in this bar too

ancient gods brood over

wine-dark seas

before light

a breeze murmuring

soundless words

massing clouds

my eyes strip the sky

of silence

new moon

lighting what's left

of the night

step by step

finding nowhere

to go

heaven

without a stairway

heads within

"The prompts for this month will all start with the letter N, and each week will have a parts-of-speech theme. Prompts for the first week will all be adverbs, followed by a week of adjectives, then nouns, and then verbs, all starting with the letter N. Please consider each word in terms of the category it’s offered in, even if an adjective might also be a noun, or a noun might also be a verb. You can include the word (or a form of it) in your poem, or let the prompt word take you in whatever direction you wish." 

 

ADVERBS

 

#1 now

 

now and then . . .

the lapping sound

of the moon

 

 

#2 noisily

 

dawn chorus . . .

light mimes its coming

noisily

 

 

#3 nervously

 

side to side

the coop intruder's

darting eyes

 

 

#4 nakedly

 

without guile

a prima donna's

death scene

 

 

#5 nonstop

 

ebb-tide moon

the ouroboros

trailing me

 

 

#6 nonchalantly

 

late summer . . .

cicadas shuffle sound

nonchalantly

 

 

#7 nearest

 

out of sight

a red dwarf hides

nearest

 

 

ADJECTIVES

 

#8 native 

 

the sound

my native tongue makes

reading haiku

 

 

#9 nuclear

 

mushroom cloud—

the nucleus of reason

grows unclear

 

 

#10 novel

 

time returns a novel way

 

 

#11 northwest

 

down under

the prevailing wind

wins over

 

 

#12 numeric 

 

one - no two

stars unable to

count on

 

 

#13 newfangled

 

haiku

mangled into

English stew

 

 

#14 neuter

 

worker bees

neither here

nor there

 

 

NOUNS

 

#15 nest 

 

cloud wisps

a bird's flight

from the nest

 

 

#16 nickel

 

fallen star

the value of nickel

in loose change

 

 

#17 nosebleed

 

autumn dusk

the darkening rose

of her sneeze

 

 

#18 neon

 

migrant smile

another buddha

goes neon

 

 

#19 nuance 

 

shifting light . . .

every nuance

of the rock

 

 

#20 notebook

 

ancient quill

secreting life 

in a notebook

 

 

#21 newlywed

 

newlyweds

a glowering sky

and her brow

 

 

VERBS

 

#22 nudge

 

rolling sky— 

a hedgehog nudges

past its past

 

 

#23 name 

 

earthbound voice

naming the one fall

that sticks

 

 

#24 nag

 

big bang— 

the past that nags

at my heels

 

 

#25 navigate

 

alone at last

a spider navigates

a wider web

 

 

#26 narrow

 

haiku—

my field of vision

narrows

 

 

#27 nominate

 

awake at dawn

tree bird and mountain

called by name

 

 

#28 neglect

 

half moon

making light of

drone targets