Tag Archives: RDP

First Step

 

 

Click on photos to enlarge.


First Step

Looking out of your front door
there is a whole world to explore.
Standing here behind the glass,
you only need to choose to pass
into that world wherein your muse
will enter you to help you choose
which world you’ll hold within your hands.
Which foreign soil. Which country’s sands.
If you falter. If you sigh,
doubt yourself and wonder why,
feel yourself less fit and spry
and fear that you will not get by,
issue yourself a reprimand.
Pack your bag and take your hand
and lead yourself outside the door.
This leaving’s what a door is for.
Gather up your courage and
set off for that foreign land.

Prompts for today are looking out of my front door, glass, muse, spry and hands.

And, for Thursday Doors.

Mutter

Mutter

Did you hear the scandal? Did you hear the “rumor?”
Did she break a fingernail? Does she have a tumor?
She isn’t going to write a poem. She doesn’t like one word
suggested as a prompt today. She thinks they are absurd.
Nothing to rhyme with “traffic.” She’d rather play in it
than try to think up any rhyme if “ruckus” has a say in it.
Her salad days are over. She’s too old to be this clever.
When she saw the word “cycle,” her muse just muttered, “Never!”
So for the second time this week, she’s whining and complaining.
But I see the prompt words tricked her, for she used them while explaining!

 

Prompt words today are traffic, rumor, cycle, ruckus and salad.

Turn about Does Not Play Fair

Turn about Does Not Play Fair

If your social popularity has wandered off the track,
here’s a little good advice to help you get it back.
Practice your endurance. Listen when friends tell
all those oft-heard stories, even though you know them well.
But don’t expect the same from them when they show inattention
with each repeated story that you are going to mention.
Your stories retold more than once lack the fascination
of their latest version of their favorite rumination.

Prompt words today are go, social, track, endurance and listen.
This photo used for illustrative purposes only. In no way is this poem actually about these two lovely women.

The Temp in Accounting

The Temp in Accounting

His prospects of affluence seem to be shrinking
in direct proportion to what he’s been drinking.
Lately it seems that the hours he’s been working
are less than the hours that he has been shirking
his tasks of the day. When we look at his history,
I must admit it’s a bit of a mystery
why they’ve retained him for even this long,
for he’s more attached to his lighter and bong
than he is to his actuarial tables.
His financial projections?  Primarily fables.
In short, his behavior is simply pubescent
and prospects of tenure likely evanescent.
When the boss went to find this latest young bloke,
he found he’d stepped out for his hourly toke.
All in all, I think I’m not amiss in projecting
 he’ll be more temporary than he was expecting.

 

Prompts today are evanescent, history, prospect, affluent and working.

Equal to the Challenge?

Equal to the Challenge?

Whereas  the stage of life for folks my age is likely terminal,
the young are at a stage that is best described as germinal.

They boomerang through life, it seems, from one thing to another—
from party girl to partner, to wife and then to mother.

Their progress through this life is one that we have laid the ground for.
Where we have already been is likely where they’re bound for.

Those obstacles that soured us are ones we hope they’ll solve.
I guess that is the means by which humans must evolve.

War, disease and famine, global warming through pollution—
 we set up each problem. Will they create the solution?

Prompt words today are boomerang, terminal, young, sour and progress.

Hopelessly Devoted

Hopelessly Devoted

Time to take a small vacation
from my daily blog oration?
I once had the silly notion
I could end avid devotion
quickly, with a stroke of key
that said that this was going to be.
But it is not tossable.
I found the act impossible.
So here I am right on the dot.
It seems a quitter I am not!

Prompt words today are vacation, impossible, quickly and devotion.

Cease Fire

Cease Fire

It is not superstition, nor mere artifice
that leads mankind to finally declare an armistice.
It is the pure exhaustion that hating brings about.
Peace makes a more desirable flag for us to flout.
What euphoria the heart at peace must feel—
that silence now the guns are ceased, at last, for real.

 

Prompt words today are desirable, euphoric, superstition and artifice.

Love Prone

Love Prone

His heartfelt joy was palpable. His maelstrom of affection
spread throughout his body—a beneficent infection.
And yet he was resilient when his lover proved untrue.
He simply found another girl and fell in love anew!

Prompt words for today are maelstrom, palpable, heartfelt and resilient.

An Open Letter to the N.Y. Times Regarding Their Sunday Crossword

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An Open Letter to the N.Y. Times Regarding Their Sunday Crossword

Your circular riddle’s an impossible pill
to swallow. Your blanks I struggle to fill.
The crux of the matter? I never know
just how to harvest the seeds that you sow.
I find your clues exceedingly queer.
Your genius outreaches my talent, I fear.

 

Prompt words today are circular, riddle, outreach and crux. I’m also answering the dVerse Poet’s Quadrille Challenge making use of the word fill in a 44-word poem.
Here’s the dVerse prompt: https://dversepoets.com/2020/02/10/quadrille-97-filling-the-page/

The Dress

The Dress

She was blithe of nature and at the harvest dance,
men both young and aged straightened at her advance.
Noting her graceful movements across the grange hall floor,
the men all watched the flowings of the summer dress she wore.

Though the women called it skimpy, men found the dress divine
as it lifted out around her when they passed her down the line,
and as she was dipped and glided,
more than just a few collided.

So were girlfriends’ natures tested and marriage vows stretched thin
as boyfriends, partners, spouses contemplated sin
watching that skirt’s movements, its gentle falls and flow
as it swirled out around her with every do-si-do.

 

 

Prompt words today are skimpy, advance, nature and blithe. Photo is a detail from a photo by Amy Kate on Unsplash. Used with permission.