Hear Not the Call; Do Not Respond
©April 26th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Come, fly the skies with roaring cries!
We shan’t, we won’t, O Thunderbolt!
Oh come, release the tops of trees!
But you’ll not win, O Typhoon winds!
Let’s burn the shade from all these glades!
Oh, that’s not done, O blazing sun.
Let’s churn the seas into boiling tea
We shall refrain, O Hurricane!
Let’s split the heaven with flashes seven
We’ll all revolt, O Lightning bolt!
We’ll come in peace, make tumult cease
We’ll take a stand, and save this land.
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My first response to today’s NaPoWriMo prompt (Day 26 )
And last, but not least, our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that incorporates a call and response. Calls-and-responses are used in many sermons and hymns (and also in sea chanties!), in which the preacher or singer asks a question or makes an exclamation, and the audience responds with a specific, pre-determined response. (Think: Can I get an amen?, to which the response is AMEN!.). You might think of the response as a sort of refrain or chorus that comes up repeatedly, while the call can vary slightly each time it is used …
… The call can be longer than the response, or vice versa. But think of your poem as an interactive exchange between one main speaker and an audience. Happy writing!