Tag Archives: prompted poetry

Day twenty poem: LexPoMo 2016

LexPoMo2016aThe poem inspired by today’s prompt (clock wise) is a rather flippant, but I think there’s something a little dark and sad beneath the surface.

Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.

Borrowed time comes due

she used to set
the minute hand ahead just enough
to keep her on time when she ran late

now she turns
her face to the wall, covered by both hands
to hide how much time has passed

Day nineteen poem: LexPoMo 2016

LexPoMo2016aClearly I’ve been bitten by the silliness bug. The prompt for today’s poem was “glue stick.”

Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.

Adhesive evolution

after bottles and pots
and paddles and jars
and brushes and guns
and tubes, glue has finally
found the form it was always
meant to take:

stick

Day eighteen poem: LexPoMo

LexPoMo2016aI went off-prompt today because something silly tickled my fancy instead.

Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.

Unusual beauty

She has vampire toes
pale, slender, and preternaturally agile
with dark red nails, wet and shiny
as fresh-spilled blood

She has vampire palms
smooth, without past or future
to map in lines, only the arches
and loops of an endless now

She has a vampire smile
expressing neither guile nor truth
empty of meaning and free
to carry whatever prey may desire

Day seventeen poem: LexPoMo

LexPoMo2016aThe prompt for today’s poem was “an agreement.”

Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.

Arranged marriage

they had an agreement to never evacuate
upstream from their shared habitation

to conduct any tawdry business
in distant jurisdictions

and hunt as far afield as possible
from their home territory

they remained together quite happily
so long as both could travel

but as their circles tightened
over time, with age and infirmity

they obstinately fouled the nest
and sat defiant in mutual excrement

Day sixteen poem: LexPoMo

LexPoMo2016aToday’s prompt was “text message,” and something popped out at me in some text I was reading this morning. Found poetry adapted from a passage in Chapter XXXVI of Adam Bede, by George Eliot.

Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.

The journey

The next morning she rose early and set out
walking the road towards Ashby under a leaden
sky with a narrowing streak of yellow
like a departing hope on the edge of the horizon.

It had not yet occurred to her that she might get money
for locket and earrings, and she applied all her small
knowledge calculating how many meals and rides were contained
in two guineas and the odd shillings, which had a melancholy
look of pale ashes to the other bright-flaming coins.

Day nine poem: LexPoMo

LexPoMo2016aYesterday’s prompt (computer bag) tumbled around in my head all day without much result. (Hence no post.) But when I tossed today’s prompt (drop dead) into the mix, the two stuck together in a weird way that caught my fancy.

Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.

Color saturation

The computer bag drops dead
in the center of the room. The lizard man
who brought it here is tired; there are dark
scales under his eyes. He doesn’t quite blend
with the wallpaper, a cartoonish crazy
quilt of flowers in shocking hues.

No wonder he is tired.

Day seven poem: LexPoMo

LexPoMo2016aThe prompt became the title of the poem. I usually avoid doing that, but it just seemed to work best in this case.

Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.

Please call…

Her voice echoes down the line, no further
than London but it might as well be

England: he will not answer when he sees her
number in the caller ID, will not pick up

the phone to dial his childhood
home. She waits and hopes, withering

each time the phone rings and he
is not on the other end.

Day six poem: LexPoMo

LexPoMo2016aThe prompt for today’s poem was “child.”

Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.

The magic chef

Sweet Julia, your grand gestures, generous
frame, and ready wit supplied all the diversion
necessary to cover your sleight
of hand: how you poured your secret

heartache into every dish you prepared, each recipe
you tested and perfected, feeding by proxy
whole generations of families you could never
otherwise call your own.

Day five poem: LexPoMo 2016

LexPoMo2016aI took some liberties with today’s prompt (pony tail).

Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.

Horse hair

some like the way a mare’s tail
flames behind her as if she sets
the very air on fire when she runs

others fancy how her mane breaks
along the arch of her neck and cascades
over her withers, water spilled on stone

me, I watch the feathered dance of fetlocks
as her feet fly over the earth, shimmy
of lightning to the thunder of her hooves

Day four poem: LexPoMo 2016

Today’s prompt (wire mesh) really gave me some fits, but I suppose if you bat an idea around long enough you can beat something out of it.

Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.

Pest control

shimmering chickenwire octagons keep out
chickens and anything larger than a chipmunk
but not the predatory fingers of raccoons
nor chipmunks themselves

leaden hardware cloth squares keep out
the smallest rodents (even chipmunks)
and birds, but not bugs except praying
mantids and probably tarantulas

what’s needed is screening, no longer
made from wire but pressed or extruded
petrol-polysomething, to keep all visible
annoyances at a safe distance