Day 16: Negation

 

Today's prompt was to describe something in terms of what it is not...

    Memory

I am not tangible.

More substantial than a shadow,

but far from flesh.

I am not large, by any means,

more minute, made of fractions of moments,

filaments of light.

Neither am I false, but may be elusive with truth.

Sometimes I do not come into focus,

at others I shimmer, I glow; more real

than anything you can see.

I am not a footnote, but a testament.

I have no solid shape, am languid and fluid

like water running over rock, sun dancing

in the evening. I change, I flow

from small to strong, drip to flood.

I love music, it brings me to life,

fragrance too, the scent of a spring day.

I am not one thing, but many, a million pixels

of life developing and settling.

I am not darkness but love's afterglow;

the promise

that you will not ever be alone.

Not a figment of imagination,

but an imprint of thought, a fact,

the past reliving itself in the present.

Life's currency

that even death cannot deplete.

I am nothing and yet everything.

I have no life, but I live inside you,

a world within a world.

A sepia image that on demand puts on

a Technicolour show.

A vast repository of colour, I am worth and wonder

hoarded in the heart

forever.

Day 12: Meta

 

Today's prompt was to write a poem addressing a poem or poetry in general, perhaps interrogating our own style of writing or relationship to poetry. 

Dear Poetry

How light-handed you are,

how delicate and devious,

sieving moonlight

through timbre of rhythm,

and rivulets of thoughts

that flow like quicksilver.

Charged ions of emotion

in every rush, every trickle, every line,

every decibal drop.

How you translate so eloquently

the hieroglyphics of the heart

made indecipherable by doubt.

Blue true source of life,

alchemy of ink and paper.

How you reveal wonder

in a whimsical flutter,

wisdom in words

that draw from the inner well,

each brimming sip

a salve, a sensation,

an invitation to being.

Day 11: Overheard Speech

A poem today inspired by an aspect of overheard speech.

Rumuor

A whisper, a whim, word uttered

light as air. Careless, casual,

concrete as a cloud.

A sigh amplified,

silence magnified.

A slip of the tongue,

wisp of wonder

language lost

in a labyrinth of truth.

Where did it go, this courier of care?

Fallen between fences of sentences,

a flower in paved surrounds. But I can't forget it,

this filament of feeling

dandelion seed carried on the wind,

wildflower meadow planted

in the heart.

Day 10: Sea Shanty

 

Today's prompt was to write a sea shanty...

Sea Shanty

Though storms may surge and wind may blow

We'll ride it out til break of morn

In deepest ocean undertow

We'll ride it out til break of morn

In blackest night, strangle of woe

We'll ride it out til break of morn

Through fears and doubts, highs and lows

we'll ride it out til break of morn

Come high water or doldrum low

We'll ride it out til break of morn

At dawn's first light, a wondrous sight -

we rode it out til break of morn.

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Day 7: List

Today's prompt was to write a poem based on a list of some kind.

How to Live with Sadness

Revere in the colours of April:

saffron yellow mornings,

lemon-balm evenings, the pale lilac

of cuckoo flowers in morning dew,

their fragile beauty like a daydream.

The cheerful pink camellia

exotic on the lawn.

Take into your heart the word 'tristesse';

its pale blue satins that fold

around the tongue so luxuriously,

eloquent language of tears,

unfathomable depths

of melancholy

that pool in a quiet heart.

Become a watcher of the moon.

Trace its nightly trail of light,

luminescent to languorous,

fingernail chink, a smudge in all that dark.

Let if fill you with a benevolence

that is near to hope,

its moody shape-shifting

a promise of mutability.

Learn to solidify emotions into tangible things:

joy in a budding tree, Impressionist daub of leaves;

despair in a black moonless night;

happiness the brush of pollen on fingertips,

the hum of an unseen bee.

From the vague fugue of sadness,

feel yourself take shape again.

Befriend the colour blue - from midnight navy to

the dull bruise of a sunless sky,

the turquoise tint of a lucid dream.

All the ink of sadness -

let it write itself

on the cool white pages

of blank days

and learn to love itself

in the mirror of smiling faces,

unencumbered by this weight

that makes of every beautiful thing

a gift, a grace, an invitation

for living.

Day 5: Laughter

A poem inspired by awkward laughter...

Holy Show

A glut of giggles tumbles

belly forth forward.

We kneel and clasp our middles,

gasp at sombre silent air

as blurry candles serenely flicker.

Effervescent bubbles burst bold

on sacred stillness, every little look

a comic sketch of epic proportions -

an invitation

to a new fit of churning inevitables.

The tears start then, the laughter leaking from us

any way it can, a new kind

of holy water.

Day 4: Triolet

Today's prompt was to write a triolet... Today's in memory of my beloved wee cat Chrissy who died last week... :(

For Chrissy

You brought so much joy, so much love,

our little kitty up above.

Missed beyond all logical bounds

You brought so much joy, so much love

Each day without you a steep climb,

will this pain lessen with more time?

You brought so much joy, so much love,

our little kitty up above.

Chrissy, RIP 28/3/23

Day 2: Surrealist

Today we had a list to work from to create a surrealist poem....  

Surmise

Silver of stars dissolve inside.

To swallow the moon and feel homesick.

A deer lowers her head in a forest undergrowth

green breathing world alive.

Blue baritone of whalesong

drowns an ocean of tears,

vault of the heart opens -

darkness spins itself

into light.

Day 1: Book Covers

    

It's NaPoWriMo time! 

    Today's prompt was to choose one of the vintage book covers on the site and write a poem      based on the one we chose. 

April

A bumble-bee cloud of daisies

floats above my head.

Daydreams buzz and hum, scatter

like a trickle of petals.

Breeze is lemon-zested,

days bulge with new light.

Colours soften to pastel, soothe worries to wonders.

Mellow with yellow delight,

April says 'begin,' - despite

winter, despite night, despite loss -

sun-kissed beams of hope.

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