Dear reader, dear fellow poet,
Thank you for stopping by at my writing wall. 13th year of participation and I feel ancient. I promise not to sprint but will slog along as I can.
Now that you are here, I have a favor to ask. Please read my poems as drafts. I show up in April and edit from May onwards 🙂
On housekeeping, I will bundle all my entries in this post. Do not be alarmed when you do not find an earlier post. To reduce scrolling, I clear previous entries at my discretion.
Happy reading and poeming!
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DAY 11: ABSENCE
Today’s prompt challenges to write an erasure/blackout poem. I took text from the Internet Archive Textbook of Theoretical Botany 1956: Vol 2 page 462.
In the desert,
violent winds
penetrate
the absence.
Even the Grasses
are stopped.
Winged or plumed,
seeds travel
miles over.
Grains of quartz
weighing.
DAY 10: IT GOES ANYWHERE
In his poem, “Goodbye,” Geoffrey Brock describes grief in three short stanzas, the second of which is entirely made up of a rhetorical dialogue.Today’s prompt challenges to write a meditation on grief by using Brock’s form as the “container” for your poem: a few short stanzas, with a middle section in which a question is repeated with different answers given. Instead of a question, I used a statement to provoke different responses.
It goes anywhere
whatever you wear.
It comes right here
or goes right there.
I missed your burial.
I found a lucid portal.
I missed your burial.
I came to your dream.
I missed your burial.
I drove you to tears.
It rides everywhere
I cannot lead where.
It does not spare
and that is not fair.
Gloria! You’ve gone straight to the gut is the most wonderously clear way — the hardest truths can only be taken in this way. Gorgeous, heartbreaking piece. Thank you.
Thank you, dear Liz, for finding your way to my piece regardless of me being marked as “spam” in the platform 🙂
What glorious, spring infused Tanka Gloria. My favourite is the magnolia and that last line — love the resoluteness of ‘even if the lawn turns pink.’
Arti, I am happy you found a line that speaks to you.
Very glad I found your site as well. I didn’t get “spam” warnings, so I am hopeful that’s fixed. I’m waiting for bulbs to bloom here in MI, so I appreciate the reminder of flowers.
I am glad you made it safely to my writing wall. Here in Germany, the bulbs are already rising in our garden.
1 apr 26. so good to read you again, Gloria. ~ m
I am happy you are here again, Michael. I am still reminiscing on your last April featured song-poem.
April 2: I love the vivid surrealism of these two poems. And I appreciate how the poem exploring flowers’ perceptions of themselves in contrast to others winds down into silence.
Alana :))) I am grateful for your review.
My condolences, Gloria. “hold tears in the hand” will stay with me.
Thank you, Nora.
2 april. a poem like a kaleidoscope lens into your past – each phrase turn vivid and bright. and the close – how i remember my deceased father, so many unanswered questions ~
Thank you for your reading time, M. Our deceased ones must rest in peace but maybe it is us who are alive that need the peace.
3 april. ice cream absolutely is a meal ~
We don’t say it aloud for the children to hear LOL
Amazing how a clear and fresh image pops up with each line of your “listicle.” There’s only one line that I couldn’t relate to, personally: “You learn to accept that ice cream is a meal.” That, to me, is a given. 😉 Delicious poem!
For someone who loves her desserts, that ice cream line is a difficulty one to preach
Lovely my darling friend. The Japanese masters claim 72 seasons … so yeah, there’s that. I love your Day 4. Thank you sincerely. Happy Easter
Wow! 72 seasons is a gift for poetry 🙂 Thank you for being here, friend in poetry.
I will do this RIGHT NOW: Open the door to the sun as my bait. How brilliant–in every way!
Do that, fellow child. To be baited by the sun is an adventurous possibility 😉
No, no, poo poo, for you you, or me! Much fun…
Thank you, Liz.
Oh my gosh, Gloria, you made me put my nose and crinkle my face with all the poopoos…watery and stinky and green. You managed silly and dislike very well. I don’t know whether to say ‘Lovely’ or ‘Yucky’ but the latter too is a compliment.
Thank you for the yucky compliment, Smitha. LOL!
A beach wedding! I definitely accept the delightful invitation. The images–especially the trip there. “I threw seeds, bread crumbs, and rice. The road resembled a wedding aisle…” I loved every happy scene and thing in this poem–even the poop (which brings good luck, if you’re in France anyway…)
I am off to get my lucky poop now. Thank you for reading and sharing that.
That was such a fun poem, Gloria. I could imagine the children giggling as they said it. I liked the line about sheering the sheep, the line about the world being round and the way you end it. That was sweet.
Smitha, I appreciate your reading me and happy you found resonating lines.
ohhhhh on Day 10’s poem–I got goose bumps during the second stanza–the idea of appearing in someone else’s dream and making them cry. You see all sorts of poems about people appearing in the writer’s dream–but not about the writer appearing in others’ dreams. Very cool!
Thank you, Liz, particularly on how you interpreted the poem. That’s the cool thing about writing. The poem is not yours after it is gifted. I am not a fan on insisting to find out what the writer had in mind 🙂