Unless they’re broken
eggs are no good
can’t eat them
can’t hatch them
can’t even use them to vandalize
fresh or rotten, eggs are
no earthly good
whole
Category Archives: Poetry
Prompted poetry: broken
For the vernal equinox: Fickle spring
It’s been a while since I posted, so I decided to write a mediocre poem in honor of the vernal equinox. Please feel free to leave a response or make suggestions!
Fickle Spring
she scatters promises like rose
petals at a wedding; their confetti
rains down around her, grand
marshal of her own parade, and we
the adoring crowds line festooned
streets to welcome her, eager
to catch a glimpse as her parti-
colored float drifts past
Prompted poetry: juggle
The secret of juggling
is not to keep things
suspended
but to keep them in a constant
state
of
falling
A parable poem: Magical thinking
Inspired by a comment from one of my poetry classmates.
Magical Thinking
once there was a girl who thought poetry
a fairy’s gift: gems should fall from her lips
each time she opened them
when a toad sprang out instead
she believed herself cursed
shut her mouth and put away her pen
one day a peddler woman came to her
door, sharp eyes missing
nothing: my dear, you have a poet’s mouth
a small toad leaped to the ground in answer
tears filled the girl’s eyes
you do have the gift! the peddler crowed
puzzled, the girl opened her mouth
whenever no one was around, studied the toads
as they hopped off – she found their colors
brighter, their shapes more varied
than she had imagined
she began to write about them
her heirs found her papers many years later
our mother was a poet! they marveled
and it was so
Prompted poetry: refract
It’s time to produce some more proof that I’ve been writing like mad, just not writing blog posts.
Refracted
light bends when it passes
through liquid
the degree of distortion
varies according to the fluid
density
you are so twisted
the only way to get a straight
shot of you is through
a glass half-empty
Posted in Poetry
Tagged fluid density, glass, light, prompted poetry, prompts, refraction
Inexcusable poetry: Heir Apparent
One of the good things about a poetry writing class is that you write a lot of poetry. One of the bad things is that a lot of poetry is not necessarily a good thing.
Heir Apparent
Cleopatra passed all she knows
about de nial to me
her daughter
though I cannot lie to save
my life my powers of self-deception
verge on the supernatural
Prompt poetry: Anachronism
This was in response to the prompt “open”:
Anachronism
today I drove in rush hour traffic
open spiral notebook
propped against the wheel
ballpoint in my steering grip
no radio, no cell phone
just the scratch of pen on paper
at every red light
Poetry under pressure
During the last ten minutes of class this week, the teacher had us each write a companion poem to one of the poems workshopped that day. Only one of the ideas in my poem is original — a gold star goes to anyone who can identify the literary sources of the other two!
Scientific Explanations
It has been suggested
that paper clips are larval
forms of wire coat hangers:
closets are always over
flowing with the latter
while the former seem
perpetually in short supply.
Some suspect that clothes dryers
also serve as portals to other dimensions;
fortunately the aperture is so narrow
only the occasional sock slips through.
Evidence suggests a predator
prey relationship between plastic
containers and their lids: their numbers never remain
equal over time, despite meticulous
efforts to balance them.
Off-the-cuff poetry: truth
More from the poetry class. Here’s what I came up with in response to the prompt “truth”:
sometimes truth appears
a fickle thing
eager to serve any
who wield it
two-edged, it bites
every way: coming, going
standing still
truth severs all bonds
frees because it is free
answers to no one, knows
no law but itself
Actual haiku
(Though not necessarily good haiku.)
What is it about
a sleeping cat that makes me
feel so comforted?
(Inspired by my marmalardy lap warmer.)
The Daily Compost 