Category Archives: free verse

wind

i am like the wind, tracing
every curve of you, tossing
your hair, whispering
in your ear, swirling amidst
the embers to warm your skin
but it is those moments
when you breathe me in
holding me near your heart
that take my breath away

~kat


the year spring never came

the year spring never came

if we had paid attention to the signs that long, wet
winter, we might have known that spring would never
come, even though nature took her cues from the
moon and sun, as remnants of frosting melted and gentle
rain drenched the dormant soil, seeds sprouted toward
the warmth, toward the light; soon clusters of creeping
buttercups, henbits, chickweed, wild violets, dandelions
and daffodils lulled us into believing that it was
spring, but I tell you, spring never came that year,
the world stopped spinning, life stopped living as
we peered at each other from across alley ways and live
chat screens, winter held fast as the reaper jumped
season mowing us down with his sickle, a harvest
of untouchables, legions of them stacked floor to
ceiling on ice, mourners left with nothing to show
for their sorrow…no, spring never came that year,
summer too, lost her luster to empty streets, abandoned
subways, beaches, and empty watering holes where
masked ghosts hurried about never mingling, mercifully
autumn stepped in bidding us to let go, let go, let go, let go…
as another winter loomed darker still, no mention of spring

~kat


For NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo Challenge Day 30: write a poem about something that returns.


needlepoint audacity – NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo Challenge Day 20

needlepoint audacity

damn right, hell yeah, she persisted
against their condescending voices
they tried to quiet hers, insisted
that she let them make her choices
smile when they made lewd advances
their vile, lascivious, lustful groping
she persisted, ignored their glances
long-suffering, persistent, hoping
peering at that high glass ceiling
pressing on in grace, in fierceness
legions femme, their voices peeling
me too, locking arms, souls, fearless
mothers, daughters, maidens, crones
the changing tide, the ceiling cracking
in sisterhood, a force worth reckoning
with a vote, they’ll send them packing
rising from the shadows beckoning
persist, it’s time they take their place
to earn the lauds they’re due, respect
to shed those mantles of disgrace
persist, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet

~kat


For today’s NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo Challenge Day 20: write a poem about a handmade or homemade gift that you have received. I chose the empowering, beautiful needlepoint pictured above. Crafted by a kindred soul sister, including my favorite “weed-flowers”: dandelions, capeweed, henbit, speedwell.

 


who else but the muse? – NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo Challenge Day 14

who else but the muse?

she peeks at me through tree limb slits,
lunation’s phases streaming; she speaks to me
in bubbling babble, peeper’s croak and avian
warbles and trills; she whispers in the wind, and in
stillness, barely breezing; she warms me on sun-splashed
shade-less afternoons, at night from crackling hearths,
in bubble baths, the glow of jasmine tea sating my thirst
to the core, and nips my nose and toes on frost-iced
mornings, crisp air stinging my cheeks; she infuriates
me, exasperates me, moves me to passion, to hilarity,
to tears, everywhere, she is there nudging me, filling
my head with beautiful words, so many words, I am never
at a loss for them, but dare not call myself a poet, though
I try to dribble out a coherent verse or three, especially
in those moments where I find myself utterly speechless

~kat


For NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo Challenge Day 14: write a poem that deals with the poems, poets, and other people who inspired you to write poems. I am inspired by everything, big and small, human, animal, vegetable, mineral. There are of course people in my life who inspire me…too many to name, so they shall remain nameless, though some of them know who they are. To simplify my adoration for these inspirational motivators that surround me, I tend to lump them all together into one…my Muse, I call them…her. I could not imagine my life without her.

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days of wine and distancing – NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo Challenge Day 5

days of wine and distancing

the days are grains of sand
setting the soles of my feet on fire
i feel them screaming when I pause
to watch the waves swallow
the strand into the blue
cloudless, Atlantic sky laughing
the soles of my feet are frozen
no comfort where my heart resides
it’s giffle gaffle, to live this way
lies become true if you believe them
when life give you lemons make lemonade
tipple the tart koolaid of imbeciles
where pandemics disappear like magic
and service workers are masked superheroes
and this couch potato is saving the world
they all learned they were kindred then
behind the walls of their penetrable fortresses
we will beat this invisible foe or die suffocating
apres la pluie le beau temps
where dancing dogs fiddle, my feet burn
home sweet home is bittersweet

-kat


NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo Challenge Day 5: Use/do all of the following in the same poem. Of course,  if you can’t fit all twenty projects into your poem, or a few of them get your poem going, that is just fine too!

  • Begin the poem with a metaphor.
  • Say something specific but utterly preposterous.
  • Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem.
  • Use one example of synesthesia (mixing the senses).
  • Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.
  • Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.
  • Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.
  • Use a word (slang?) you’ve never seen in a poem.
  • Use an example of false cause-effect logic.
  • Use a piece of talk you’ve actually heard (preferably in dialect and/or which you don’t understand).
  • Create a metaphor using the following construction: “The (adjective) (concrete noun) of (abstract noun) . . .”
  • Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative qualities.
  • Make the persona or character in the poem do something he or she could not do in “real life.”
  • Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.
  • Write in the future tense, such that part of the poem seems to be a prediction.
  • Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.
  • Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.
  • Use a phrase from a language other than English.
  • Make a non-human object say or do something human (personification).
  • Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but that “echoes” an image from earlier in the poem.