Category Archives: Poetry

Poems in many categories: Loss, NaPoWriMo

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.

Computer Updates

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Computer Updates

Modern life is a rigmarole, day after day.
It radiates chaos for which you must pay.
If you’re hindered by change, then this isn’t your world.
Week after week, more updates are hurled
that change the position of all that you do.
How do I find “send?” I haven’t a clue!

They make no provision for those who are old
who have to remember instructions they’re told.
And just when they’ve memorized everything new,
all the things that they need have been placed out of view.
I find it uncouth that the programmers make
change after change just for change’s sake.

What is the purpose of transforming a word
into a symbol? I find it absurd.
Then putting it somewhere we don’t think to look
so we have to survey every corner and nook
just to perform a task we once found easy?
It makes us confused and a little bit queasy

that computer techs constantly accelerate
change so we’re always just out of date!!!!
Does it give them a lift and make them feel jolly
that they’re making their predecessors melancholy
for the old times when all the things found yesterday
were in the same place when looked for today????

Does anyone else keep getting the “Exchange Password Required” message dozens of times a day from Microsoft??? It is driving me crazy!!!!

Prompts for the day are radiate, hinder, rigmarole, couth, provision and melancholy. Click on the links to see what websites have provided the prompts.

 

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….

 

Alone

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Alone

Alone is not lonely
And single’s no sin.
Solo is only
a state I am in
because I need time
to do what I do.
To scan and to rhyme,
to create and to stew
both poems and soups
without watching the clock
or jumping through hoops
or having to talk.

I really like cooking
dishes for one.
I’m simply not looking
for “coupley” fun.
I like doing art
far into the night.
This freedom is part
of traveling light.
Going solo is groovy.
Single-handed is fun,
and it might behoove you
to try being “one”

instead of a brace
or a duet or pair.
You’ll have all this space.
You’ll have all this air.
Your closet’s your own
to fill up with shoes.
No sharing a phone
and no bathroom queues.
You won’t have to fiddle
with left or with right.
You’ll sleep in the middle
every night!

You’ll eat what you want to
and dine when you wish.
You’ll get to eat tofu
and never eat fish.
You can stay up till dawn
to finish your quilt.
You’re nobody’s pawn,
so you’ll never feel guilt.
Leave coffee cups sitting
all over the house?
It’s behavior most fitting
when bereft of a spouse.

Pop bonbons and read
all day in your bed.
You can meet every need
when you’re no longer wed.
On the other hand though,
you must walk your own dog
and when water comes slow,
must unclog your own clog.
When you blow out a fuse
and your lawn goes unmown,
there are no “honey do’s”
when you’re all on your own!

For LAPC: Alone

I wrote this poem 9 years ago when I had about 2 readers –one of whom has sadly passed away and the other who no longer blogs, so figured it was okay to run in through again.

Pro or Con?

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Pro or Con?

Sternutation means to sneeze—
(to create a noisy breeze)
but no one knows what perturbation
might be set off by a  sternation.
Could it be the sternum’s action
when it raises in reaction
caused by the excessive sneezing,
coughing, sputtering and wheezing
brought on by the summer gusts
that stir up pollen, raise up dust?

At the height of of last year’s forum
where we barely drew a quorum,
we discussed the summer pollen
that had lately daily fallen.
Prodigals returning home
bemoaned the flower bits and loam
raised into the gusty air
that stripped the flowers and pathways bare.

It’s true folks stare when you are sneezing,
but perhaps you find this pleasing.
If raised sternums cause sternation,
causing your lungs full dilation,
perhaps it is good for you
to rid your lungs of dust and goo.
So tell me, when you’re on vacation,
Are you pro or consternation?

Prompt words today are forum, height, stare, prodigal, summer and consternation.

What Next?

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What Next?

When mankind makes its toodle-oo,
thus closing down this human zoo,
I’m sure that there will be a sequel
that is more than mankind’s equal,
for in evolution’s quest,
nature goes from least to best.
Each form of life has not receded
from what form of life preceded.
When some great calculator reacts
to what’s been lost through human acts,
what difference will it make for gain
that will surpass the human brain?
And . . .
will music, poetry and art
vanish in that great restart?

 

 

 

The prompt words for today are quest, equal, toodle-oo, react,precede and calculator.

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.

Re-Generation, Wordle 592

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Re-Generation

Once I realized culture owned me, still I had no will to change,
for alternate modes of living are so hard to arrange.
Yet I set out to mold me to be different from the crowd
and I have done so well at it that I admit I’m proud.

First I got a nose ring and then I got tattooed.
I push my way up to the front where formerly I queued.
Whereas once I used the phrase that “You’re so very very,”
I finally invested in the Urban Dictionary.

So while I was once “with it,” now finally I’m so “dope,”
that this former Boomer will soon be Gen Z, I hope.
I regret all those years when I pressed front seams in my jeans,
but now that I have shredded them, I feel I’m in my teens.

Now that I’m a “meme”ing master and Snap Chat is a snap,
I’m expert in my dissing and I’ve reversed my cap.
Now that I have changed so much,  I feel I’m at my best
in becoming different exactly like the rest!!

 

For the Sunday Whirl 592 the prompt words are: culture realized owned first proud change me here dictionary

 

Nomenclaturation

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(Dreaming up Words)

Nomenclaturation

The wind like floss, the air like silk,
saxophone music flows like milk.
Hecklers may insult my words,
saying that they are absurd,
and as my life draws near its gloaming,
I admit, attention’s roaming.
Yet I stand by the discrimination
of my nomenclaturation.


I sit in my chair and dream
as words flow by me in a dream.
I reach out for word after word,
selecting some that are absurd,
and when I find they do not rhyme,
I make up words time after time.
The practice didn’t start with me.
How do you think words came to be????

Prompts today are saxophone, heckler, discrimination, gloam, chair and silk.