I Made a Remix

I’ve been wanting to write a Found Poem for a while, so today I wrote a Terzanelle using lines from a few of my favorite poets. I jammed 4 poets plus me into 19 lines (and also jammed the MVB prompt word into that sentence). Shared with the Writers’ Pantry on 10/24. 

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I wake, and feel the fell of dark, not day
I wake to sleep and take my waking slow,
Hoping that dreams to better life give way.

What better life to see? I do not know,
Besides that mystery past Heaven’s gates —
I wake to sleep and take my waking slow.

Dancing

This is a collaboration with Sarah for Jilly’s January challenge. Her words are in bold, and mine are in blue. Shared with DVerse’s latest open link night.

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It seemed like we were always dancing,
though the music was sometimes too fast,
and sometimes a little too slow,
and sometimes we hardly heard it at all

Or maybe the music was perfect,
It was just not what I’d expected,
You heard the future that was to be born,
The future whose magic still calls.

Christmas Magic

This is a half-poem for Jilly’s Decembercollaborative poetry challenge. It is written in a form called the “Magic Nine,” due to its rhyne scheme of abacadaba. Read more about this and other 9-line poetry forms here.

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Family gathers ’round the Christmas tree,

Laden with ornaments and many gifts,

Children lean in close, excitedly,

Wondering what Santa’s workshop brought,

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Anyone is welcome to write the final 5 lines of this poem. Have fun! 

I Love You to the Moon

Written for Jilly’s November collaboration as a continuation of Charley’s “Paean to My Love” . His words are in green, and mine are in blue. 

 

“She walks in beauty like the night”

She’s won my heart not just by sight! 

She’s won my heart it’s hers to keep. 

She fills my heart awake, asleep! 

 

She dances o’er a midnight stage, 

Stars gather ’round this brilliant sage 

Unparalleled in comeliness, 

Whose calm mystique guides me no less. 

Stardust

For Jilly’s November collaboration. She wrote the beginning of this poem, and I finished it. Her words are in bold, and my completion is in blue. 

It’s never about birds in poetry;

it is about our inadequate, 

marrow-filled bones that

weigh us down

reminding us of the immediacy 

of the dust. 

 

It’s never about stars in poetry; 

it is about our indefatigable, 

persistent, pertinent hope that 

lifts up our eyes, 

reminding us of the long journey

of the light. 

 

It has travelled a billion years

to find your eyes; it has flown

through so many solar systems, 

past so many galaxies, 

reminding you that though you are dust, 

it is Stardust.

Community (Challenge Half-Poem)

This is my contribution for Jilly’s October challenge. It is in the form of an ottava rima, an 8-line poem written in iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme of abababcc. I actually completed this poem but am only posting half of it to see what everyone else comes up with. 

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One’s friends are precious, keep them close in heart,

Even though distance can get in the way,

It’s no excuse, these days, to be apart,

Community is needed like the day

Continuing the Blessing

This is a collaborative poem for Jilly’s October Challenge with Sarah, who began a retourne as a blessing for her daughter. The first stanza is hers, and the rest is what I added. I really enjoy shadow poems, such as retournes, and it is so much fun to work together!

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May your heart sing like the ocean,

May the air be clear around you,

May your midnight flame burn bright,

May your feet find firm ground to stand.

 

May the air be clear around you,

Cloud accompaniment on high,

Seeing whatever you would like

In the fluffy white cumulus.

 

May your midnight flame burn bright,

To fight against injustices,

To proudly emit guiding light,

Indomitable spirit, stay.

 

May your feet find firm ground to stand,

Not shaken by small passing fads,

But confident in who you are:

Water, air, flame, earth, all in one.

This is a collaboration with Frank Hubeny, whose poem “Park Shade” provided a lot of inspiration. It is a Chaucerian stanza, iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of ababbcc. I enjoyed trying this unfamiliar form, and Frank’s original gets better with every reading. For Jilly’s October collaboration challenge.

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You grew in what became a picnic grove
Providing shade to what is now a park
While dying you were cut and when I drove
One morning past your place expecting dark
I found the stump, your tombstone, your new mark
And knew eventually that so will I
Look up with new perspective on the sky.

I took for granted your inviting shade, 

Your stately trunk and verdant, kindly leaves,

A vacuum where I’d expectations made, 

An unexpected absence nature grieves, 

Much worse than winter’s cold, and icy eaves.

In winter’s bitter cold will our tears freeze

Time before such loss brings us to our knees? 

 

 

Leopard

This is a collaboration with Vivian Zems. I am completing her poem “I Change Not” , for Jill’s October collaboration challenge This poem is a nonet. It begins with 9 syllables in the first line, 8 in the second, and so on, until there is a single syllable in the final line. I had fun with this and actual have a second idea about how to complete it. Vivian’s lines are in red. 

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As a leopard cannot change its spots

I cannot change, no matter what

I am that I am and was

Wondering, what’s the cause

Of the way I am, 

And can I change? 

Would I choose

Other

Lives? 

Retourne (collaboration)

This poem is a retourne written for Jilly’s September collaborative poetry challenge. Imelda wrote the first 2 stanzas, and I finished the poem with the second 2 stanzas. Each stanza is a quatrain with 8 syllables per line. There is also repetition of each line in the first stanza becoming the opening lines of the subsequent stanzas. Her words are in bold.

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Words, once set free, blend in the wind
breathing a timeless existence;
Some grow wings to fly to heaven
They ask gifts for the gentle tongue

Breathing a timeless existence,
words illuminate our soul
Memories do falter in time
consequences of words live on.

Some grow wings to fly to heaven,

Rising upward, wearing halos.

Some trip, falling down to the depths,

And we feel aflame, filled with shame.

 

They ask gifts for the gentle tongue,

Unwrap me, uncage me, I need

Kindness, sweetness, don’t beat me with

Old words, older as I age, too.