Our final daily resource is a pair of podcasts: Wacky Poem Life, sponsored by the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry (yes, there is a Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry!), and Haiku Chronicles, a podcast focused on haiku and related poetic forms.

And now for our last prompt of the year (still optional!) Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a palinode – a poem in which you retract a view or sentiment expressed in an earlier poem. For example, you might pick a poem you drafted earlier in the month and write a poem that contradicts or troubles it. This could be an interesting way to start working on a series of related poems. Alternatively, you could play around with the idea of a palinode by writing a poem in which the speaker says something like “I take it back” or otherwise abandons a prior position within the single poem.
I had written an index poem, ‘World on Fire’, on the 28th. Cheryl, from Gulf Coast Poet, suggested I write a companion poem that talks of the good in the world. Cheryl this poem is for you. It fits the prompt. My palinode is titled ‘Putting the fire out’

We will survive

Light in the darkness
United Nations
Independent nations-
Laos, Cambodia, India
Decolonisation
Space exploration
Technological innovation
Globalization

Rays of hope-
NATO
Glasnost* and Perestroika**
Fall in the Berlin Wall
Paris Peace Accord
Rise in developing nations
Polio vaccination
Reduction in poverty
Economic efficiency
Increase in life expectancy
Kyoto Treaty
Concorde
End of the segregated school system

All is not lost-
Women empowerment in Saudi
Malala Yousufzai
Access to education
Abolition of slavery
Internet revolution
Reuse, Recycle, Waste reduction
Digitalization
Fall in Berlin Wall
End of Cold War
Arab Spring
Covid resolution

We will survive-
Mother Theresa
Anthony Nolan Trust
Operation Beautiful
Red Cross
and others.

Every drop counts
The flames are dousing.
There is still beauty
and so much worth saving
poetry, music and art
Kind souls, good hearts
People who care

We’ve come a long way
We’ll get there
We need
to heed
the warning signs
And do what it takes
We’ll put the fire out
We’ll save the world.

@vishwanathsmitha2012

P.S. Since it’s my parents’ wedding anniversary today, I’ve also written a palinode of a poem I wrote two days ago on another group. The prompt was to write a triversen poem. A triversen is a poem of six stanzas. Each stanza is a sentence broken into three lines.

The poem that I had written on the 27th was

Your pictures on the wall

I love the way
the morning rays
fall on your faces.

It brings you to life
By lighting it up
In the right places.

I see a twinkle
In both your eyes
As I pass by.

Your cheeks glow warmly
like you can see
how much I long to see you'll.

I turn away quickly
'coz it's too hard to look,
and not want you back.

I live my life
knowing we'll never meet
again, in this lifetime.

My palinode for the above poem is

Your pictures on the wall

I dislike the way
the evening sky
casts a shadow on your faces.

The darkness of the night
reminds me
that you're no longer here

It makes your face look solemn
I go closer
You're smiling at me

Your face looks radiant
It relieves me
to see you'll at peace.

I stay for a while
looking at you
And wish you, 'Happy Anniversary'.

'It must feel good
to be together again
I love you both.'

To all those who’ve been reading my poems and commenting on them, I’d like to say, ‘Thank you’. I’m glad I could participate in another year of NaPoWriMo. I could go on only because of readers like you who’ve encouraged me along the way. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to complete it due to my other commitments. But, it’s done and I’m happy I could do it. Thank you for being the most wonderful readers.

Wishing you all a lovely week ahead.

Cheers