Unpinnable Poetry

In the Q&A with Natalie Diaz called “Energy” by Jacqueline Woodson in the March/April 2020 Poets&Writers Magazine, Natalie Diaz surprised me with the word, “unpinnable.” She saidd, “I learned quickly that myth is what makes me dangerous—the ability to make a rock weep for its creator, a way to say the river runs through my body, a way to say you are my eye. When America says myth, they mean we’re unpinnable, and out of time, from before the beginning.”

Unpinnable makes me think of a colorful butterfly that can’t be caught. As the net approaches, it flits into another dimension, or is so fast, it appears so. Unpinnable makes me think of a picture on a bulletin board that constantly falls to the floor. Something that can’t be pinned up, pinned down, or pinned to. Only soft and porous objects are pinnable, but unpinnable appears to be a descriptor for

The Prompts

NaPoWriMo : write a poem that begins with a line from another poem (not necessarily the first one), but then goes elsewhere with it.

PAD Challenge : Write a maximum poem

Today’s Poem

Shark Signalling

(Sharks are listening right now, I’m sending out signals)
I can’t help it tried to silence with distraction
but it was full of sharp teeth each biting through the last
sore spot. The bait and switch triggering
Maximum Hormonedrive

(Sharks are listening right now, I’m sending out signals)
I can’t help it it’s chemical out of my control
salt water tears their siren song have stopped, but I don’t trust
for long. Unexpected downcastness waves
Maximum Coverage

Broadly to the max

from hope to despair
the sharks are listening
They’re everywhere, circling
I’m sending out signals
with salty psychic energy
the bait and switch
of his electricity
may be the death of me
Maximum Deeperdive

See you tomorrow!