Friday, November 29, 2013

Thanksgiving Thoughts


I’m not always thankful at appropriate times;
my rhythm is off and I’m not good with rhymes,
but somehow I can’t help think that Thanksgiving
might not look so lovely, viewed from reservation living.
I don’t mean to be difficult, rude or offensive
but it seems that our holiday is awfully expensive.


Please excuse my negative comments on Thanksgiving.  I do have a whole cartload of stuff I'm thankful for.  And I do think it's good to get together with family and friends and express this gratitude.  I just don't want to forget how I got here.  So I wish everyone all the best and  I'm really thankful for G-man, FF55 and this great online writing community.


Monday, November 25, 2013

Giving Thanks

   Image from Shine the Divine Laura Hegfield, designed and stitched by Sharon Mitchell

This
moment
I'm grateful
for all the people
in my life, 
both present now
and gone.
I am grateful 
for the experiences I've had 
both dark and bright
that have led me to
this moment.  


This is my contribution to a great project called the Gratitude quilt.  Laura Hegfield started this annual project in 2009 to express her thanks for all the good in her life inspite of the challenges of illness.  You can read the full story on her blog  Shine the Divine.  

Friday, November 22, 2013

On Committing to Write a Poem a Day for November and Starting Poem #13 on the 20th of the Month

    Image: Calvin by Bill Watterson

Open your heart –
that’s where the love is.
Open your liver –
that’s where the bile is.
Open your mind –
that’s where the thoughts are.
Open your mouth –
that’s where the words are.
Open your damn notebook (or word document) -
that’s where those words go -
and they sure as hell aren’t going to write themselves.


Well, I think the title says it all.  Other than this is 55 total crap words torturously pulled from my faded brain for G-man and his FF55.  Click on the link and check it out.

Friday, November 15, 2013

Drought

We drink dust through cracked lips
swallowing nosily.
Our skin hangs in loose folds,
dull, flaking,
bones ache, joints rub against one another
with soft, scraping sounds.
We stand lighting matches in the fire,
dreaming of rain.


For November PAD.

It Is What It Is...Not

I dream
and in my dream
things are cross-wise, wrong…
I scour the sink
with my toothbrush,
and tiny black bits of dirt
fall from the bristles.
Everything is off a bit,
like the reflection from the mirror
when the medicine cabinet door
is ajar, just a bit
Then I wake and find you gone.


This will be a poem one day.  For now though it's just 55 words for G-man and his FF55.  Click on the link and check it out!




Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Self-Help

   Image: A boy sits amid the ruins of a London bookshop following an air raid on October 8, 1940, reading a book titled “The History of London.” 

I once thought
I could solve any problem
if only I could find
the right
book.





Tuesday, November 12, 2013

We Cling to the Familiar

     Image: People in Trees by Mikola Gnisyuk vis Baibakov Art Projects

We cling to the familiar,
to what we know,
long after we know
it no longer serves us,
no longer is true.

We cling to the familiar,
because we have done this
for so long,
to pry our fingers away is painful.
Our hands are adhered,
seared to the surface
of the obsolete.
And in tearing them away
we leave
raw, bloody layers
of ourselves 
behind.

We cling to the familiar,
because we do not know
what else to cling to,
and the thought
of empty hands,
of free falling,
with nothing to hold on to
terrifies us.

We cling to the familiar,
because we know it,
because imagining something else,
something new,
is hard,
and we are lazy.
We resist when we can simply cling
to the familiar.

So we do.
We cling to the familiar
long after
it has become
absurd.


This is for the November PAD (Poem a Day).  The image is a prompt from Robert Brewer at Writers Digest.  Click on the link and check it out.


Monday, November 11, 2013

Exit Dancing

    Image: Danseuse ajustant sa bretelle, 1895096, Edgar Degas

Enter the closet
with boxes full of dreams,
excess baggage,
skeletons,
dirty laundry,
truth.
Close the door tight.
No.
Open the door,
and come out
dancing.


This image is provided by Tess Kincaid at The Mag creative writing group.  Click on the link and check it out.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Skipping Past Time

     Image by Mike Worrall

Next year,
when we were children
we loved
skipping time:

double Dutch forward,
peppers back,
criss-cross applesauce 
back and forth again.

Who could keep track
of when we are?
Not the jumper,
or swingers,
or those in line
waiting their turn.


This is for Grace in the Imaginary Garden.  She asked us to write about one of the many, delightful paintingsof Mike Worrall.  And it's also for Mary's prompt involving childhood toys or games over at dVerse Poets Pub.  Click on each of the links for more responses.  

Friday, November 8, 2013

Pushmi-pullyu


You
push me
away,
then entice me to
pull you
back.
Again and again and again.
This is the game
we play.
And now
I am ready
for something new.
Yet I fear,
when I finally
 push you
away,
you may not care to
pull me
back
to you.



For G-man and his FF-55.  And in keeping with the theme, just for fun here is a Brilliant youtube Doctor/River song.  Enjoy!
*Image from carolseatory.blogspot.com 

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Building

I’m a traveler
but I do not travel light.
I bring many bags
filled with heavy bricks I use
to build a circumscribed wall.

You unpack your bags
and set the bricks between us.
Eyes meet, and I place
 my hand on yours.  Together,
from the wall, we build a path.


This is for the  dVerse open link night. Click on the link and check out some of the many offerings there.  This poetry form is called a somonka.  It is comprised of two tankas ( 5/7/5/7/7 syllables per line)   written as love letters–each tanka from one of two lovers.  It’s the poetic prompt from yesterday for the November PAD (poen a day) at Writer's Digest Poetic Asides.  And I'm linking it to day so, yes, once again I’m fashionably late.  

Monday, November 4, 2013

Dona Nobis Pacem


Image from johnworldpeace.com


World Peace:
so much better than
a world in pieces

This post is a Blog4Peace, thanks to Kerry at IGRT for the suggestion for the open link day.  Please click on the link to check out a garden full of peace blogs.  Read and join us.  Let's all wage peace.


Sunday, November 3, 2013

Recurrection Reunion

     Resurrection Reunion 2 by Stanley Spencer

What the hell?
Here I am, back again;
dirt up my nose and in my ears,
amid all these crazy people
in woolen stockings.

When time bends over, double
and we step
across the fold
to back-here-again,
then dinosaur oil slicks
knit back
into shining, bone-hard whiteness
covered over in leather-flesh
filled with being.

Dusty tombs
fill with reconstituted blood and juices,
fresh flesh,
so succulent and tender,
lips again kissable
tongues speaking, shrieking
hands pulling aside
death shrouds.
And feet,
my feet,
in woolen stockings
amid all these crazy people;
dirt up my nose and in my ears.
Here I am, back again.
What the hell?


This is for the The Mag creative writing group and also the Nobember PAD prompt from Writer's Digest.  Click on the links and check them out.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

The Local News

     newspaper-jon-s.jpg

Bananas on sale 39 cents a pound

Furniture BLOWOUT!  This weekend only!
*check out our expanded holiday hours

SWF seeking NS-SWM

Britney and Miley Raise Eyebrows at Karaoke Bar


The News peacefully passed away Tuesday, October 21 1997. 
No one noticed until last week. 
It is survived by advertising, personals, weather, happy ads and Celebrity quasi-news.

In lieu of flowers please send IQ points.


This is the post for Day 2 of PAD (poem a day for the month of November).  The prompt "news of the day" from Robert Brewer of Writers Digest.

Friday, November 1, 2013

And Then November


I don’t see you come
but I feel your cold breath
on my back.

Your gaze stoops my shoulders
and I wither
inside,
curling in
around the dark
like the petals of a flower.

A dozen shades
of brown and grey
fill my eyes.
A killing frost is coming;
I must prepare the ground.


This is for G-man and his FF55.  I missed you all the last couple weeks! 
And this is also for d'Verse where Claudia wants us to write about color, and for  Writers' Digest PAD (writing prompts for November's poem a day challenge).  Today's challenge was "appear" and I tried to do it without using the word itself.