Category Archives: Poem

Bugbear

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Bugbear

My bugbear really is a bear, but it does more than bug me.
When I take a walk in woods, I fear that one will hug me.
I shake in terror every time I hear a dry branch crack,
afraid that I might have a bear descend upon my back.
My footsteps are deliberate. I do not want attention,
fearing that a grizzly bear will demand my detention.

At church camp I stayed with the group as we walked to chapel,
imagining a black bear with his sharp claws like a scalpel
ripping through my backpack and shredding through my tee,
getting down to business. Getting down to me.
When father saw something was wrong as he heard my confession,
he said that i could tell him all, that it was his profession

to listen to the foibles and the fears of kids like me.
Whatever worries I might have, he could set me free.
And so I told everything—my excessive worry
that I might encounter something clawed and toothed and furry.
Then he disqualified my fears and did it in a hurry,
by saying that God put no bears in central Missouri!!!!

 

Prompts today are bugbear, profession, disqualified, deliberate, shake, chapel. Image by Mana on Unsplash.

In Bed at Midnight

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In Bed at Midnight

The small dog
snuggles closer,
chin on my computer 
keyboard, brown eyes
begging, “Love me!”
and I do.

Outside fireworks
celebrate the current
fiesta, holy day or wedding.

Wind stirs the Solari bell
that hangs from my
plumeria tree in the lower garden.

Celebratory whoops from some
party down the block.

Slow whirr of the ceiling fan.
Darkness pierced only by the light
from my computer screen.

Words in the night
fly in like bats to bring
the whole world
here into bed with me.
All is well–– as is usual in my world.

 

For the Weekend Writing Prompt # 300, the prompt is Midnight. We need to use exactly 94 words!!!  I hope the title didn’t need to be included in the word count….

 

Conjuring

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Conjuring

You are my homing pigeon, my wise old owl and dove.
My balsam for the pains of life, a well-remembered love.
Your presence is reality. It does not deviate.
You are a special part of life I can’t eradicate.
I breathe your name into the night and it draws you here.
Equal parts of holy and risque, you hover near.
And although your presence lasts mere minutes at a time,
it is time enough to prompt this laudatory rhyme!

 

Prompt words today are risque, name, balsam, deviate, reality and pigeon.

Musical Intercession

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Musical Intercession

If I delete the news from home and flip all my attention
to aspects of the world escaping major media’s mention—
consign my concentration to birdsong and the tide
that washes out world sorrows that I bear inside
and fills me with the opposite of what the news exports—
that awareness of perfection that is what nature reports—
my life becomes more peaceful as my mind is set at ease
by nature’s lullaby sung to the music of the bees.

 

Prompts today are delete, home, flip, consign, opposite, birdsong.

Kiss and Tell

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                   “How quick come the reasons for approving what we like.” – Jane Austen

Kiss and Tell

How did you make your way into my heart?
Quick, tell the answer before we next part.
Come into my comfort, then comfort me back.
The way of the pair beats the way of the pack.
Reasons are given for all that we do—
For the ways that we love and the ways that we woo.
Approving my actions in loving you is
What wins you my love and wins you this kiss.
We swear to each other that we will be true
Like all the lovers in storybooks do.

Like brides and their bridegrooms and lieges and kings,
We shall swear our obeisance and seal it with rings.
What others have done is what we will do.
Approving tradition will make one of two.
For the rest of our lives, if they revile and chide us,
Reason’s just one of the things that will guide us.
The love we keep strong will keep us together.
Come be my steed, and I’ll be thy tether.
Quick, take my hand and give me thy pledge.
How we’ll kiss in the meadow and roll in the sedge.

For dVerse Poets
This is actually a poem I wrote 8 years ago, inspired by a line of Jane Austen’s. Read the first word in each of my lines to see her line, first forward and then backwards.

and HERE is the prompt, if you’d like to kiss and tell yourself.

A Cautionary Tale

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A Cautionary Tale

I’m held spellbound by your plan. It is ingenious for sure.
You might be a benefactor and your motives may be pure,
but still you are a diplomat and know your way around
all of the maneuverings that daily may be found

in politics and daily life and so I wonder why
the minute that I said I’d sell, you made an offer to buy.
Is it, as you say, because you know I need the cash,
or are your motives otherwise and have I been too rash

in leaping at your offer? Perhaps I’ll look around
and see if there’s a better deal waiting to be found.
Conspiracies are floating ’round. I hear there is an air full.
In politics and real estate, you cannot be too careful.

 

Prompt words today are spellbound, why, benefactor, ingenious, diplomatic. Image by Maria Lin Kim Luhn on Unsplash

Flipped

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Flipped

Do you feel a bit off-kilter,
like your life has lost its filter,
friends are either crass or boring,
same old stories leave you snoring,
news from north, east, west and south
has you foaming at the mouth?

What politicians have to say
more like folklore every day?
The world more than you can abide
now that our heroes all have died?
How do you sift the lies from fact—
determine how you should react?

Ladies and gents, I have to say
that I do not know the way
to save a world that’s in a pickle.
Best that we just toss a nickel
and see what way the flipped coin goes.
Heads are yesses, tails are noes!!!!

Prompt words today are filter, boring, foaming, react, folklore and lady. Image from Unsplash.

Musical Arrangement: FOTD, Feb 17, 2023

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For Cee’s FOTD

Surprise Ending

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Surprise Ending

When friendship flares to romance with a speed that is flammiferous,,
what’s thought to be just kinship might turn out to be splendiferous.

. . . . and you must find it ironic
that regard you thought platonic
(more a brother or a cousin)
now brings roses by the dozen
as a symbol of affection
that somehow escaped detection
all those years you were “just” friends,
and that is how your story ends.

Loves that come about from friendings
are the happiest of endings!!!

 

Prompts today are ironic, symbol, romance, kinship, dozen, flammiferous. Image by Nick Karvounis on Unsplash.

Absent Hearted, Feb 14, 2023

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Absent Hearted

On the shirt tails of Christmas and the dregs of New Year’s Eve,
comes a celebration only the most naive
dare to overlook and refuse to celebrate
by offering a valentine and/or a special date
with sentimental offerings—a heart-shaped box of candy.
(Jewelry or even a small bouquet is dandy.)

I advise you take my wise advice and that you beware.
If you do not mind me and sit there in your chair
viewing reruns on TV and do not heed my warning,
take me at my word. You will be punished in the morning.
Your breakfast will be cold.  Also, your spouse’s shoulder
will, without a doubt, be forty degrees colder!

Prompt words today are celebrate, punish, dregs, sentimental, chair.  Images all from Unsplash.