Category Archives: Poem

Married to the Sun

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Married to the Sun

One ray makes an incision through a layer of cloud to land
like a stream of gold upon my outstretched hand.
It is no illusion that its trail of liquid gold
winds around my finger. It’s a beauty to behold.

All my life, it’s true I’ve not belonged to anyone,
but now it is official. I am married to the sun.
Why else would just one sun ray make the decision to linger
of all the places in the world, only upon my finger?

 

Prompt words for today are trail, liquid, illusion and linger.

Natural Beauty

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Natural Beauty

She’s so ravishing that she needs no adorning,
so lovely that she should come with a warning,
“Don’t alter or ornament, polish or buff.
Just as she is, she is more than enough.”

Don’t give her a fringe. Don’t mascara her eyes.
She’d be less than she is. Don’t attempt to disguise
what nature has given. It cannot be bettered.
Just let her perfection be seen thus unfettered

by ribbons or ruffles or buttons or bows.
Leave her with the ornaments that nature chose:
bright eyes and long lashes and raven-black hair,
slim ankles, long legs and a trim derriere,

a smile that is innocent, mind without guile,
an inborn sense of movement and style.
She’s a rich vein of gold not in need of refining—
a natural girl not in need of defining.

The traits she was born with should not be waylaid.
Don’t betray the choices that nature has made.
Look around at perfection that’s all around you.
Just by itself, it’s enough to astound you.

 

Prompt words today are fringe, ravishing, warning and betray. Unless otherwise stated, all images on this blog are by me.

Pieces of Toast

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Pieces of Toast

They dip into
the smooth
round yolk
of a fading dream.

They interfere,
these conscious words,
an uninvited jentacular
mob that enters

without invitation,
shedding their crumbs.
I make exception
and surrender
control,

accepting
their sharp crisp corners
into the broken centers
of my smooth round
subterranean
stanzas.

Words for the day are mob, interfere, jentacular and exception. Image by Mae Mu on Unsplash. Used with permission.

Also, for dVerse Poets Open Link Night

 

Lighthouse Point: Lynn’s Tuesday Picture Prompt

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Photo by Lynn

Lighthouse Point

A rocket shape
stabs the landscape,
white and stark.
But in the dark,
its road of light
cuts through the night.

Strong and sure,
confusion’s cure,
it guides the lost
and tempest-tossed
to safety’s shore,
the stuff of lore.

A beacon streaming,
bright and beaming,
guiding lost souls
past coral shoals
through froth and foam,
securely home.

For Lynn’s Tuesday Picture Prompt, Week 30

SWC Challenge: Winter Weather

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Snow’s Epilogue

We can’t count the snowflakes nor put them into order.
They fall to make a blanket or a pile or a border.
They come in a blizzard and leave us in a trickle. 
There’s something about former snow that is so very fickle.
It drips in drops from icicles and surges down the gutters.
Our attempts to modify it end in futile mutters.
I need not be prophetic to state the truth of snow.
It starts out in a flurry and ends up in a flow.

 

SWC Challenge: Winter Weather

Ulterior Motive

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Ulterior Motive

When you take me to the gym for our initial date,
do you mean to intimate you find me overweight?
You blanket me with strategies for my self- improvement
and give me tips on dieting and exercise and movement,
then hand over your business card as a personal trainer,
saying you require a small amount for a retainer.

Because your gaze was mesmerizing, I became distracted,
but now I think that this first “date” will not be reenacted.
I see now that the signal in your eyes when they met mine
was not infatuation, but simply a money sign.
When it comes to self-improvement, I know what I must do.
The first option that I’ll exercise is getting rid of you!

 

Word prompts today are blanket, intimate, mesmerizing and distracted.

Cease and Desist Order

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Cease and Desist Order

My car’s due for an overhaul, but unlikely to get it.
My dog could use a clipping, but I’m not going to vet it.
I’m balking at improvements. I like things as they are.
I don’t want people poking at my dog or at my car.

Though my house might be enlivened by another coat of paint,
I like the faded, peeling look. I think it’s sort of quaint.
And though my coat is tattered and fraying at the hem,
it is my favorite garment—my closet’s unset gem.

You won’t wrest it from my clutches, for my grasp is strong and sure.
There’s not one thing in my whole life that’s needful of a cure.
So let my grass grow longer and let last fall’s leaves lay.
Let us all just rest here to molder fast away.

I do not want a face lift. I’m fine the way I am.
I have no need for beauty aids to make me look more glam.
When it comes to your suggestions, I must beg for their surcease!
All things don’t need improvement. You can let things age in peace.

 

 

Prompt words today are wrest, overhaul, balk and liven. First photo by Forgottenman. Second photo thanks to Curology on Unsplash. Both photos used with permission.

 

Zoo Snafu

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Zoo Snafu

When first he thought he’d try to woo,
he took his date out to the zoo.
He  paid her way and opened doors,
protected her from wild boars
that were, of course, all kept in cages,
viewers safe from all their rages.

Nonetheless he fantasized
that his date must be surprised
at his bravery and daring-do
as demonstrated at the zoo.
Later on, he thought it best
that they should have a little rest.

To fuel them for their promenade,
bought hot dogs, fries and lemonade,
then found a bench and sat them down
somewhere near to monkey town.
He found a napkin and tucked it in
somewhere between her neck and chin,

daubed mustard from her upper lip,
Oh, he was gallant, polite, hip!
Then, after they had had a rest
he thought perhaps it would be best
to resume their stroll to view
the llamas and the kangaroo.

When they loitered for awhile
‘tween hippos and the crocodile,
he thought it might not be remiss
to try to steal a little kiss.
And self-assured she wouldn’t mind,
he worried about just what kind.

Should it be passionate or peck?
Oh her lips or on her neck?
Would it be a sin of remission
not to ask for her permission?
And should his hands go high or low?
How was a kiss-rookie to know?

So, in the end, he shook her hand
between the gnu and the eland.
Then they resumed their galavanting—
monkey, lion, elephanting—
Better not to act in haste.
Thus this first date, alas, was chaste.

Prompt words for today are galavant, remiss and assured.

Selective Memorabilia

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Selective Memorabilia

Leftover bits of brilliant past acts
help enliven today’s less illustrious facts.
In avoiding the present, we can overlook
the unplanned digressions that our lives took.
Memory’s like an expandable shelf
where we can stack up our reminders of self.
We can keep all the good stuff and throw out the bad—
all of the upsets and down times we’ve had.
We can tack up our ribbons, trash each demerit
and just hoard a memory if we can bear it!

Prompt words for today are leftover, avoid, brilliant and enliven. The photo is a detail from one of my mixed media collages.

Stating the Obvious

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Stating the Obvious

Though we make new resolutions for this fresh year that’s been born,
let no laurel wreaths be woven, our foreheads to adorn.
Renewing hope won’t work unless we also prove our worth
by stemming global warming by cleaning up our earth.
By curbing population growth and making room for all
of nature’s other species on this great blue ball.
If we have learned nothing from past foibles, then I fear
there’ll be no improvement over our last dreadful year.

Prompt words for this first day of the new year (Yay!) are fresh, adorn, resolution and renew. Image by Markus Spiske on Unsplash. Used with permission