Category Archives: Poem

A Too-Modest Proposal

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A Too-Modest Proposal

Even though your offer is accompanied by a gift,
I think it’s fairly certain an acceptance won’t be swift.
Your statement is made bluntly without obvious affection,
as though you’re in a restaurant ordering a confection.

You’ve made a conscious effort to be proper and polite,
yet there’s naught in your proposal calculated to excite.
If you have hopes for any love affair to start,
it’s clear you need a lesson in opening your heart.

Prompt words today are acceptance, swift, statement, conscious and offer. Image by Ospan Ali on Unsplash.

Cruel Fate

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Cruel Fate

If you want aggravation, she’s a candidate for giving it.
If you have a seat picked out, it’s sure to be the place she’ll sit.
Encroaching on your comfort is how she gets her kicks.
Any plans that you suggest, for sure are ones she’ll nix.

She’ll likely raise your dander, whatever choice of topic.
Her taste in politics and art? Impossibly myopic!
And if you harbor any hopes that you won’t have to see her,
you can blame cruel fate that your next blind date will be her!

 

Prompt words today are harbor, raise, aggravation, encroach and candidate. Image by Obie Fernandez on Unsplash.

Words Written in Stone

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Words Written in Stone

Facing death is difficult—that slowing of our pace
as we approach a barrier we aren’t ready to face.
I dread that last inscription of letters scribed in stone—
that final epistle denoting me alone.

No food or books or flowers will I see from here above,
so bring me no mementos—no tokens of our love.
You cannot drag me down again with psychic or with seer.
No vigil will reclaim me. There’s no way to bring me near.

We’ll have no tongue between us, no language will we share.
You cannot climb a ladder composed of only air,
and I can’t descend from where I’ll be, and so my dear, accept
your fresh life that is nourished by these tears that you have wept.

.

Prompt words for Wordle 544 of the Sunday Whirl
are: book ways vigil death memento drag letters inscription barrier tongue climb face.

Immutability

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ANTIQUE JAR

Immutability

I am not a packrat, I am simply an amasser—
from old turquoise canning jars to Gran’s antimacassar,
fishing floats and wingback chairs and antique wind-up clocks,
 flatirons and coal shuttles and rusty keys and locks.

Don’t think I’m a spendthrift. I get the lowest prices.
Gross extravagance is not one of my main vices.
I simply value furniture and tools from the past—
in this throw-away world, I crave items that will last.

Prompt words today are packrat, float, extravagant, respectable.

April Rain

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April rain streams out from my neighbor’s rooftop.
Soaks the garden,
Collects on leaves,
Everchanging weather–either a blessing or a curse.
The runoff from last night’s rain shoots from the drain that pierces a high stone wall.
The clouds are gorgeous in the later afternoon
The cycle of life represented by the trees, sun, clouds, rain.

April Rain

As angry clouds clenched like a fist,
fade into gentle morning mist,
leaves curled on branches fall at last
from where they have been clinging fast.
Now  that the year is on the march.
water falls to quench its parch.
New leaves emerge to greet the sun
and doors open as one-by-one,
we, too, come out as April rain
brings back nature’s green again.

 

Prompt words today are march, water, curl and anger

Unlucky Tens

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Unlucky Tens

Who knows if we will die or if we thrive?
If we are meant for Heaven or for Hell?
For though we flourish at full fathoms five,
ten fathoms deep they ring our funeral bell.
Nine penny, ten a penny, roll the dice.
Loan me ten dollars, ’cause I’m feeling hot.
If I roll only once or I roll twice,
will I throw me a snake eyes? I think not.
And ten little Indians never will
pluck a tail feather of a whippoorwill!

 

For dVerse Poets “Ten” Poem We were to write a poem of ten lines with ten syllables per line and an ababcdcd ee rhyme scheme. HERE is the link for that prompt. The link to read other poems for the prompt is given above. Image by Timo Müller on Unsplash.

Lovecraftian Loathing Lullaby

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Lovecraftian Loathing Lullaby

Eldritch horrors ain’t my thing.
I dread the nightmares that they bring.
Monsters, killing—all that stuff?
Years ago, I’d had enough.

Inflation, nuclear arms, pollution?
Fantasy is no solution.
I’m tired of the razzmatazz—
computer games and all that jazz.

Horror’s not just a game, you know.
Lately, it’s the status-quo.
Game violence a pretext for
prompting violence galore.

No wonder guns and bombs and knives
have complicated modern lives.
We keep getting dumb and dumber.
Modern life is such a bummer!!!!

 

 

Prompt words today are Eldritch, (oh, come on, now!) jazz, pretext, inflation. The other prompt word hasn’t been posted. Image by Robert Coelho on Unsplash. 

 

Eldritch is an English word used to describe something otherworldly, weird, ghostly, or uncanny. In contemporary culture, the term is closely associated with Lovecraftian horror.

Misnomers

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The prompt words I use each day are taken from five different blogs. To see the sites, click on each prompt word, which is linked to the blog that suggested it.  Words for the day are: brindle, infatuated, obelus, summit.  An obelus is a division sign, by the way. I didn’t know that, either, a fact that gave birth to the below poem:

Misnomers

An obelus should be a globe, a bubble or a ball.
rounded and continuous, uniting one and all,
not something that divides us and splits us into parts.
It’s clear the one who coined the word is lacking in their smarts.

Infatuated should mean thin and brindle should mean flinch.
Summit should mean more or less. I will not yield an inch.
Words should have meanings like their sounds  lest ignorant souls abuse them.
Until they do, bet on the fact that I will never use them!!!

 

Image by Simone Secci on Unsplash.

Infinite Variety

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Click on Photos to Enlarge.

 

Infinite Variety

Lives just lived in lockstep are arid and lackluster.
More joy in collecting all the action we can muster,
But let me just say this of that. If you are a life-lover
life is better lived exposed and not lived under cover.
Incident by incident, our lives will thus accumulate,
but best to stop my blathering lest I over-expatiate.

 

Prompt words today are arid,  lockstep , cover, expatiate, incident.

Black-eyed Susan

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Black-eyed Susan

Nothin’s as amusin’
as my darling black-eyed Susan.
Arms spread in the sun
to welcome anyone.

But when the sun goes down,
and she dons her evening gown,
the only one allowed to see
my black-eyed girl is lucky me.

For dVerse Poets Pub #147: Quadrille “Eye”. For more responses to the prompt, go HERE.