Category Archives: Poem

Night and Day

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Night and Day

I memorize your face, your hair,
your breath white light upon cold air.
Hours pass like minutes while
I chart the borders of your smile.

A wisp of cloud, sliver of moon
slip behind the highest dune.
The stars have plans that drive the night
to plots that I will later write.

Fictions Imagined by me,
no match for their reality.
Then, sun rays sent to ban the night
obscure the moon and stars from sight.

A chiming bell is morning’s crime
dispelling pleasures most sublime,
but if I linger long, I might
survive the day to earn the night.

Prompts are: sliver breath sent plans hours minutes chime drive write light crime match for the Sunday Whirl Wordle 548

Alter Ego: NaPoWriMo 2022, Day 8

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Alter Ego

Sometimes she’s  an angel. At other times a witch.
There is no way to know when her personae’s going to switch.
When an angel, she’s gregarious, obedient and sexy,
but during her more bitchy days, she’s silent, dark and hexy.
No x-ray can determine which one she’s going to be.
There is no test to indicate which one she’s going to see
when she wakes up each morning and stumbles to the mirror
to discover which she’ll be today–the feared one or the dearer.
I’m always the first one to see what side of her will win,
for each day the face she chooses is the one that I’ll be in!

 

The NaPoWriMo prompt today is to name your alter-ego, and then describe him/her in detail. Then write in your alter-ego’s voice. Maybe your alter-ego is a streetwise detective, or a superhero, or a very small goldfinch. Whoever or whatever your alternate self may be, I hope this prompt lets you stretch both your writing skills and your self-knowledge.

Opening Night Jitters

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Opening Night Jitters

I’m consumed by stage fright. Please bring me my wrap.
This whole acting “thing” is a barrel of crap.
My memory’s kaput and I have a bad cough,
so before my first snafu I’d better take off.
There’s a good possibility that I might faint.
It’s clear that an actor I certainly ain’t.

 

Prompt words are stage fright, wrap, snafu, kaput and possibility. Image by Redd TK on Unsplash.

A Bird in the Hand: NaPoWriMo 2022, Day 7

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A Bird in the Hand

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” a psychic said to me.
Then my psychiatrist said the same, but for a bigger fee.
When people preach to me like this, I get set in my ways.
I’m never going to take advice from folks who spout clichés!
The birds that I’ve had in my hand number very few.
I can’t recall a single time I combed a bush for two.

And so although I know in fact a proverb is not literal,
and that allusions to two birds are very likely clitoral,
still I’m loathe to think in adages as others do.
I have no wish to take a walk in any other’s shoe.
I’ve never thought the grass was greener in my neighbor’s yard.
And spouting other people’s words does not make you a bard.

I don’t think cleverness with words need make us any wiser.
If my neighbor’s lawn is greener, I’ll use more fertilizer.
So please don’t give me your advice using hackneyed phrases.
For all this glib advice just sorta puts me into dazes.
And if you simply must advise, my character to hone,
please do me a favor and use words of your own!!!

 

The prompt for NaPoWriMo today is to write a poem that argues against, or somehow questions, a proverb or saying. They say that “all cats are black at midnight,” but really? Surely some of them remain striped. And maybe there is an ill wind that blows some good. Perhaps that wind just has some mild dyspepsia.  Whatever phrase you pick, I hope you have fun complicating its simplicity. Happy writing!

Winter Reunion

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Winter Reunion

Mom has popped some popcorn and Dad has built a fire.
Snow collects on window frames as flames lick high and higher.
With pillows piled on the couch and warm rugs on the floor,
it makes a cozy little nest for tired kids to explore.

With  temperatures lowering , it’s fertile territory
for a mug of cocoa and another Grandpa story
about their Halcyon years of youth when Grandma’s evening gown
set new stylish standards for their little town.

Her look representative of a wider world,
all the girls took notice of the way her hair was curled,
and what length her skirts were and what words she used
and when Grandpa came to town, they inevitably fused.

Grandpa in his Model T, raccoon tail on the mirror,
speeding down the main street, grinding every gear.
Grandma on the sidewalk in her flapper gear,
how they got together is why we all are here.

And we are representatives, each and every one
of the whole long story of how her love was won.
These familiar stories building our education
of how a family is built on each past generation.

Prompts for the day are fertile territory, temperature, stylish, Halcyon and representative.

Cold

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Cold

Furniture leaves stick by stick.
His cold furnishings in the storehouse
while I put away my feelings
one by one.
He suggests we still be friends
while we wait for new friends to happen,
as though he’s drawing closer
as he pulls away.

I keep creeping closer to the truth
that lies
in eyes
cold.
Cold
eyes,
nothing written there.

His hand edges closer
on the seat between us.
Like a deaf-mute,
all communication
in his hands.

But those hands
don’t know all
my languages.

Handless bodies
in El Salvador
might think
my demands on them
less foolish.

My mother’s hands
drumming fingers
while she told a sleepy tale.
I was always in it,
in dark forests where the bears lived,
and although she acted
like she didn’t know it,
I was in the forest, lost,
expecting bears
while only drumming fingers
foretold the presence
of something
cold.

 

For dVerse Poets
To see the prompt, “A Little Repetition,” go HERE.

Wan Skies NaPoWriMo 2022, Day 6.

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Wan Skies

Why do the clouds obscure the sun
so we must cancel all our fun?
Pale skies are not the stuff of dreams
and contradict our pleasure schemes.
Wan days, dark nights close like a fist—
fond hopes of love and being kissed.
Lover thus fading into mist.

For NaPoWriMo Day 6 we were to write a poem where the first word of each line forms a famous quote or line from a poem. Read the first word of each line to see the quote.

Perpetuity

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Perpetuity

Let loose of our salacious world. It’s residue set free.
Ersatz news and angry words are not what you should see.
Trivial and idle minds feed on their sensation,
then spin their lives out caught up in a constant consternation.
We choose the world where we belong by what we hear and see,
and that’s the world we live in for perpetuity.

 

Prompt words today are residue, trivial, salacious, ersatz and belong.

Coin Flip

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Coin Flip

I always knew that our love would be dicey.
With you sea lion slippery, piquant and spicy,
your imposition into my life
was bound to cause turmoil and possibly strife.

But you brought excitement and offered a piece
of pleasure that lasted devoid of surcease.
Both sides of the coin I was willing to share,
watching the disc as it spun in the air.

Heads you were up and tails you were down—
one side slightly clouded, the other a clown.
The cusp of your mood I could certainly bear
for the promise of future bright times we would share.

Until that last coin toss when you spun away
with no possibility of a next play—
your coin sitting silent upon a high shelf
while I learned to toss the coin for myself.

Prompt words today are sea lion, imposition, piquant and piece.

Lantana: FOTD Apr 5, 2022

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For Cee’s FOTD