NaPoWriMo Day 14: "New York, New York"

Today's NaPoWriMo prompt: "English has lots of words that look like other words. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem that incorporates homophones, homographs, and homonyms, or otherwise makes productive use of English’s ridiculously complex spelling rules and opportunities for mis-hearings and mis-readings."

Today's PAD prompt: "For today’s prompt, pick a state (or province, territory, etc.), make it the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. A few possibilities include New York, California, Ontario, Bavaria, and Champagne. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Feel free to bend this in any direction you wish."

So. I can't say the prompts inspired me to anything deep today (I've already written serious poems about Manhattan and Ajijic this month, so another serious place-based poem didn't call to me right at this moment). But, amazingly, I managed to pull off a triolet full of homophones and even a homonym title (which of course is what gave me the idea). And, I guess, it does represent for a state I love that deserves more respect.

New York, New York

New York, New York -- it’s two.

Consider all it is, that makes it great.

You understand if that’s the place you grew,

New York. New York: it’s too

easy to forget about the not-so-few

out in all that landscape -- an entire state.

New York / New York. It’s to

consider all it is that makes it great.

--Draft by Anne Myles. Please do not copy/quote/cite without permission.