Category Archives: free verse

clean up needed on aisle 5

clean up needed on aisle 5

my mind is a junk drawer
it gets me nowhere
you know, I feel everything
I think you see what I’m saying,
Judy, at the Dollar General checkout
I’m going home now
but not before I check the clearance aisle
like I need more crap in my downsized life
i just might be a closeted hoarder
I’m just kidding (but you’re thinking I’m not)
the crazy rant of lunacy
and a smile that hides sadness
I’ll have you know that I have overcome every adversity, untouched
she’s super woman, mistress of her universe
they will remember that when I’m gone
such brilliant fool
who believed she could have it all and died trying
c'est la vie
“You know you don’t need us,”said the junk on aisle 5
have a nice day Judy, keep the change

~kat

Well…today’s challenge was a bear! (See what I did there? 😊). And it took a very dark turn before I knew what was happening! That said, I feel I must make the following disclaimer …the reference to first person in this poem is a purely fictional representation prompted by the weird list of prompts below…haha! I am definitely not a hoarder, closeted or otherwise, I am certainly no Wonder Woman and I am most definitely a bit “touched”, as they say, by life! So glad we cleared that up from the git-go! 🤪

NaPoWriMo 2023 Challenge – Day Eight: And here are the twenty little projects themselves — the challenge is to use them all in one poem:

1.  Begin the poem with a metaphor.

2. Say something specific but utterly preposterous.

3. Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem.

4. Use one example of synesthesia (mixing the senses).

5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.

6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.

7. Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.

8. Use a word (slang?) you’ve never seen in a poem.

9. Use an example of false cause-effect logic.

10. Use a piece of talk you’ve actually heard (preferably in dialect and/or which you don’t understand).

11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: “The (adjective) (concrete noun) of (abstract noun) . . .”

12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative qualities.

13. Make the persona or character in the poem do something he or she could not do in “real life.”

14. Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.

15. Write in the future tense, such that part of the poem seems to be a prediction.

16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.

17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.

18. Use a phrase from a language other than English.

19. Make a non-human object say or do something human (personification).

20. Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but that “echoes” an image from earlier in the poem.


my dad

my dad

my dad grew stagnant at night
like a nightmare frozen in the sky
didn’t seem like what he touched was his
didn’t seem like what touched him held
he couldn’t get us through the short weeds
then it seemed like he turned away and stopped
and then he disappeared
just disappeared

~kat

NaPoWriMo2023 Day 3 Challenge: Find a shortish poem that you like, and rewrite each line, replacing each word (or as many words as you can) with words that mean the opposite.

The poem below, set in opposite, was particularly poignant for me when I think about my father, who was tormented by untreated mental illness…and his ultimate suicide.

My Mama moved among the days

Lucille Clifton – 1936-2010

My Mama moved among the days
like a dreamwalker in a field;
seemed like what she touched was hers
seemed like what touched her couldn’t hold,
she got us almost through the high grass
then seemed like she turned around and ran
right back in
right back on in


what it is

what it is

an elusive voyeur in the darkness
heaven, heavy with tears
is a rolling stone sculptor
the impossible longing of wistful souls
it is neither here nor there
it is the butterfly you missed in passing
it is hungry bellies and disturbed minds
the inability to accept reality; to let go
the fruit of one’s labor unrealized
it is incessant wishfulness
the inevitable consequence of chaos
it is the primal rhapsody of humanity

~kat

NaPoWriMo Day Two Challenge: to craft a poem from my surreal definitions of the words listed below. Amazingly, these random “definitions” created something rather breathtaking. Great Challenge!

owl
fog
river
miracle
mercurial
elusive
thunder
ghost
acorn
longing
truffle
song

the forest for the trees

the forest for the trees

I know they’re there
the golden hillside
the mountain vista
the endless blue sky
the sun
my memory
serves me well..
they’re there
but for today
heaven enfolds me
in her cool, damp cocoon
to savor the moment
to breathe, to sigh
to notice the trees
for the forest

~kat

daffodils in winter

daffodils in winter

it’s too soon
much too soon
my darling daffodils
to breach the loam
to dare to bloom
much, much too soon

i’m sorry dear, sweet daffodils
the mercury ascended
disguised itself as spring
to lure us from our winter wombs
to prey upon our longing hearts
tomorrow you will feel the sting
as winter rides the ides,
lurks, waiting in the wings
his frosty breath descending
to nip your golden face at dawn

but oh the hope you give my soul
weary from these long, long nights
spring tidings to you for today
may she not tarry long

~kat