Category Archives: Poetry

Poems in many categories: Loss, NaPoWriMo

Advice on the Introduction of a New Species

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photo by Andrew Rice used with permission

Advice on the Introduction of a New Species

Lions don’t do well in a setting too bucolic.
Their herding instinct’s lethal and they flunk in ovine frolic.
Lions need to stalk and kill. They need open savannas.
They’d eat all the lambs and for dessert, eat all their nannas!
And if we shut the lions up, they’d go into decline.
Living in small cages simply isn’t leonine.
Lions need to roam the plains lest they become pathetic.
There’s nothing half so sad as a lion that’s apathetic.

Oh no. I somehow erased the pingbacks for the four prompts for this poem! Thanks to okcforgottenman for pointing this out. Well, better late than never. The prompt words were lion, apathetic, shut and bucolic.

What’s He Got Cookin’?

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What’s He Got Cookin’?

My love is not a work of art. He hasn’t any poise.
When he tries to sing a song, it comes across as noise.
He writhes instead of dancing. His rhythm’s nonexistent.
When germs land upon him, if they are nonresistant,
they get sick instead of him, for they have met their match.
He has no hair upon his head except for one small batch
that grows out of each nostril, so I really needn’t mention
that when it comes to loving him, I have no competition.
Yet in spite of all, he coincides with my fond wishes.
He may not have much cooking, but at least he does the dishes!

And for a little musical accompaniment to the poem, go HERE.

Prompt words today were sick, writhe, match and noise,

I need to issue a disclaimer for the second line, which is pure poetic license.  Most probably a number of the others are, as well.

School Field Trip

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School Field Trip

Youth days at the aquarium are inimical to fishes,
for students feed the goldfish far beyond our wishes.
They agitate the sharks and rays by knocking on the glass.
They irritate the piranhas and terrorize the bass.
Scientific discovery is great for teens and tots,
but part of education is discovering the “nots.”
I think we’ll bring an ending to this day at the aquarium,
and for your next school outing would you please choose the terrarium?

Prompt words today were discovery, aquarium, youth and inimical.

Bloggers

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And no fair switching to your other keyboard!!!

 

 

 

 


Bloggers

We volley bandishments about, exchanging back and forth
words sent on the Internet from east, west, south and north.
We cajole and we wheedle as we trade behests.
From district one to district two, we answer all requests.
Janet wants a recipe that Dolly can provide.
Lydia posts Trump travesties that she cannot abide.

Angloswiss , VJ and Cee and Bob from far Australia,
trading photographs of houses, flowers and regalia.
Fashion blogs and flower blogs and fantasy and news.
We write of  our journeys, our fetes and family dos.
Poems about our handbags, our fashion and our shoes,
answering each other’s queries, cancelling each other’s blues.

Derrick tells of travels and the highlights of his dinners.
Regina writes of travel life and family and sinners.
We all have our favorite schticks from India to Nome.
Marilyn writes of birds and dogs and Manja writes of Rome.
Me? I merely write the poems that the prompts demand,
and be they dumb or heart-wrenching, pedestrian or grand,
abject apologies offered if you find them bland.

Prompt words today were shoe, district, volley and abject.
There were a dozen other bloggers I would have liked to include, but I had to be ready and on the road by 9 this morning so I was rushed in getting this out. To all the other blogs I regularly follow, you know who you are.

Celebration for Two

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Celebration for Two

The radiator’s sputtering and crumbs of birthday cake
fly out from the thrown back sheet and spread out in your wake.
Red wine from toppled glasses forms a little lake
so perhaps staging the party in our bed was a mistake!

 

Prompt words today are sputter, manage,, mistake.
Word of the Day didn’t publish a word today.

The Tyranny of Order

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The Tyranny of Order

We must take charge of all our lives lest they take charge of us.
Too easy to be eaten up by schedules and fuss.
We tick off items on our lists forgetting to just see—
too often caught up raking leaves, not noticing the tree.

Life could be more melodious if we just stopped to listen.
Overlooked its rust a bit to take note of its glisten.
It takes no ingenuity to concentrate on things
that bring a savor to our life. The world around us sings!

Let your life spill over the proverbial apple cart.
The best things of your life cannot be confined to a chart.
Take time to note the details. Fragrances and sounds.
The morning sounds of hummingbirds as they make their rounds.

How the cat lies curled in sleep. How leaf bunches unfurl.
How dust on the window settles in a soft whirl.
How the clouds form continents we travel from afar.
How our life cuts through its sea, fleet and sure and yar.

The ticking of a clock reminds that time is short and sweet.
We do not have the time to make everything so neat.
As I realign these items to perfection on the shelf,
I am mainly giving this advice to myself.

Prompt words are ingenuity, chart, melodious and charge.

Ephemera

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Screen Shot 2019-06-24 at 7.43.04 AM           photo by Tim Mossholder, courtesy of Unsplash, with permission.

Ephemera

In the ballpark of the universe, there is no referee.
Chaos theory is the rule book. As sure as we may be
that we have followed all the rules, there is no guarantee
that fame won’t be ephemeral even though we’ve won the game.
On the scoreboard of the universe is no eternal fame.
However much the hero, however bright the flame,
In the end, we’re similar—just another name
lost within the cosmos. Another exploding star
that once thought that history would record who we are.

 

Prompts today are ephemeral, referee and similar.

Boomerang Boy: New Syndrome Defined––Grown-up Kids Who Won’t Leave Home

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Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on unsplash. Used with permission.

“In many countries, the phenomenon is so widespread that new terms have developed to describe it: bamboccioni [literally, big babies] in Italy, “hotel mama” in Germany, boomerang children in Australia, parasaito shinguru [single parasite] in Japan. These young men and women don’t leave home and don’t get married, because they only want to buy brand names and enjoy themselves and to live, as an ideology, at their parents’ expense. It’s nothing less than a pandemic.” https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-new-syndrome-grown-up-kids-who-stay-home-1.5336944

Boomerang Boy

If more interest charges he wishes to defray,
he needs to find a paying job without further delay.
He should at once take heed of my excellent advice
and give up on his former full-time job of shooting dice.

He might become a rose vendor, a troubadour or chef
or become the famous author of a roman a clef.
if only he would get a job, his parents would rejoice,
but, alas, sheer laziness is his career of choice,

The prompts today were rose, delay  and sacrifice.

First

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First

After the dance, we walked the streets all the long night through,
moving to a doorstep to avoid the cleaning crew.
You let me rabbit on about every silly thing,
then made your wordless statement as the morning birds took wing.
Lifting through the rising sun, they faded into mist,
unaffected by the fact that I had just been kissed.
Then you restored my fallen hat, my scattered keys and purse,
that morning without equal in my young universe.

 

Prompt words today are rabbit, mist and equal.

Denouement

1 Reply

 

Denouement

Flight and fear and chaos may make our dreams too gory,
but things may turn out better by the ending of the story.
I revel in surprises at the edges of my dreams—
as though their happy endings are captured at the seams.
So though we may be terrorized by dreaming’s dips and bendings,
prior to awakening, thank God for happy endings.

 

Prompt words today were surprise, edge, dream and revel.