented by a poet who hopes maybe they will be someday). It’s all the same to me. Give me some rules and let me at it. My neighbor isn’t going to starve, for sure. He may have to buy bigger pants, though.
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Well, you did a great job, in my view. I think you have a good head and heart for poetry.
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Joan this was magical! I love how you wove the story and zigged and zagged across the poem. The month may be over but the NPM scavenger hunt still rolls on. So many people had committed to other challenges and prompts that they asked if they could do this in May and beyond… The end is not the end! Please feel free to allow your marvelous muse to wander among these nonce forms and gather inspiration! We would all be enriched by your talent and wit!!
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Thanks, Muri. I think I’ve completed all the prompts, but I’ll check back to see how other people are responding to them. The poetry class I took in 2015 had 12 students. We were given a prompt every week and every week, that prompt was achieved 12 different ways. I loved seeing all those ideas blossom, and marveled at the variety of paths our brains take in response to the same suggestion.
PS: my neighbor reads my blog. He thought he might cry! And said he was going to send the link to his daughter, who would get a kick out of it.
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Well done (or maybe medium rare), Joan. I can understand your frustration of all the “can’t eat this, but can only eat that if it is Thursday noon, etc.” It drives me crazy too, but then I am a discriminating eater (sounds better than picky eater), but I don’t have all those issues….just no pine nuts.
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I used to eat anything and everything and I still would if I could. Lactose intolerance has made dairy off limits. No coffee unless I have ready access to a bathroom. Super spicy things come back at me when I lay down to sleep. I get that people have to live with certain limitations. I just don’t want to cook for a bunch of them.
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Nor should you! We’ve suddenly got vegetarians among the grand-kids, but I wonder how long that will last. In the meantime, we are accepting their choices.
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I believe good manners should supersede discriminating eating habits. Admittedly, I’m a food snob and a bit of a health nut, but if someone offers to feed me, I’m all in. Like you, I’m a sucker for anyone who tells me my food is the best.
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I hear you, JRR. There’s a difference between not wanting to eat something and not being able to. My family has learned to work with our limitations at holiday dinners. Yes, you can make mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and many desserts dairy-free. But I still have to be careful. Even ruder than turning down food is blowing up somebody’s bathroom.
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