Repost: Ghazal

This is a re-post of a ghazal that I wrote a couple of years ago. I am sharing with DVerse for this month’s poetry form.

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“Call Me Hagar”

I decided to write another ghazal today. I normally wouldn’t post twice in one day but was very happy with how this turned out! It was inspired by Agha Shahid Ali’s poem “Tonight”. I am not feeling this way currently but am very familiar with the struggles described in the following poem.

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I feel alone, connection’s far tonight,

I see no smiling star tonight.

 

Even the moon has forgotten its light.

Shrouded, it makes the sky dark as tar tonight.

 

My mind sees a battlefield near:

What emotions will I need to spar tonight?

 

Depression, restlessness, fear, anxiety?

What demons come to wound and scar tonight?

 

Yet hope alone, even now, can fight

The darkness; complete despair I’ll bar tonight.

 

And in the midst of these anxieties God sees:

I sob in God’s arms. Call me Hagar tonight.

Red, Orange, and Yellow Flowers

For this installment of Heeding Haiku with Chèvrefeuille, we are writing about colors. I wrote first about the coloring that I like to do, but then I saw the flowers in my family’s garden and found them inspiring. Shared also with the Writers’ Pantry.

lovely new dresses
this season’s latest fashion
demure blooms display —

how can I be sorrowful,
‘midst this exquisite brightness?

Huge Opposition

For FOWC: Magnitude and MLMM’s Saturday Mix, for which the “opposing forces are freeze/melt and work/rest.

What magnitude earthquake
Will it take, to shake
Everything back into place?

How much work do we need
To exert, in order to
Return to rest again?

When fears cause lives
To freeze, can even clear
Reason melt steel anxiety?

Major Meltdown

For today’s Stream-of-Consciousness Saturday, our prompt is any word that starts with the letter M. I wrote this silly little poem earlier today.

n.b. This is actually a good day. It is not time for a major meltdown (yet). However, if anyone has chocolate fondue, I would love some!

The Yellow Taxi and the Road It Travels

This is my offering for Linda’s paint-chip poetry #42, a day late but hopefully worth the wait! This was fun.

The yellow brick road
Leads to Oz,
Really just a big
Disappointment.

Many tissues
You will need to use.

But, if you take a taxi,
Down the road less traveled
Maybe, even a drab
Brown paper package

Can have, hiding,
A great gift inside.

A Way to Alleviate Pain

This was written for the current Weekly Scribblings, as well as DVerse MTB for today. I hope this poem is especially sonorous. 🙂 For the Weekly Scribblings prompt, they provided a haiku, and I was inspired especially by the phrase, “an old rosary carved of human bone.”

Rising Levels of the Sea of Stress

This was inspired by FOWC: Alleviate and MLMM’s Tale Weaver: Underwater, not to mention the huge amount of stress that, probably, almost everyone is under right now!

One-Liner Wednesday: True Friendship

Many thanks to Linda G. Hill for the one-liner Wednesday and other prompts each week!

“No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other’s worth.”
— Robert Southey

I have been reading a cute little book containing quotations and short poems about friendship, and this was one of my favorite lines in the whole book. How blessed is anyone who has a friend like that! I have at least one.

The Antidote

Today I am sharing a poem that was not inspired by any particular prompt, something that I usually do not do because there are so many prompts to take part in! I tried to finagle Fandango’s one-word challenge into a poem, but it didn’t work, so I wrote this sentence. 🙂

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When the soul gets sad and lonely,
Remember life is not me only.
Reach out to another friend,
Some kind message to them send.
Maybe this friend also needs
Some loving positivity-seeds.
Antidote to a saddening pattern:
As a flower, to sunlight turn.

Photo by Irina Iriser on Pexels.com

Memory is a Strong Magnet

It’s time for DVerse Quadrille again! These prompts are usually magnetic to ideas, especially today’s. 🙂 I wasn’t going to post this, but I don’t have a better idea. Some people have much more of an influence than they think, even more than you might think. This is also shared with the Writers’ Pantry. 

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Did you know,
Although it has been twelve years,
The thought of you is magnetic
To me?
We are closer in your death
Than in life we ever were.
What if it had been me?
Did you know,
The void continues to call me?

What Are You Going to be for Halloween?

This is for Tourmaline’s Halloween challenge. Mask is the word for today. I really needed to write this, so thanks for the prompt, even if no one likes the poem! haha

What are you going to be for Halloween?
Does it matter, is there a party?
Is there any trick-or-treating with the kids?

Are there any kids or are we all
Older than our years by now?

What are you going to be for Halloween?
Will people wear a second mask?
What costumes have we been tricked into wearing?

I will be the most terrifying horror:
I will wear no mask and be a human being!

I don’t hate face masks as much as some people, but the longer this goes on, the more tired I am of it. Even if the masks work perfectly, what is it worth? I want to see people’s smiles. I want to be hugged. In the past 7 months, I can count the number of people I’ve touched on one hand. And I am not doing well. Nobody gives a damn about the collateral damage from these policies. What is this worth?

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