Category Archives: Poetry

Poems in many categories: Loss, NaPoWriMo

Home is the Sailor

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Home is the Sailor

Homecomings call for clemency and memory that is short,
for when a sailor comes back home to his favorite port,
he doesn’t like returning to atone for past mistakes.
He’d rather do his penance for the new ones that he makes.

This isn’t any riddle, no mystery is involved.
It’s simply that some other bad habits  have evolved.
He finds he cannot take the time to mend what he’s forgotten
when he has so many other newer habits ill-begotten.

 

 

The prompt words today are homecoming, clemency and riddle.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/06/rdp-sunday-homecoming/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/06/your-daily-word-prompt-clemency-january-6-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/06/riddle/

New Again

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New Again

So, one more number to remember
now that we’ve escaped December.
Drop an eight and add a nine.
So far, I am doing fine.

But I can’t anticipate
what will come to be my fate.
Will I be skinnier or bolder?
What new duties will I shoulder?

What new enigma to be pursued?
Will I be shunned? Will I be wooed?
What new Kardashian of late
will they want me to emulate?

I cannot predict anything.
No telling what the year will bring.
All its mystery is free
and that is simply fine with me.

No resolutions will I make.
Whatever comes, I’ll simply take.
Cross my fingers, cross my toes
and hope its pleasures outweigh its woes.

This year will spin out as it will
Until we all have had our fill,
and just when we feel we’ve had plenty,
it will change to 2020! 

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/01/anticipate/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/01/fowc-with-fandango-enigma/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/01/resolutions/

Breaking Tradition

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Breaking Tradition

A tradition is a habit that we’re loath to break,
a memory that our hearts continue stubbornly to make.
It is our continuity, our chain link to the past.
We make a resolution that it’s always going to last.

And yet our lives must segue to what future we might grow.
We cannot drag the past with us wherever we may go
lest it become a ball and chain that keeps us from what may 
be an opportunity that may come our way.

Traditions are so comforting. They deal with what has been.
They make tiny departures seem a sort of sin,
but sometimes they just hold us back, keep us from being free,
and we must let loose of tradition to see what we can be.

Revenge can be tradition and one that’s hard to break,
causing backward facing hearts to fester and to ache.
As hard as it may be for us to turn around and heal,
it’s the only course that may enable us to feel.

When we peel away tradition, it gives hearts room to grow.
We plant seeds of new memories and tend them row on row.
The garden of our consciousness so fertile and so vast
that there is room for new traditions as alluring as the past.

 

The words of the day are segue, revenge, resolution and traditions.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/31/rdp-monday-segue/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/31/fowc-with-fandango-revenge/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/31/your-daily-word-prompt-resolution-December-31-2018/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/31/traditions/

Out with the Old

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Out with the Old

When I plant that New Year’s kiss,
just what is it I’m going to miss?

I certainly won’t miss the news,
which has not failed to unamuse.

I will not miss my aches and pain,
lest I invite them back again.

I will not miss the expense and cares
occasioned by my roof repairs.

I will not miss my aged appearance
or my young cat’s disappearance.

I’m looking forward, all-in-all
to having no regrets at all.

I’ll take my year unmarked, uncreased, 
with all past worries now released.

 

For Daily Inkling’s New Year’s Kiss prompt.

Stop and Go

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Stop and Go

My goals in life were nebulous. I didn’t know quite what
it was that I most wanted—except out of my rut.
A picket fence and cottage were never my dream.
I didn’t want to produce children by the ream.
I only wanted travel and to see who I could be
if I could search far enough to discover me.

I finally found a part of me everywhere I went,
but had to keep on traveling to know the full extent
of who I wished to grow into—how much I wished to find—
how much I could reveal of me and still have peace of mind.
But now I’ve seemed to settle. I’m content with what I’ve found.
The place where I have come to seems like holy ground.

Perhaps true wisdom really comes from knowing when to stop—
knowing when we’ve climbed enough because we’ve reached the top!

 

The words today were nebulous, cottage and goal. Here are the links:
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/28/your-daily-word-prompt-nebulous-December-28-2018/
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/28/rdp-friday-cottage/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/28/goal/

I’m Not Dreaming of a White Christmas

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I’m Not Dreaming of a White Christmas

I’m not dreaming
of a white Christmas
bedecked with tinsel
and mistletoe.

That bougainvillea spilling down the wall
is festive enough.
Who said a Christmas had to be 
composed of personal memories decades old?

I like a little sand in my Christmas,
good friends and not a holly sprig in sight—
our memories being made,
not dwelled upon.

Where was the snow in Bethlehem?
On what day did Santa finally arrive,
bag laden with gifts more frivolous
than gold, frankincense and myrrh?*

What we celebrate at Christmas
is more than anything
Bing Crosby
might have devised.

The warmth of friendship.
Finding those things,
in spite of our many differences,
that are the same.

That first Christmas
celebrated in the desert,
there was a star.
The animals were its first celebrants.

Only afterwards
came those wise men
who in their gifts
predicted its ending.

*The three gifts had a spiritual meaning: gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense (an incense) as a symbol of deity, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death. This dates back to Origen in Contra Celsum: “gold, as to a king; myrrh, as to one who was mortal; and incense, as to a God.”

The word prompts today were white, compose, bedeck and festive.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/22/rdp-saturday-white/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/22/fowc-with-fandango-compose/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/22/bedeck/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/22/your-daily-word-prompt-festive-December-22-2018/
https://lindaghill.com/2018/12/21/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-22-18/

Intervening with the Solstice

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Intervening with the Solstice

They’re intervening with the solstice. We’re requiring more light,
though adding one more month to summer simply isn’t right.
They’ll put a manmade light up in the sky next to the sun.
We’ll have summer the whole year through once mankind is done!
Next, they’ll augment infinity and make the rain much wetter.
There’s nothing like a mortal man for making nature better!

For another poem on the subject of the solstice, go HERE.

The prompts are solstice, intervene and infinity.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/21/rdp-friday-solstice/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/21/fowc-with-fandango-intervene/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/21/infinity/

Balance

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Balance

It is so very easy to trap wonder in a box
and to view the world around you as a sort of pox
festering and viral like a plague about to burst,
to only see the suffering, to just take in the worst.
Our news is geared to tell us the most spectacular ills.
They profit from the awfulness. It’s we who pay the bills.
It’s true we need to know about the evil that men do,
but once the right shoe drops, we need to see the left foot, too.

What beauties lie within our world like pods about to flower?
What are the kindnesses performed hour after hour?
Christmas will have Scrooges and each glory its detractor,
but as we view the acts of man, grace is also a factor.
We need to stem the violence, the cruelty and greed,
but to view the selfless acts of man is just as strong a need.
Listen to wind’s harmonies. Note tall grass’s swaying.
Find the things in life that make living worth the staying.

“Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing things historians usually record; while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks of the river.”      ― Will And Ariel Durant

The prompt words today are pod, easy, wonder and Scrooge. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/20/rdp-thursday-pod/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/20/fowc-with-fandango-easy/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/20/wonder/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/20/your-daily-word-prompt-scrooge-December-20-2018/

Teenage Angst

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Teenage Angst

If you tend to be secretive and crave a private zone,
yearn to denounce your family and set out on your own,
at first they’ll cling like mistletoe, refuse to set you free.
You’ll think they’re never going to simply let you be.
But time will set you free. You’ll see your family disappear,
and that is when I’m fairly sure, you’ll wish that they were here.

 

Prompt words today are family, denounce, secretive and mistletoe.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/rdp-wednesday-family/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/19/fowc-with-fandango-denounce/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/secretive/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/your-daily-word-prompt-mistletoe-December-19-2018/

Collapsed Bridge

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Collapsed Bridge

The bridge between us is a shambles. Water cascades between us.
John Gray would say that you’re from Mars whereas I am from Venus.
Most of what I treasure you consider superficial.
We are so far apart that we should now make it official.
You go your way, I’ll go mine, with no one to convene us.
It should not be traumatic so let’s just try to wean us
from all those little petty things that once brought us together,
like quince preserves, Scrabble and a fear of stormy weather.

We’d snuggle up and toast some toast and slather on the jelly,
bring out the quilts and Scrabble board and just ignore the telly.
Pepperoni pizza and rum and Cokes and cards
once kept our crystalline affair from shattering to shards.
But since we’re both on diets from pizza and each other,
the blanket that once comforted now only serves to smother.
I’ll go my way, you go yours, as though we never met,
and if I’m craving Scrabble, I’ll use the Internet!

Prompt words today are bridge, treasure, shambles and cascade.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/18/rdp-tuesday-bridge/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/18/fowc-with-fandango-treasure/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/18/shambles-2/https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/18/your-daily-word-prompt-cascade-December-18-2018/