This poem is inspired by DVerse Poetics and the image below, which is by Catrin Welz-Stein. I enjoyed writing to one of her beautiful, surreal pieces of art. Her other art can be found here:
http://catrin-stein.imagekind.com/store/
He holds a key that’s half his size,
As a giant feathered-thing flies
Away with him, away, as he stays
Looking at the moon. He’s left a piece
Of himself, never to be released
From that beautiful, liminal gloom.
For DVerse quadrille today, De says “the sky’s the limit!” This is also linked to FOWC: Doleful. The sky where I am today is far from doleful. 🙂 It’s a welcome change from a week or two ago.
Looking out the front window, I see sun:
The season’s listing toward September,
And the sky’s no longer filled with embers
And ashes.
Sometimes reality crashes
Into my saccharine reveries, frowns
Find my face, but blue is not doleful
Above, in that heavenly place.
For DVerse Poetics today, I have written 2 nonets based on the prompt, “9 Across for a Count Down.” The first line of both nonets is taken from “To the Light of September” by W.S. Merwin.
It seems as though you are still summer,
Though the smoky sky shrouds much sun,
But the flames are retreating —
Soon may our worries sleep —
May seasons cradle
Even amidst
Change : burning
Fall-leaves
Flame.
Broken shadows across the cracked ground
Point out the path to October:
Mid-September’s hellish flames
Celebrate Halloween
Early, ghost-ashes
Haunt surfaces.
Trick or treat?
Costumes
Change.
Today for DVerse Poetics, Sarah invites us to come and take a selfie. So, this is a self-portrait poem, which I wrote today and which I was and am unsure about sharing but whatever!
I have my father’s eyes.
Blue, which can pass for green
Depending on what I’m wearing —
I have my father’s eyes
In their color, their appearance,
But far from their substance
Because I see beyond the surface:
He is content with the placid sea,
He has fooled himself into thinking
He rules — he drowns reason
In another liquid, functions,
But how well does he think he’s hiding?
He has tried to sweep
It all under the rug — this family keeps
Secrets — don’t tell me I don’t see!
I have my father’s eyes.
Blue — for the sobering insight
Does anyone else sense the tsunami?
For Quadrille Monday today, we are all eavesdropping. This was a hard word to use, especially in a creative way. I hope you all like it. By the way, this is based on truth, but hopefully I don’t overhear too much!
I do not eavesdrop
So much as others’ words
Float up, and sometimes far
To my open ears —
I may be nosy, and
So it appears,
But I prefer the term
“Curious,” hope it makes no one
Furious. Who knows
How ears can close?
I just got switched to the block editor today, and it definitely feels odd. https://fivedotoh.com/2020/09/03/fowc-with-fandango-odd/ That’s the link for FOWC: Odd, since I can’t figure out how to do a better hyperlink (the kind that was so easy in the classic editor). I should probably consider myself lucky, since it seems like, for whatever reason, my blog was among the last to be switched over.
I had very little inspiration for poems today, several ideas but little more than phrases. This is extremely odd for me because, usually, even if I don’t post, I write 4 or 5 poems a day.
I suppose I’ll try to write a poem about this awkward new editor….Sharing also with DVerse Open Link
These blocks do not impress,
Why the heck, WordPress?
I hope I’ll learn to use
This goofy thing, or choose
Somehow to go back
To “Classic” editor, whack
This into internet oblivion.
To disgruntled voices listen:
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it,
Why won’t the coders nix it?
This is for DVerse Poetics and also fits FOWC: Uncertain. I don’t usually write in this style, so I am uncertain if I did it right! This was inspired by not only the prompt itself but also the fact that Sanaa, who hosted the DVerse prompt today, was “serving” raspberry scones and coffee. So, just about anything can inspire a poem for me. 🙂
Such luscious fruit —
And the sweet morsels crumble
Against my tongue — it mixes
With the strength of bitterness,
The full-bodied
Flavor of an undiluted brew:
Such passionate intensity —
I experience uncertainty,
Though the flavors do not duel
But combine, in a fashion
More sublime than either alone.
For DVerse MTB this week, we are trying our hands at verbing. I do this a lot with friends in my non-blog life, but finding a good idea for it in a poem was unexpectedly hard.
Look at those faces:
They sunflowered for a few weeks,
Nature summered for a few months —
See the birds use their beaks
To peck the seeds from what once
Loved the sun’s embraces.
For DVerse Poetics today, we are to write inspired by wheat. At first, I was completely at a loss for any inspiration, but tonight I wrote this Chaucerian stanza.
Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon
The fertile ground and die, a sacrifice,
It remains a single grain; but once gone
It returns, and is now worth well past twice:
Potential on which you can’t put a price.
Does wheat feel trepidation ere the fall?
Is falling in the field falling at all?
This poem is a quadrille for the DVerse prompt today. Our word today is “bum.”
Summer has been a bummer,
But the mind is my delight.
If my face has looked glummer,
I’ve still been able to find bright
Spots: no job but lots
Of music, reading, and poetry.
I am happy to not need
Busy-ness as a bumblebee.
