I just wrote this “Parallelogram de Crystalline” poem (a new form for me!) for MLMM’S Saturday Mix: Lucky Dip and Photo Challenge #414, as well as for FFFC #169. I wanted to post my response before the new one is posted tomorrow, hence the late hour. Yes, 9:30 is late for me. ๐
I will try this form again tomorrow!
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Tree branches
Stark against the blue sky --
Observer's eyes looking up, reaching
This world I'd
Too big for one tree to
Reach -- even if it were a banyan
The world of
One coffee shop, open
Via phones to all people online
Everyone
Connected in a web,
But can you reach beside you, two feet?
My first thought upon seeing this was about the surrealist painter Renรฉ Magritte, specifically his painting The Son of Man, which you will probably recognize:
I found some fascinating information about Magritte himself, specifically about his early life. Learning about what events inspired an artist’s or writer’s work is endlessly intriguing to me!
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It seems Magritte was a vampire:
Looking into the mirror seeing no face
No hair empty black suit black hat.
White Walls.
Is this the real world?
It seems an image given by a false mirror
An image given yet at least free,
Free of that damned apple
Which filled the entire space between
These
White Walls.
I’ve been trying to write something all week for this captivating picture (preferably something that is not terrible). This poem started to take on some surrealist qualities as I wrote and looked at more of his paintings. At least, that’s my excuse. Apologies!
I started 4 poems this morning (and have a few unfinished from yesterday) without looking at any prompts. After looking at prompts, there are even more possibilities! ๐ I love this, but it’s also overwhelming.
So many, so many, so many ideas
Become a traffic jam on the freeway of my brain;
So many spaces of notebook remain
Empty, causing a mind-crash and nearly a defeat:
Yet here the words flow finally, as a tenuous victory.
Linked with MVB: Empty and also partially inspired by MLMM’S Saturday Mix: Opposing Forces. I like to try to use alliteration and assonance,the repetition of consonant and vowel sounds, in my poetry. ๐
Side note: THANK YOU to everyone who left a comment on my poem from about a week ago, “Something Inevitable.” I don’t always respond to comments, but I appreciate each one, and I was BLOWN AWAY by the response to that poem. Thank you. ๐ You inspire me to keep sharing. โจ๏ธ
Today’s prompt for day 28 was to write a concrete poem, and that is what I did not do. Instead, I have a villanelle for MLMM’s Saturday Mix: Lucky Dip. I’ve been working on this for days and, because I had to wait a while for my ride home from work, finally finished it this evening!
It’s a sad poem, but I wasn’t very sad while finishing it. In fact, I was eating free frozen custard, and it’s pretty hard to be too sad when you’re eating basically ice cream but better! The only exception is when you are eating a whole pint of ice cream by yourself in one sitting because you are nursing a broken heart … but that is not what I was doing. ๐
Inertia’s difficult to overcome,
It’s making every door seem like it’s locked,
It makes me think I’ll fall again in Glum.
Though Now is pleasant, future’s worrisome:
This beating heart inside feels like a rock,
Inertia’s difficult to overcome.
Is there an out? Faith tells me there are some,
Although it seems Hope’s shop is out of stock,
Making me think I’ll fall again in Glum.
I try small tasks. It feels like chewing gum —
Not really doing much — this brain is blocked,
Inertia’s difficult to overcome.
Even when good arrives, will better come?
I must do more and cannot only talk —
How often must I fall again in Glum?
Will better days arise? God’s keeping mum.
Any large change affects me like a shock!
It makes me think I’ll fall again in Glum —
Inertia’s difficult to overcome.
I realized after a day that it was probably supposed to be a reflection in a pond or some kind of water, but my original associations were with Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night.” Another nonet.
A sonnetina (like a sonnet but only 10 lines) in response to MLMM’s Saturday Mix: Opposing Forces. I have actually written a few poems in different forms on this same topic, reusing the first one or two lines multiple times. I find that entertaining. ๐
What’s all else worth, if greatest dream is dead?
Even with wealth, one craves and hungers still,
Without a way to find his daily bread:
Having nothing to live for kills the will.
A quiet heartbeat yet the pain is loud:
A frozen passion nevermore to melt,
Humbling the artist’s eyes that had been proud
Of such great work — that joy no longer felt.
What use is popularity and cash,
If one’s reason for being’s burned to ash?
I have not left a note.
I have left books upon books, lines upon lines, filled with countless pens’ blue or black blood. This is my art, the canvas on which I have, with words, painted days upon days of this life. Continue reading →
Another poem in response to MLMM’s current photo challenge. What an interesting picture! This poem is also an ottava rima for MLMM’s Saturday Mix. Nice to write one of these again!ย
For MLMM’s photo challenge #404. Photo credit: Sarah Whiley. I enjoy the eclectic variety of prompts on WordPress and hope that this is not a lame poem. ๐
After my GPA had risen so high,
I was relieved to see it fall,
Never so happy to get a B
In my life, no longer needing
To keep being perfect.
A much-needed reprieve:
The pursuit not worth it.
(true story, by the way — I was so excited to tell everyone, “I got a B!” XD )