Category Archives: Poetry

it can’t be winter…NaPoWriMo 2019 #25

it can’t be winter…

if I believed the calendar, the wavering
in my stride, my fading memories, the
thinning of my hair and skin, I might
be convinced that it is winter, as you say
but my heart still sings sweet odes to
spring, of quiescent vales greening,
blooming buds, air fragrant with lilacs
and honeysuckle, it was only yesterday
a robin called my name and it was
dawn, I am sure of it, the day flushed
with golden haze, the breeze a-buzz
with the hum of honeybees, of gardens
laden with tubers, beans and peas,
it could be summer after all, my heart’s
refrain, a reverie of endless days, of salty
air and sand, tree leaves pitapatting in
the wind, like the sound of my children’s
tiny feet, growing heavier with each passing
day, it can’t be winter yet, I’ve still so much
to do and say, no matter that the night
is looming, there are dreams yet to
be realized, a reckoning, as chill sets
in, a letting go, a harvesting, how like
the autumn trees I cling to every turning
leaf until it’s time to let them go, now
that I mention it, it must be fall, it can’t
be winter yet…and yet…I saw a snowflake
flutter by, it caught my eye, suspended,
drifting slowly, I suspect a few more
still, and in the silent winter white perhaps
I write; I’ll weave a tapestry of spring, of
summer, and of fall, time slipping through
my hands like sand, I’m tired, I admit it,
how beautiful, how still, the muffled hills
look dressed in snow, how blessed am
I to be here still to see it ‘fore I go

~kat


For NaPoWriMo 2019 Prompt #25:
write a poem that:

  • Is specific to a season
  • Uses imagery that relates to all five senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell)
  • Includes a rhetorical question, (like Keats’ “where are the songs of spring?”)

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labyrinth – NaPoWriMo 2019 #24

labyrinth

the path meanders
weaves to the heart, returning
to the beginning

~kat


For NaPoWriMo 2019 Prompt #24: write a poem that, like “Dictionary Illustrations,” is inspired by a reference book. Locate a dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia, open it at random, and consider the two pages in front of you to be your inspirational playground for the day. Maybe a strange word will catch your eye, or perhaps the mishmash of information will provide you with the germ of a poem.

Work was a monster today…I had hoped to write a poem over lunch, but…I did not get lunch! I did manage to snap a photo of the random page I found when I opened the dictionary. My eyes settled upon the word Labyrinth. I have walked many a labyrinth in my life, and I think the universe is telling me I need to find another one to lose myself in. The truth is you can never really get lost in a true labyrinth, but the you who enters is never the same you that comes out. Namasté. ☯️

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domesticated – NaPoWriMo #23

domesticated

my fierce predator, roams the halls at night
seeking prey, a twisty tie, dust bunnies,
wayward crickets, balls of yarn,
lying there catching sunbeams
i watch him sleep, dreaming
of mice that got away

~kat


A Kimo Poem for NaPoWriMo 2019 Prompt #23: write a poem about an animal.


Kimo Poems

Kimo poems are an Israeli version of haiku. Apparently, there was a need for more syllables in Hebrew. That said, most of the rules are still familiar:
• 3 lines.
• No rhymes.
• 10 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 6 in the third.
Also, the kimo is focused on a single frozen image (kind of like a snapshot). So it’s uncommon to have any movement happening in kimo poems.

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in parting ~ Monday with the Muse

in parting…

take this
in parting
you are wrong
my dream
has flown away
a vision gone
we stand
tormented
grains of sand
they creep
through fingers
while I weep
I grasp them,
can not save
one from the wave

~kat


A Blackout Poem inspired by words found in the poem below, A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allen Poe.

A Dream Within a Dream
BY EDGAR ALLAN POE

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?


anthem – NaPoWriMo 2019 #22

Anthem

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light

mothers counting empty beds, oh, how they weep, take to the streets where their children sleep in pooling crimson seas

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?

tiki torches blazing, raised stiff hands salute, ‘all hail’, exposed white faces spitting bile would smite true patriots who bend a knee

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

those who dare, rise in humility, to challenge twisted liberty, lay prostrate at the mercy of the courts for fans to see,

O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

throngs clamoring at the gates, fleeing terror, death and hate, hoping they are not too late, but freedom is not free

And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

blinding smoke bombards the moat where orphaned children flail and choke, acid tears now streaming down their cheeks

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

barely recognizable, flaunted proudly, all for show, allegiance pledged as madness grows, this bitter fruit we sowed to reap

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

with nothing left to show but our disdain for truth, our love of lies, all this is proof that we have squandered our humanity

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

cowards all, ignoring the call, from our tongues deadly poison falls, scorching the ground from shining to the rising seas

~kat

For NaPoWriMo 2019 Prompt #22write a poem that engages with another art form – it might be about a friend of yours who paints or sculpts, your high school struggles with learning to play the French horn, or a wonderful painting, film, or piece of music you’ve experienced – anything is in bounds here, so long as it uses the poem to express something about another form of art.

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