A winter poem for Poets United.
White fog lingering
In the air this early morning
Is as close
As we will get to snow:
It holds me closer
Than mittens or scarves
And is cold enough
To my southern-California blood —
Right now I think of
Hot chocolate, sleigh rides —
Later I will take off my coat
And drink iced tea.
This prompt from Real Toads, Just One Word: Burnished, was difficult today, but here is my attempt. It’s good to try something I’m not necessarily used to.
Do not shrink from the friction or the fire,
To live unburnished is to lack a shine.
The fear is true, yet I am no liar,
It is worth the pain to metal refine,
And it’s the same with hearts and minds, listen —
The surfaces and inside will glisten
To change is hard but start — this is your sign.
I wrote a cherita for this prompt on Real Toads about wolves. Follow the link to read the quote that inspired this.
People wonder why so many animals wander along the highways.
Deer, wolves, coyotes come close.
Some get run over by vehicles, and people wonder why.
The wolves, the animals are trying to find the forest.
Snow falls upon what was once their home,
And a wolf-mother howls for a missing cub.
For Poets United Midweek Motif. I chose to write about remembering the dead.
How generous the dead are,
With the way they so often haunt
Both memories and dreams:
I think of my maternal grandmother
And my high-school friend —
You were cremated
Body became ashes but memories
Remained. If you had a grave,
I would visit it and pray
“Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine” *
The sentiment lives, and you visit me.
* This is the beginning of a prayer for the dead, in Latin. More info
This is for Frank J. Tassone’s haikai challenge. This week, the prompt is, fittingly, Halloween. I usually enjoy this holiday and especially All Saint’s Day the day after. this has made me realize that I still need a costume!
Funny-faced pumpkins
Laugh in death’s disfigured face
This Halloween night
This is for Frank J. Tassone’s haikai prompt about scarecrows, and it also fits the DVerse challenge about polyptotons. As usual, I am late to the party, but we can keep poetically partying!
Scarecrows search for brains
Hot October days scare us,
Climate-change harvest
This poem was inspired by these prompts: about the positive side of change and about astonishment and wonder.
What she thought was the end of the world,
When she thought she was unlovable
Because she seemed unappreciated
By someone whose love she had wanted —
What she thought was rock bottom,
Was precisely the solid ground she needed
To stand at last on her own feet,
To rebuild, and find astonishment at the new life
She is leading, which she didn’t know she wanted.
