Rain and sun
The perfect mix
To create a poem
That will not lay down on paper
But springs up
Shyly unfolding tiny green
Then bolder to the warmth
Hands in dirt
Are more than verbs
They are Proper Nouns
That name the something
I feel as I place
Roots in the red pot
I place it
Where stronger plants
Will shelter from
Heat of noon
And Wait
NaPoMo 9 2012 prompt: shade
I rain
and you just stand there
the breaking bones
are deafening
and great mountains
slough off their soil
like so much dead skin
I want to curl myself
around the avalanche
ride it down to
the valley of stones
a passing by
of wind and fire
I held my heart
out on a leaf
you were
winter
NaPoMo 8 2012 prompt: rejected
Jumping puddles
In a rainstorm
Is just plain silly
Pull your shoes off
Dive right in
Splash about
Create a muddle
Stir the pot
Don’t hide and huddle
From the clouds
They blow away
Like cotton candy
Sweet dream visions
Floating by
Dive right in
Come on
Just try
NaPoMo 7 2012
a little Easter silliness
Took a ramble through the brambles hoping to evade the wall,
Brightly colored, dyed and smothered, decorated all.
I told my friends, escape! escape! and took off at a run!
I thought that all had been hard-boiled but someone just in fun,
Left one uncooked and as he hooked a corner round a stone,
He tumbled o’er and hit the floor and now he’s come undone!.
Old Humpty yes, I knew him well, a good egg through and through!
His innards dumped, he took a fall, our sense of horror grew!
No basket will contain our friend, no child will squeal with pride,
For deviled be the rest of us, he might as well be fried!
Image source: funnypictures.net.au
NaPoMo 6 2012
NaPoMo 5 2012
To cover tiny feathers
Huddled shivers
Bony slivers in
The wind of changing
Seasons look for
Reasons to continue
On this journey
Spread your wings
And feel the sunshine
This is your time there
Will never be another
Like this second
By our reckoning
Sky beckoning
Fly now
NaPoMo 4
My heart was lost and careless tossed, a line that can’t be crossed
So buried deep my heart would sleep, Â I would not pay the cost
As years passed slow, I tried to go through daily joy and woe
but something bold was taking hold, a seed began to grow
A padlocked door does something more, a thing you can’t ignore
Keeps out the pain but then again, keeps me from feeling more
I found the key that sets me free, throw wide the doors to see
Protective shell, no place to dwell, hid in the shadowed lee
For where in shade, a deep green glade, the sun rays also fade
No flowers grow, nor breezes blow, no compromises made
To get, you give, and die to live, for though your heart is rive
It swells to hold, and shins the cold, love flows through as a sieve
I choose the light, will stand to fight, climb to the highest height
And if I fall, I gave my all, broke through my self-built wall
My wounds will heal, I’ve learned to feel and answered hopes’ true call
A Nevada Sonnet – a form I came across on AllPoetry, a variation on a “fourteener” or sonnet adapted by a poet with the username of Amera. (amazing talented poetess)
Line one internal rhyme – syllables 4, 8, and 14
Line two internal rhyme – syllables 4, 8, then 14th rhymes with 14th from the previous line.
If you hum Amazing Grace as you read it, it works 🙂
A shout out to AllPoetry user Corrideo who actually broke it down into a spreadsheet as he has done other forms. Awesome work and a great teaching tool!
NaPoMo 3
we sing and yell
say never tell but always
do we can’t compel
ourselves to hush
to not say much is
out of touch with
who we are
we facebook, tweet
and update all
for all must know
our daily doings
a fascination
with our lives
ourselves we delve
into the details
like staring at entrails
as though they hold
the secrets coldly
we are just immune to
world around
outside means nothing
when you’re social
bound to laptop, cellphone
tablet, players
take your pick of any flavor
you be the star
of your own little drama
just have a look
it’s a me-o-rama
NaPoMo 2
Around the country, poets will take the challenge to write a poem every day this month and I am going to attempt to participate. What way to be more intentional about writing.
If you are not a poet, you can still participate. READ a poem every day this month. Pick out someone you haven’t read before. Visit the websites below and discover someone! Read Naomi Shibab Nye, Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, Mary Oliver, Philip Levine, Sharon Olds just to name a few of my favorites…
Visit AllPoetry.com, and read what thousands of people are writing this very minute.
Introduction to Poetry  by Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slideor press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Wind blows twisted round the edge
Sharper ninety degree squared
Angled poised on concrete ledge
Gargoyle granite heart despaired
Straight and narrow, plumb declared
Wind blows twisted round the edge
Compass points no longer shared
Crooked staff would drive a wedge
Wrapped and trapped by thorny hedge
Disdainful eyes bleakly stared
Wind blows twisted round the edge
I’m curled and furled, back unspared
Raked and sanded, soft scars bared
Drilled a hole, my soul to dredge
I stand convicted, no one cared
Wind blows twisted round the edge
Another attempt at Quatern. AllPoetry prompt posted on facebook – “plumb”
Aberration words rhythmic form.
Wing beat bruises from passing birds,
Reminders that it’s not her norm,
Aberration words.
Her heart in free-verse oft deferred,
Though late this bird tries for the worm,
Still hopes the message not unheard.
She lost her mind, this rigid storm,
Frustration swells as anger spurred.
Crouched in phrases deemed lukewarm,
Aberration words.
Working on form. This is a Roundel. According to wikipedia:
A roundel (not to be confused with the rondel) is a form of verse used in English language poetry devised by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909). It is a variation of the French rondeau form. It makes use of refrains, repeated according to a certain stylized pattern. A roundel consists of nine lines each having the same number of syllables, plus a refrain after the third line and after the last line. The refrain must be identical with the beginning of the first line: it may be a half-line, and rhymes with the second line. It has three stanzas and its rhyme scheme is as follows: A B A R ; B A B ; A B A R ; where R is the refrain.
I can see spring in winter, she told me
And I looked and looked
But it eluded me, though I wouldn’t say so
I didn’t want to disappoint
I never do
But the cold and white
Clouded over everything
And made my fingers numb
(or maybe my heart?)
I have all these vague memories
Of being young
Of not thinking about these things
Of not being so damn tired
And you would think me foolish
You are concrete and forgetful
When it comes to emotion
I am the kite
In an electrical storm
I really don’t have enough sense
To come in out of the rain
But the lightening is beautiful
And the rain lets me cry
In private
She sees dreams in darkness
I just moan and turn over
I used to know her
Now we are strangers
I left her behind
Or did she leave me?
Should I be excited by new ideas
When the world is slowing down?
Sinking under the weight of years
Of politics and bills
Dirt I can no longer wipe away
Or should I mutely accept
That we are not meant to live
On mars
And that the rings around Saturn
Are just gas
That diamonds are coal
Money is paper
We are dust
Prompt: I see spring in winter – line from a book and Sunday Scribblings prompt 312 – The Rest of The Story
why do you hide your face from me
stare into deep with no relief
no star to help this fool to see
a ship aground on coral reef
my heart is black as empty sky
why do you hide your face from me
silver cup of poison now dry
I float untethered drifting free
I rest my head but find no sleep
your peace withheld I am undone
why do you hide your face from me
I dread the rising of the sun
I will the clouds depart my eyes
unveil the glow to light my dreams
part darkest curtains please I cry
why do you hide your face from me
A quatern consists of 8-syllable lines and 4 quatrains. The first line of the first stanza is a refrain that is repeated in line 2 of the second stanza, line 3 of the third stanza and line 4 of the fourth stanza. The rhyme scheme:
Abab, cAca, adAd, eaeA where A is the refrain
we held ourselves easy
like turtles on a log
waiting for the sun
to warm outer shells
hoping for the warmth
to spread to bones
we held ourselves freely
as deer dive into dawn
wet with dew
lit by awakening sun
when the light
races ahead of the warmth
we held ourselves stilled
frozen like startled rabbits
blending into the grass
listening for the smallest breath
caught between
hiding or running
we held ourselves quieted
as the silken pond waited
as the trees cradled the nests
as the grass hid the beetle
as the clouds blanketed the sky
as the whole world sighed
and rested from the work of living
We ran throughout the night
The enemy storm did pound.
We ran throughout the night
While dark and thunder fell around.
We ran unto the break of day
Through tree and bush and hedge.
We ran unto the break of day
And found the river’s edge.
We ran though lungs would burst.
A thousand hooves to cleave the ground.
We ran though lungs would burst,
Our heartbeat matched the sound.
We ran for home and wife and babe,
The waters mixed with blood
We ran for home and wife and babe.
Bodhrán rhythm fed the flood.
We crossed the wide wide river,
A wall of horses ten men wide.
I hear the pipes within my soul.
I’ll run no more nor hide.
The lads and I to death will fight
With arrow, spear, claymore.
Though some may fall,
We’ll ride and fight
Till rest my head
On Scotland’s shore.
Image Credit: Tim Flach
Also inspired by Albannach
and as the storm subsides
we bide our time
we ride it out
slide it out of time
of rhyme
the world will welcome
warm and sun
will run the colors
all together whether
weather bruises outsides
inner heart tides
creep to sand and hands
reach out and clasp
and grasp the love that
always makes it through
the loudest thunder
under-pinning winning
in the ending of the hard times
bells chime ringing music
singing songs of hope and
peace to all we call to friends
well met we set
the corner stone and build
our houses out of bricks
and mud and love
to stand the test of time
and rain will fall
but through it all
we love
we wait
prevail
i walked on summer
leaving no bruise
on verdant softness
nightdress brushing
bony ankles
firefly leading on
you were there
i couldn’t find you
your breath easy in the dark
and though i ran
just out of reach
like the owl who spoke
i reached for your hand
fingers sliding loose
as i would give you
a dream
like sunlight pressed on
sleep closed eyes
warm sheet valley
the smell
of your cigarette
lingering
If the sky was to fall
into her hands
she would break it to pieces
the glassine pebbles
falling all over
her snow covered dress
dropping
to chapped knees
praying with frosty breath
and a cloudy heart
head bowed
under weight of crystal clouds
sun warmth
would thaw this bitten heart
banished
from sheeted concrete
there is foggy joy
over the next hill
invisible
through rime encrusted lashes
one tear falls
clarity
only to shatter
ringing through
the grey air