Category Archives: Poem

A Lonely Widow’s Lament

16 Replies

A Lonely Widow’s Lament

She advertised for company and put it on the web.
Discouraged with the “no response,” she felt her patience ebb.
She pined so much for conference and knew that it was wrong,
and yet she vowed she’d make do with whatever came along.

She promised she’d be tranquil, not expect a fast response.
She relaxed and did some weaving, there beneath the garden sconce.
The comfort of the sunlight helped her not to worry.
She’d give a little leeway, no need for any hurry.

A gentle breeze assisted  her in sinking into dreaming.
It didn’t help a widow to spend her day in scheming.
And, soon enough a jerky movement set her heart to beating.
A fly caught in her cobweb meant that she would soon be eating!

Although I have the perfect photo to illustrate this poem, I didn’t want to give away the ending, so I’m leaving it unillustrated. To see the illustration for it, go  HERE.

Prompt words today are conference, assist, cobweb, leeway and comfort.

Dental Discourse: dVerse Poets Compound Word Verse

15 Replies

 

Dental Discourse

She could not stand the sad sad sight
of his horrendous overbite.
She arranged to take him to a
dentist, thinking he could do a
makeover.

She asked the doc what he would charge
to make his overhang less large.
The price he set to make each tooth less
was, I fear, greedy and ruthless
overkill.

Thus began their drawn-out dicker
that I think would have gone quicker
if his teeth had been less icky,
and the job a much less tricky 
overhaul.

After much talk, they struck a deal,
both thinking that they’d made a steal.
But then with little else to do,
 she said  if he attempted to
overcharge,

she would have his license lifted
no matter how bloody gifted
he might have been (when this all ends)
at cutting down her toothy friend’s
hangover.

 

 

For dVerse Poets prompt: Compound Word Verse Image by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash

This form consists of 5  five-line stanzas with aabb rhyme schemes, each containing 8 syllables and each stanza concluding with a three-syllable compound word that had one element the same as all other compound words in the final lines of the stanzas. Phew!

Casting Out Lines with Tina

18 Replies

Casting Out Lines with Tina

Night has come to my great sorrow,
Light won’t be here ‘til tomorrow.
Can’t go fishin‘ ‘til the morning,
but I’m wishin’ that the warning
that dad made could be forgotten
and these fish were caught, not boughten!

Night has come to my great sorrow.
Light won’t be here ‘til tomorrow.

Still we will rise before day dawns,
rub sleep from eyes and stifle yawns.
There’s time left to grant our wishes,
bait our hooks and catch those fishes!

This is the trickiest prompt that I’ve seen in a looooong time. Tina’s Zigzag Rhyme rules are the quirkiest and I think I’ve followed them to a “T.” (In no place does she say that it’s not legal to end every line in a rhyme–just that you must do so in lines 5, 6, 11 and 12, so I rhymed every couplet. Words that must be rhymed by Tina’s rules are underlined in my poem, just to make your checking up on me easier. No, that’s not Tina pictured with me. That’s my big sister Patti. I’m pretending to have caught all those fish she’s holding.

Tina’s Zigzag Rhyme is a form created by Christina R Jussaume and found at Poetry Styles (site no longer accessible.)

  • It starts with a sestet, refrain, quatrain and then another refrain and quatrain if you wish.
  • It must be uplifting subject.
  • Rhyme in first two lines is at left,
  • next rhyme is center in lines 3 and 4,
  • and rhyme in lines 5 and 6 is an end rhyme.
  • Refrain is first two lines of poem.
  • After refrain , in the quatrain you use center rhyme, then end rhyme.
  • It is an 8 syllable per line poem. No limit to stanzas but must have,at least one sestet, refrain, and quatrain.
  • Thanks to David at Skeptic’s Kadish for sharing this form. See his poem at his link HERE.

Logorrhea

10 Replies

Logorrhea *

You’re wearing out our neurons with your tedious lengthly screed.
You’ve made us weep with boredom and you’ve made our eardrums bleed.
Please cease your tedious lectures about people we don’t know.
We’re tired of your illnesses and other tales of woe.
The remnants of our patience grow dangerously thin.
We’ve seen your family pictures and know everywhere you’ve been.
Have you heard of asking questions and surrendering the floor?
Have you ever thought of stopping while your listeners want more?
Do you realize that others have stories to relate?
This is a truth, my boring friend, not open to debate.
We’d like to share a secret that isn’t very tough, it
is to take your next comment and this is where to stuff it!!

 

 

   * Logorrhea: a pathological inability to stop talking. (Diarrhea of the mouth.)
   * Screed: a long speech or piece of writing, typically one regarded as tedious.

The prompts today are neuron, remnant, screed and wear.

 

A Vampire’s Lament

10 Replies

 

On the Wagon
(A Vampire’s Lament)

I’m facing a whole month of sober
now that it’s almost October.
Passing up my gin and tonic
for a drink more histrionic.

Need I say I merely ask
liquid refreshment from a flask?
All said and done, I much prefer
to drink from glass and not from her.

I find this other way of curbing
my addictive thirst disturbing.
All that blood that sucking draws
is neater when it’s done through straws.

Alas, I find this vampire curse
most distressing. Nothing worse
could be my fate except perhaps
karma so far kept under wraps.

An Easter curse would be the dregs—
to spend all April sucking eggs!

 

For Tourmaline’s Halloween Challenge: Vampire Image by Dinu J. Nair on Unsplash.

By Association

3 Replies

By Association

The tale she told was cautionary. Her hypnotic flame
scorched the Earth, contributing to her epic fame.
The parts she played as villainous, scheming shrewish dame
lapped over into her life, where she was held to blame
for legendary bad girls who, though fictional in name,
her fans were sure depicted her nature all the same.
So, though her personality was kind and mild and tame,
those who knew her only from the movie game,
from her roles as Jezebel, The Wicked Witch and Mame,
believed that she herself was as evil as they came.

 

Prompt words today are scorch, hypnotic, cautionary, blame and part.

The Astronauts are Called In From Vacation: Wordle 523

4 Replies

The Astronauts are Called In From Vacation

The time’s drawing near for our next big space mission,
so there’s no more time for beaches or fishin’,
Be speedy in putting your sail boats away
and wrap them up tightly so they won’t decay
in the salty sea air while you are in space,
murdering miles at a furious pace.

There’s much to be found as you leave Earth behind.
for far beyond the usual grind,
no weapons are needed and there’s less debris.
No tickets or tollroads, for passage is free
except for the millions to set off our rockets,
but the rich can be sure it comes out of the pockets

of everyday men like the plumbers and teachers
and waitresses, cowboys, bus drivers and preachers.
And when you get home, your boats will be waiting.
There’ll be no delay and there’ll be no debating.
Whether fishing for stars or starfish or krill,
Joe Public will be there to pick up the bill.

 

Here are the Wordle prompts for Oct 17, 2021:  mission, murder, beaches, time, tight, boat, speedy, weapon, space, found, air, drawing. Image by Spacex on Unsplash.

For the Sunday Whirl Wordle Prompt

The Confessions of a Halloween Candy Hoarder

13 Replies

The Confessions of a Halloween Candy Hoarder

I do not accept your recent accusal
as anything but an attempt to bamboozle
me out of the vestiges of my collection
of Halloween candy that’s skipped your detection.

I’m thankful that I’m neither trustful nor dumb
enough to be functioning under your thumb,
for I find repugnant your plans to abscond
with all of the candy with which I’ve grown fond.

For though you gobbled your candy down quickly,
going through all of it lickety-splickly,
I like to keep my candy yield near
and eat one piece a day for the rest of the year!

When days are balmy, butterscotch is nice.
I save all my chocolate for snow days and ice.
And when the campfire sparkles and flickers,
I like to devour my Halloween Snickers.

If it annoys you, you’ll have to make do
with a few M&M’s that I hid in my shoe.
The rest of my candy is where I have hidden it,
to be consumed when only I’ve bidden it.

Prompts for the day are vestige, repugnant, bamboozle, balmy and thankful.

The Proposal

13 Replies

The Proposal

Under the star-spangled night I espy
a woman in love and her regular guy.
He has resolved it’s the night to propose,
and safe in his pocket’s the ring that he chose,
but her physical closeness so comfortably huddled
close up to his side has him slightly befuddled.
What if he was swindled and the diamond’s not real?
It was such a big stone and such a good deal!

He fingers the box and tries to decide
how best to convince this girl at his side
to accept his offer to become his bride.
He swears to the heavens, so splendid and wide
that he’ll do his best to furnish a life
befitting the one that he makes his wife.
Then his nervousness done, he falls on one knee,
to turn his whole life from “I” into “We.”

Word prompts for the day are star-spangled, resolve, swindle, espy and physical.Image by Trevin Rudy on Unsplash.

Companion

28 Replies

Okay, for the first time, I have prompt words for you. I challenge you to write a poem or prose piece making use of these words: approach, looking, street, breath, strange.  

Below is my poem making use of those words. Please don’t read it until you’ve written your own poem, then link your poem to this post in the comments.:

 

Companion

Climbing up the steep-pitched road, almost out of breath,
how strange that I should meet you, here on a street named Death.
When I was not looking, and had no need of it,
you changed course to walk with me and urged me not to quit.

 If I had started later, or earlier, it’s true,
I would have passed unnoticed and surely, so would you.
But now you turn and join me as I approach the bend,
and we continue, side-by-side, companions to the end.

 

Now, if you think penning an eight-line poem is a breeze, you might want to see this very late-night Skype conversation with Forgottenman in which we discuss said poem. The first line and every line
without Doug’s name preceding it is me speaking. Doug is Forgottenman, by the way, but he asks that you don’t tell anyone!  ;o)

This is the Skype conversation: 
2:30 AM
I’m stuck on one word in a poem.
I found it on a list I’d made of books I wanted  to read…I’d written it on half the page.. and I don’t think I ever published it on m’blog.
Doug, 2:31 AM
I’m not quite following, but if you tell me more I might get it.
2:32 AM
Companion
Climbing up the steep-pitched road, almost out of breath,
how strange that I should meet you, there on a street named Death.
When I was not looking, and had no need of it,
you came to walk beside me and urge me not to quit.
If I’d started later, or earlier, it’s true,
I would have passed unnoticed and surely, so would you.
trying to decide whether to change the third line to:
you came to walk beside me an prevail on me to quit
I came to walk beside you and exhort you to quit
2:34 AM
I have a problem with the third line:
I came to walk beside you and prevail on you to quit,
counsel you to quit
inveigle you to quit.
does the companion want to urge on or stop?
Doug, 2:34 AM
Ok, that’s the fourth line. I had a niggle with it as well.
Doug, 2:35 AM
I think it should still start “you came to walk…”
2:35 AM
inspired me to quit?
Doug, 2:35 AM
It feels to me that you’re the passive one in the verse.
2:36 AM
I think so too but can’t find the right word.
is the companion inspiring me to continue or to turn back?
Doug, 2:37 AM
I’ve no idea yet, and that may be the point of the verse – the ambiguity.
My possibly lame late-night drunken take: “you came to walk beside me. You urged me not to quit.”
(Gotta keep “quit” for the rhyme.)
2:43 AM
Perhaps name it “The Accomplice”
Doug, 2:43 AM
Hmmm…
2:43 AM
Accomplice
Doug, 2:44 AM
Seems it needs a preceding unexpected adjective.
2:51 AM
Companion
Climbing up the steep-pitched road, almost out of breath,
how strange that I should meet you, there on a street named Death.
When I was not looking, and had no need of it,
you came to walk beside me and urge me not to quit.
If I’d started later, or earlier, it’s true,
I would have passed unnoticed and surely, so would you.
But now you turn and follow me as we approach the bend,
and we continue, side-by-side, companions to the end.
Doug, 2:53 AM
Penultimate line says they follow you, but last line side-by-side. I think you need to reconcile.
But I REALLY LOVE it!
Should it be “here on a street named Death”?
I’m wondering about making it all current tense?
3:05 AM
How about:
Doug, 3:17 AM
Another drunken suggestion: “But now you turn and join me”
3:18 AM
Companion
Climbing up the steep-pitched road, almost out of breath,
how strange that I should meet you, there on a street named Death.
When I was not looking, and had no need of it,
you changed course to walk beside me and urge me not to quit.
If I had started later, or earlier, it’s true,
I would have passed unnoticed and surely, so would you.
But now you turn and follow me as we approach the bend,
and we continue, side-by-side, companions to the end.
oops.. i didn’t hit send..
but I like your suggestion added to this..I changed the 4th line to changed course.
Doug, 3:18 AM
I’m following your draft.
You know I don’t like to dance in the conventional footie/leggie sense. THIS is how we dance! And I just friggin’ LOVE it!
3:20 AM
Si…
Doug, 3:21 AM
I almost think our conversation here could be a blog.
3:22 AM
Ha.. do it as a conversation with my muse!
I think you should do it in your blog and link it to the end of mine.
It would be fun.
Doug, 3:23 AM
Perhaps, but that requires a sober decision from moi.
You said (I think) this was something you wrote long ago and stuffed in a book? That would be a lovely thing to add below your poem.
In case you missed it, I still think it should be “here on a street named Death”.
… “here” not “there”.
3:27 AM
I think you should just copy everything up to but not including this comment by me and put it on your blog with an explanation that it was a late-night Skype conversation that preceded my posting my “Companion” poem. Then put a link at the end of my blog. But needs to be done now, before I publish it so everyone sees it.
Yeah – no. I needa do it sober.
3:29 AM
Then I’ll just do it on my blog.. cuz I want to post it but I agree it would be fun to have our conversation added.
Doug, 3:31 AM
I concur –  But I must do penance for my (drunk)
3:31 AM
and if you wait, the earlier viewers won’t see it.
just copy and post. I’ll check it out for you if you wish.
and write the into.
intro.. on my blog and yours
Doug, 3:31 AM
Nope. No can do tonight.
3:32 AM
okay. Here goes….