NaPoWriMo Day 17: And now for our (optional) prompt. Today, I challenge you to write a nocturne. In music, a nocturne is a composition meant to be played at night, usually for piano, and with a tender and melancholy sort of sound. Your nocturne should aim to translate this sensibility into poetic form! Need more inspiration? Why not listen to one of history’s most famous nocturnes, Chopin’s Op. 9 No. 2?

meditation on quiet night

The jolt of suburban late afternoon evolves into

the orange gold line demarking

day from night like lamplight

under a closed door.

Evening sounds settle slowly

the robin’s last remark vibrating

as the moon ascends coolly silver.

I watch the fluttery wings of the bat,

movements as erratic as its feast;

the barred owl calls plaintively

a brief sojurn before northward winging.

Meditatively moments resting

the embrace of darkness and illumination

of sequential concepts in stillness

end 4/17/2017

S. Darlington