N is for nonce poems

 

So… for some reason, I got stuck on the letter N. Which is odd. There are plenty of N words to write about. Among them would be niece, nose, napkin, nuts, newspaper, neighbor, nephew, nickel… But still, stuck. Until the idea came to me to write a poem. And use a poetic type that started with the letter N. What I found was “nonce.” Nonce?What the heck is nonce? I did a bit of research and found that a nonce poem is a poetic form created by the poet for one-time use. 

There is something so right about using a made up poetic form after having “normal” life interrupted for a year by a virus that is now madly mutating, even as more and more people get vaccinated. Oh, wait. Normal begins with N. But what is normal? I would say that I no longer have a clue but maybe I never did. So here goes. A nonce poem about normalcy or the lack thereof.

First, for the form.

Seventeen lines: lines one & 17: three syllables

lines two & 16: four syllables

lines three and 15: five syllables

lines four and 14: six syllables

lines five and 13: seven syllables

lines six and 12: eight syllables

lines seven and 11: nine syllables

line eight and ten: ten syllables

line nine: eleven syllables

And now to make up the poem, using the nonce form that I just made up for the occasion.

Normal life

has disappeared,

squashed by a disease

spreading relentlessly.

Quickly cover your faces,

and, for heaven’t sake, don’t sing!

Have you noticed that stinks don’t stink

and that your food is a tasteless mess?

Tastes used to dance gently on your tongue

but now, fear has found a home in your brain.

Is it your turn to get a vaccination?

what makes you sneeze? Perhaps it’s tree pollen?

Has Dr. Google diagnosed you?

You work yourself up to panic

because of competing stories

posted on the internet.

you need a distraction.

to focus on health.

on joyous things.

You still live.

So, that’s my nonce poem. I hope that you’ve enjoyed the idea of a nonce poem and that, maybe, you’d like to write one of your own.