Tag Archives: The Sunday Whirl

All Hallow’s Eve, For the Sunday Whirl Wordle 676, Oct 20, 2024

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All Hallow’s Eve

Scratches on the door and screeches in the night
Swarms of ghoulish children determined to incite
lots of sighs of terror as a shiny harvest moon
rises to full height to a werewolf’s keening tune
accompanied by the rattle of locks attached to chains
dragged along the sidewalks to create refrains
to the ghostly moanings that can’t be soothed by reason,
thanks to macabre images of this ghastly season.
The front gate of the haunted house swings upon its hinges
as warlocks and zombies await us at  the fringes
of the woods that we must cross if we are bent on meeting
all our fellow ghosts and witches bent on Halloweening.

Prompt words for the Sunday Whirl Wordle are: scratches screeches soothes fringe image sighs locks shiny rises swarm ghoulish night

Garden Duty for the Sunday Whirl Wordle, Oct 13, 2024

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Garden Duty

It is no witchcraft,
this metamorphosis of garden.
For these past weeks,
I have been a whirlwind
of paintbrush, clippers, shovel and trowel—
shifting and planting plants,
then placing offerings
on the ledge built into the freshly-painted garden wall.
Plants stripped of their dead leaves
and spaced between stone hearts
 give new breath
to this beloved garden, grown rough with age.

in the former birdbath now filled
with dirt and profuse with flowers,
flightless birds of clay
are guardians of a fledgling
fallen from its nest and buried here.

Birds that can fly, do,
then circle  home
to weave between the  tree limbs and the vines—
One guardian on the highest limb
a sentinel perhaps for all.
It’s striden call
signing a mystery
the gardener has no hand in.

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle 675  the prompt words are: witchcraft metamorphosis garden whirl fly siren sign breath stone circle 

“Field of Battle,” for The Sunday Whirl Wordle, Oct 6, 2024

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Field of Battle

The battleground now silent, the guns and cannons still.
All is calm and quiet below that looming hill
where once the natives gathered to stare out over space
to see what enemies might be sequestered in this place.
Their bodies claimed by grass and scrub, nature at last has won. 
Limbs vanish as their crusty bones are hollowed out by sun.
Those who come to view this place writ as a place of glory,
sense perhaps the sadder side to this whitewashed story.
Its glitter dulled, when truth is told, by images more gory.

Prompt words for The Sunday Whirl are: crusty scrub limbs vanish bones exist space glitter still hollow below sense (Image is is photo of a painting in the Little Big Horn Museum.)

Day and Night, For the Sunday Whirl Wordle 673, Sept 29, 2024

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Day and Night

The stream of life brings good and bad—
both peace and torment to be had.
Dreaming adventure’s a sure bet.
If you don’t jump in, you won’t get wet.

Those secret knives that rip the seams
of the fabric of your dreams—
That fiery breath that sears your lungs
as you tell lies that fork your tongue?

Tucked here safe within your bed,
you have no cause for fears or dread.
Truth seen in glimpses, through lash-closed eyes
may be wisdom in disguise.

For the Sunday Whirl Wordle 673. the words are: wet jump secret dream bed breath secrets lashes fire plague glimpses 

 

for Sunday Whirl Wordle, Sept 22, 2024

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Escape

Quiver me timbers and shiver me limbs.
The once yellow sun first scatters, then dims.
Hearts twirl in the darkness beneath a faint moon.
Three long howls in the night–are they canine or loon?
My heart, nearly broken, deserves a respite,  
so, unwilling to  face  the moon at its height,
I pick up my bags and streak into the night.

For the Sunday Whirl Wordle the words are: quivers limbs scattered yellow twirl hearts streak faint bags three howls long

for the Sunday Whirl Wordle #670

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Happy Beginning, Sad Ending

I lick the dust of whispered words spreading ’round the town,
then clear their vileness on the sleeve of my wedding gown.
I escape to the river, to swim my sorrow away.
Who would have guessed this ending to my wedding day?
Though my breath comes fast and shallow, I keep up the pace,
trying to avoid the cruel truth that I can’t face––
that spin of fortune’s wheel that brought about the end
of the shortest marriage on record, as I chanced upon my friend
in the wedding venue’s kitchen, avowing love and kissing
the one that I’d just married,  whom I’d sought when he went missing!

 

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle   the prompt words are:breath cruel escape river away sorrow kitchen licked dust whispering spin gown  Image by Tiko Giordad on Unsplash.

“Nostalgia” For the Sunday Whirl Wordle #669

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Nostalgia

Memory is a strong vine up which we keep on vanishing—
every upward movement, more of the present banishing.
Toward  the top, our back flashes set up such a yearning,
tripping sighs and anguish that set our hearts to churning.

Basking in past glories makes us turn a blind eye to 
all we might tap into looking at the world anew.
Living in the past instead of seizing on today
I fear creates a “now” that we choose to throw away.

 

For The Sunday Whirl today, the prompt words are: back flash vanishing tap top trip yearning blind sigh vine strong fear   Image by Luis Galvez on Unsplash

All and Everything, For Wordle 669

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All and Everything

Our bones are branches gathered to keep our bodies tight.
They move us in the daytime, but settle down at night. 
We are not furred or feathered, but sometimes, still, we scratch
at winged and legged invaders we aren’t able to catch. 
Our skin is smooth but softer than stones smoothed by the tide—
our minds blown into hurricanes by what we keep inside.
Emotions tilting back and forth from agony to bliss,
once strangers, we turn lovers just with a simple kiss.
All things caught inside of us, our bodies are the home
to the whole history of man—as stuffed full as this poem.

 

For the Sunday Whirl Wordle the word prompts are: scratch bones branches gathered blow words stone stranger keep tilt feathered we  (Image from Pinterest.)

 

 

Night Terrors, For the Sunday Whirl, Aug 18, 2024

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Night Terrors

Beings leap from my memory, calling my name,
sharing the heartaches for which I’m to blame.
Remembered particles falling like rain,
breathe all their stories over again.

They hold out their arms, inviting me in,
promising bliss in what seems to be sin.
I reach out to touch them, but thunder’s loud peal
delivers me back to a world that is real.

Bad dreams and night terrors  release their hold.
No more do I have to do what I’m told.
I come back to that place where I have the might
to determine my actions and do what is right.

For the Sunday Whirl  the word prompts today are: bliss leaping memory particles arms breath story pieces heartache beings thunder called

“Ebb Tide” for The Sunday Whirl, Aug 11, 2024

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Ebb Tide

As we approach that vast alone,
those things for which we must atone
silently invade our world,
as all our secrets come unfurled.
Unable then, to face their ache,
in the darkness we lie awake,
unable even now to leap
into that river dark and deep
that will, at last, sweep us away
into that  most novel fray
from which this time we won’t return,
no matter how our hearts may churn
to give ourselves another chance
to recompense each circumstance
where we feel that we went along
with events that went so wrong.
But, alas, it’s now too late
to change those choices that sealed our fate.

 

The Sunday Whirl prompts today are: vast alone silently novel wake unable secrets world river darkness face ache