Tag Archives: poem

The Self-made Woman

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The Self-made Woman

Her metamorphosis complete, she found it all a bore.
No longer did she slurp her soup or lumber ‘cross the floor
when executing dancing moves like a gliding waltz.
She’d perfected her curtsy and all that other schmaltz
She had no real resentment for all that they had taught her,
but rather had a grudging sense that all these manners caught her
securely in a web of a great subterfuge she’d learned
simply to insure there was no way that she’d be spurned
when she chose to exercise her wiles on some poor chap
looking for a trophy wife to perch upon his lap.

And so the day she graduated, she set out to prove
that all these pretty charms were not all that might behoove
a clever girl in life, and she got her law degree,
opened up a practice and then set out to be
the smartest woman charm school ever set out on the path,
by adding jurisprudence and biology and math
to her former curriculum of poise and table setting,
thus curtailing some of her yachting and Corvetting,
by building a sure future dependent on her self
and turning into more than just a trophy on a shelf.

 

Today’s prompt words are lumber, resentment and metamorphosis.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/07/rdp-monday-lumber/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/07/your-daily-word-prompt-resentment-january-7-2019/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/07/fowc-with-fandango-metamorphosis/

No Peaceful Kingdom

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No Peaceful Kingdom

The dogs are in the backyard where they don’t molest the cats.
The cats are in the front yard where they monitor the bats
but do not dine on birds because the birds have given up
and all moved to the back yard where the young cats never sup.

The younger cats stay outside and the old cat lives within
and should the outside cats ever escape from where they’ve been,
when they’re inside, they’re  bullies and steal her food and tease her.
Although, since I can’t find a type of cat food that will please her,

it’s no problem for the old cat, yet those cats are getting fat
while every day there seems to be less of the older cat.
True, the older cat is crabby and swats the young cats first,
so it’s hard for me determining which cat is the worst.

I’m tired of these war zones. I wish they’d coexist,
and I wish that I could simply tell them to desist.
Yet with man and other animals, more often you will find 
they can’t exist in harmony with those who aren’t their kind.

 

Annie the crabby cat woke me up before Ragtag was online today, so they get their own individually prompted poem.  Their prompt was “harmony.” Here’ their link if you want to play along:  https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/23/rdp-sundayharmony/

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/

My Shoes

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My Shoes

My shoes go out without me. They do it all the time,
and do the things I never do. They jog. They hike. They climb.
When I wake up I find them strewn throughout the house—
one flip flop on the counter. High heels beneath my blouse
that’s flung across the table where I don’t remember putting it.
I bet they’ve been out dancing—two-stepping and high-footing it.

When my cowboy boots go riding, I’d like to go along.
I’m pretty sure, however, they think things would go wrong.
Perhaps the horse would throw me or I’d wind up getting lost.
I’m sorry that I bought them, considering the cost!
Other people are the boss of all their clothes and shoes,
but when my shoes and I face off, I am the one to lose.

I could take to going barefoot. This would work while at the beach.
Then when all my shoes are out far beyond my reach,
into the surf I’ll wade and then wander out again,
trapping sand between my toes everywhere I’ve been.
So when my shoes get home at night, they’ll be completely clueless
that I’ve left them out as well by venturing out shoeless!

 

We were asked to write about an ordinary objects For dVerse Poet’s Pub.

Homosapiens and other Misnomers

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Homosapiens and other Misnomers

Man was always venturesome. He wanted to be free
to examine that next hilltop, to sail upon the sea.
Adventure was his target for game or other food.
Always his first priority to feed his growing brood.
But  he fared more poorly in trying to connect
with a brand new culture or with a different sect.

He too often made a target of what might have been a friend.
We have evolved from all of this and warheads are the end
of this long long story, for it has been always so.
Conquering is swift and understanding is too slow.
Though we are Homo sapiens,  both root words are misnomers,
for we aren’t exactly sapient and for sure we aren’t stay-homers!

Words of the day are connect, target, venturesome and sapient. Here are links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/11/rdp-tuesday-connect/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/11/fowc-with-fandango-target/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/11/venturesome/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/11/your-daily-word-prompt-sapient-December-11-2018/

Born Lazy

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Born Lazy

You can have your tennis, your jogging, golf and hiking.
I’d rather spend time coasting while other souls are biking.

You’ll never find my name in the record books of Guinness,
for I don’t excel at basketball or badminton or tennis.

Somehow, nature slighted me when it came to “gameness.”
When asked to participate, I simulate my lameness.

I guess I was born lazy. I simply love my bed.
I pretend not to hear it when the cat yowls to be fed.

When duty calls, I plug my ears and happily roll over.
I find it is more comfortable here in beds of clover.

First Kiss

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First Kiss

Your kiss is radioactive  and its half-life is too short.
I’d like to have another, but I’m not the tartish sort.
My exhilaration is one that will endure—
a sort of welcome fever for which there is no cure.
I want to tell the world of it. I want to shout and sing,
make friends with all your relatives and let my love take wing.
But confiding in my diary, instead, will be my fate,
at least until you call me for another date!

 

Prompts today are sing, relative, radioactive and exhilaration.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/02/rdp-sunday-sing/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/02/fowc-with-fandango-relative/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/02/radioactive/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/02/your-daily-word-prompt-exhilaration-December-2-2018/

Interloper

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Interloper

How did you find your way into my dreams,
ripping my comfort apart at the seams?
Once I’d escaped to back rooms of my self,
still I found thoughts of you stacked on a shelf
carefully obscured both in front and above
by other less dangerous memories of love.

You walked nonchalantly into the room
that I had just cleared with a cloth and a broom
of other dangers and sadnesses, not
knowing that once again I had been caught.
Now I hide out behind walls at the back
where all of my worst fears reside in a stack.

Cowering here as you stride through the place
that your very presence has turned dark and base.
How could I have loved such a frightening soul?
The box of my heart turned into a bowl
with all of my secrets and weakness revealed—
things that I now know I should have kept sealed.

There you sit quietly, perched on a chair,
one hand on the desk top, one hand on your hair,
writing cruel words—I know about me.
I ease my way over, hoping to see,
but the paper is empty, your ink has turned clear
making impossible all that I fear.

As now I remember that I let you in,
forgetting all else in the charm of your grin.
The joy of your hand as it guided me sure
across the dance floor—all that allure
that kept me involved in the surface of you
avoiding the dangers that later I’d rue.

So even now, so far from your threat,
I find myself struggling, caught in your net.

This is a rewrite of an earlier poem For dVerse Poets Open Link Night

 

download-1

That Brilliance

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That Brilliance

It echoes through the atmosphere,
slipping through shadows
that too often hoard our attention—
the shine of a heart amidst pain,
that pinprick of light
through a chink in the mortar of a brick wall,
that smile in passing,
that squeeze obscured in a handshake.

There is much light in this world,
but sometimes it lies shattered,
at other times is one sure beam that lights up the day—
that one brilliant sword of light
slashing gray clouds.

We are not always aided in our seeking,
yet must be vigilant in our search,
shifting our glance again and again
to where it lies scattered
through the murkiest days.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/11/28/rdp-wednesday-brilliance/

Aphorism

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Aphorism

The fire of camaraderie may warm the howling gale
or make our footsteps lighter while hiking a hard trail.
Although it is not mandatory, still it would avail
sailors to remember, laughter helps to swell the sail.

 

https://fivedotoh.com/2018/11/28/fowc-with-fandango-trail/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/11/28/camaraderie-2/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/11/28/your-daily-word-prompt-mandatory-November-28-2018/
https://dversepoets.com/fire