We have magnolias in the front yard, and I love sitting on the front steps to watch evening fall.
Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.
Not yet summer
the night air drips
sweet bay magnolia and lightning
bugs blink their hunger
in the dark
I’ve been doing a lot of trace poetry lately; it frees me to focus more on words and less on form. This is traced from D.H. Lawrence’s “Aware.” You can view the original at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/54058/54058-h/54058-h.htm#png.029.
Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.
Alive
Steadily the day is falling through the mottled leaves,
casting shadows within shadows, layers of shade and light
merging green and exquisite; and I beyond numb
feel in the air around me a sweetness I did not expect
I needed, but here it is and its touch soothes my skin;
I welcome it through the grief, choosing still to breathe.
Posted in Poetry
Tagged D.H. Lawrence, Lexington Poetry Month, LexPoMo, poetry exercises, poetry practice, trace poetry
This is another poem that congealed from the list of prompts I made for the month. I can’t decide if it’s creepy or comforting. (Probably depends on what time of day/night you read it.)
Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.
Presence
just because
they’re dead
doesn’t mean
they’re not
here
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Lexington Poetry Month, LexPoMo, poetry practice, prompted poetry
June is Lexington Poetry Month, and once again I’ve signed up for the LexPoMo challenge: to write a poem each day and post at least five. As part of my preparation, I compiled a list of prompts from various places, and the list itself took on the shape of a poem in places. So here is a kind of found poem, cobbled together from a bone pile of prompts.
Bone pile
it’s just hard
to know what to do
with her
booze like water
chugs and weeps
a broken faucet
I once knew
how to celebrate
humdrum: cook
with these old men
smother them
with kindness
I understood
this before
we traded places
Posted in Poetry
Tagged found poetry, Lexington Poetry Month, LexPoMo, poetry practice, prompted poetry
This week’s assignment for poetry class was to write a poem around the premise, “You crack me up with all this truth.” I riffed on the two words that jumped out at me, crack and truth.
Of truth and crack
1.
Truth is like crack: the pure stuff
will set you free
but the stuff that’s been cut
with this or that
will really mess you up.
2.
Truth cracks us over
the head like a two-by-four
– which is how the universe gets
our attention when metaphor
isn’t enough.
3.
Truth continues to seep through
the cracks no matter how well we think
we have insulated ourselves.
4.
Truth is the temblor that cracks
the foundation of every human
edifice.
5.
The china dolls say: If you tell us
the truth we may crack up; we prefer
the alternative.
Posted in Poetry
Tagged NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poetry practice
During discussion in a poetry class last week, someone posed the question, “Is ice cream a decision?” Rather than allow us to become completely sidetracked, the instructor wisely turned the question into a writing assignment. If you feel inspired to join the fun, please post your poem in the comments or link back to this post from your own blog so I can read it. 🙂
Is ice cream a decision?
It is an imperative, a command
that cannot be ignored, force
powerful beyond the imagination
of resistance, second
only perhaps to air.
Flavor is the only true decision.
Posted in Poetry
Tagged NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, poetry class, poetry exercises
Softer
magnolia blossoms glow in the night-dark
yard, reflecting the moon’s light
as if they were themselves moons or sea creatures
impregnated with phosphorescent cells,
brightening the fertile gloom
in cool imitation of the unseen sun
Posted in Poetry
Tagged NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month
I can always count on tarot to spark my imagination. This is from the Fairy Tale Tarot (Lisa Hunt, 2009), a gorgeous deck that is out of print but digitally available thanks to The Fool’s Dog. This image came from their Tarot Sampler IV.
Look deeper
A woman may swallow a seed
that is not a seed and bear
a child that is not a child.
A selfish old man may indulge
himself by pretending
to indulge his grandson.
A child that wants to play
with a box may be a raven
who steals back the sun.
A child may be a raven.
A box may hold the sun.
A thief may be a hero.
Things are not always what they seem.
Yesterday was so busy that even though I wrote something, I opted to go to bed when I got home rather than post. The muse did not approve, it seems, as I slept very poorly.
Meeting
attendance quorum agenda
minutes motion second
amendment call the question
all in favor all opposed
motion carries motion does not carry
old business new business
tabled if nothing further
schedule
adjourned
Posted in Poetry
Tagged NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month
Emily Dickinson is a real dickens to trace! Her language is so precise and her images so concrete, it is difficult to create something more than a pale imitation or weak echo. I’ve been wrestling with a couple Dickinson poems for about a week, and this is the first thing that has even faintly resembled something I could call my own.
Moon! You were finding me
the whole night by
gaps in the blinds too tiny
to be seen by day
Beam after beam of silver light
swept the pillow, seemed to hit
my eyes, no matter that
they were tightly shut
This morning I hold you
to blame for my slow
rising, even though
I stayed out past two
(loosely patterned after poem no. 1035 “Bee! I’m expecting you!” by Emily Dickinson – http://hellopoetry.com/poem/2416/bee-im-expecting-you/)
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Emily Dickinson, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month, trace poetry
The Daily Compost 