Category Archives: poetry

In Others’ Words

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How to make a stained glass panel. 
It’s like falling off a log:
practice makes perfect!

Make a pattern for your pieces. Otherwise,
If you fail to plan, plan to fail.
Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

Select your glass,
half empty or half full.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Remember, the glass is
always greener on the other side.
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

Cut the glass.
measure once, cut twice.
If it ain’t broke, fix it.

Solder the pieces together.
Strike while the iron is hot.
A pane is only as strong as its weakest link.

Clean the glass panel.
Cleanliness is next to godliness.
The squeaky glass gets the streaks.

Hang your panel in a safe place.
People who live in glassed houses
should not throw stones.

Admire your work.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
All’s well that ends well.

It’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo)!

Day Twenty-Seven prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: Start by reading Robert Fillman’s poem, “There should always be two.” Now, write your own poem in which all the verses contain the same number of lines (whether couplets, triplets, quatrains, etc.) and in which you give the reader instructions of some kind.

unsown

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It's time, my little raised bed garden.
This is the year I’ll plant the seeds,
and you will have them grow
a copious crop of carrots, peas and such
as I have yet to determine.

No more a fallow field of failed fecundity,
unfilled, unfulfilled… fill in the blanks.
In fairness, also faultless, as it was I who –
in seasons past – failed to plant the seeds.

A battlefield devoid of bullets.
I did not engage the enemy weeds.
No tanks rolled in to claim the ground,
no trenches dug to shelter in. 
I fled, falling, failing, foiled, felled…
so many four-letter f-words can apply.

A shallow grave without a body, living or dead.
Unsullied by shovels, spared of spades 
that may have turned up sweet surprises,
or skeletons with bleached, broken bones and 
smiling skulls. 

But not this year!
This year I will 
quell the weeds, 
plant the seeds,
and watch my 
raised bed garden grow.

It’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo)!

Day Twenty-Five prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: write a poem in which you use at least three metaphors for a single thing, include an exclamation, ruminate on the definition of a word, and come back in the closing line to the image or idea with which you opened the poem.

I didn’t ruminate on definitions, I suppose, but I had fun playing with words!

Not All There

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Gerard Sekoto, Police Man on a White Horse in the Fields (1959)
Some days you’re there, but maybe not. 
Part way there and part way... where? 
How does one choose which parts 
to bring along on any given day? 

Some days you see things
that may or may not be what you see.

Some days the only thing that matters
is that the horse you are riding 
has all four feet and seems to know
where he is headed.

dVerse Poetics prompt: Exploring the Art of Gerard Sekoto.

For today’s Poetics prompt, Melissa challenges us to “choose one of the paintings featured in [today’s dVerse] post and base your poem on it. Write whatever comes to mind as you explore the colors and images of the painting. Please let us know in your post which painting you’ve chosen and credit the artist.”

I chose the painting featured above, “Policeman on a White Horse in the Fields” by Gerard Sekoto (1959). Thank you, Melissa, for the prompt.

It’s about

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You slither across sun-parched deserts,
wend through mossy forests,
slip between crevasses of glass and concrete

We skip together to the corner store for a soda and candy bar; 
we writhe as one, cornered in a dank, underground parking garage.

You come at us, push through us, leave us behind, then
swing back around like a Mobius strip to do it all again.

You take our hand on a warm, country afternoon
and we stroll in comfortable silence down sweet, forgotten lanes.
You cradle us in your fluid arms, whisper memories and dreams,
conjure hope and regret, satisfaction and despair.

We have too much of you, or not enough.
We bless you and curse you, and all the while,
your ineffable presence is steadfast, 
defining our very lives.

If you have taught me anything, it’s this: 
you should not be taken for granted;
if I fight you, I will lose; 
if I embrace you, I will find peace.

     Time waits for no one.
     Time marches on. 
     Time is on my side…

So many misconceptions we have about you.
It's no wonder we continue to waste you.

It’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo)!

Day Sixteen prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: write a poem in which you describe something that cannot speak, and what it has taught or told you.

Cursory

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It hits my mailbox 9 PM,
the Na-Po-Wri-Mo prompt is in.
I read it once, then twice again,
this challenge of poetic whim.

Waterfalls or blossomed trees,
poets of old would turn to these,
find inspiration on a breeze,
then from known words a poem tease. 

Not me! The laptop cursor blinks.
I read the prompt; begin to think.
pull up Thesaurus in a wink,
and if my rhyming really stinks…

A single keystroke and it’s gone.
Without a care I carry on.
When I decide this poem is done,
Hit “Save,” then write another one.

It’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo)!

Day Fourteen prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: write a poem that bridges (whether smoothly or not) the seeming divide between poetry and technological advances.

Enveiled

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Two laurels planted side by side,
their fates thus cast to coincide.
Before my time, I’m wont to guess;
their size so grand, both height and breadth. 

I know which limb I must address
to pull aside and gain ingress
a hollowed space ’neath entwined crowns
concealed by branches hanging down.

The dappled light, the shade-cooled breeze, 
the almond-scented leathery leaves;
In this dark space I can’t be seen
by passersby or go-betweens.

Here I can rest, soul at my side,
to learn the truths that here abide.
Two laurels planted side by side,
their fates now woven into mine.

It’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo)!

Day Thirteen prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: write a poem about a remembered, cherished landscape. At some point in the poem, include language or phrasing that would be unusual in normal, spoken speech – like a rhyme, or syntax that feels old-fashioned or high-toned.

Law Gone ~ an erasure poem

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(Text presented at bottom of post if you don’t want to wade through the erasures. )

Law Gone! Introduction: A Neatly Cut American Dream

Since the development of our earliest law,
a privileged founding father of America
sought to elevate our nation's fence 
for keeping out lives. 
He envisioned a wall like the aristocrat model.
Drive the streets today and you'll see one law 
flowing into the next. 

It's easy to see how the law became so popular.
When maintained with regular grooming, it can be
used for play and relaxation.
Installing a law is fairly tidy. 

Law culture applying -- and suppressants -- became
firmly entrenched and today many councils have codified
standards for a front. Just look at the law -- 
packed with big business. 

The Grass is Always Greener

The fact is, traditional laws aren't well suited to our country.
The particular, as well as the drought-prone law, 
often require copious toxic cover, 
require several hours of maintenance and the power
comes with a high cost. 
Today we have a better understanding of the law's impact.
We're tainted.

All around the country you can find a nation differentiated.
We deserve better -- and we can make it happen.

People hardly use the law, and it can seem awful to
maintain something that you never use.
Other types do a beautiful job of covering, and 
help reduce the law that afflicts so many.
Adapt and ultimately use fewer. You'll have the 
satisfaction of harming the environment. 
Let's reclaim our space. 

Law Gone! will show you how to remove the law.
Walk through the methods of law removal and 
install your new guard. 
If you have rules or ordinances to contend with,
minimize their impact. 
Find picks and experts to pinpoint plans. 

Explore the possibilities!

It’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo)!

Day Eleven prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own erasure/blackout poem. You could use a page from a favorite book, a magazine, what have you. It can be especially fun to play with a book you don’t know, particularly one that deals with an unfamiliar topic. 

I chose to usurp the introduction from the book Lawn Gone!: Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for your Yard by Pam Penick. My apologies to the author.