Category Archives: Poetry

remembering

we will never forget 9/11 / how can we forget 11/9

when terror descended / when hatred triumphed

that terrible morning / in the wee hour of three

as we watched in horror / it rendered us speechless

the towers collapsing / our worst fears were confirmed

but we were not broken / the truth was revealed

on that fateful day / we were us versus them

we banded together / now a nation divided

held hands with strangers / forced to look in the mirror

we sang kumbaya / to face our dark demons

we talked about love / emboldened, enraged

promising to remember / reliving past battles

but how soon we forgot / to the winners the spoils

what makes us great, America / First, they declared

our founding principles / we’ll build a great wall

our common ideals / shutter our borders

of life and liberty, / to keep them all out

the pursuit of happiness  / the foreigners, the hungry, the poor

for all who call this nation home / if you are the other

that’s why we gather to remember their names / we don’t want you here

so we will never forget them and / how can we forget

who we were when calamity struck / the day a madman of privilege declared

One America, Red, White and Blue / let’s make America Great

~kat

A cleave poem (three poems in one. Read the first Column in standard print as one poem, read the second column in bold print as another and finally read across the entire line for the third.)


Reclaiming

Collage, ‘in other words’ by Charles Bukowski


i can’t breathe
second-hand hot air
billowing
tinged with booze
too close, you are much too close
i say i need space

i can’t hear
i stopped listening
to your lies
silly me
i once believed every word
when i was easy

i can’t feel
my heart stopped beating
oh, it pumps
i’m alive
if you can call this living
numbing existence

i can’t leave
i think you’d like that
me leaving
so i stay
resistance in reclaiming
myself in the void

~kat

A Shadorma for MindloveMisery’s Menagerie Sunday Challenge, this week, to explore the topic of: Adjust to the Space of Self, using the collage and poem by Bukowski as inspiration.

A Shadorma is a stanza or series of stanzas with the syllable count o 3/5/3/3/7/5 for a total of 26 syllables.


Magnetic Poetry Monday

she is not broken

by darkness

she embraces the

magic of the night

she is woman

wild as the day

she was born

~kat

Magnetic Poetry Poet Kit


Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 10 September 2017

My fortune cookie this past Saturday… 

Life does not go on…not just yet. We were burdened this past week with aftermaths of destruction: hurricanes, earthquakes, raging wildfires, crushing inhumanity by so-called leaders, while the best of humanity hangs in the balance, at the ready to take make things right. But life is not going on…not just yet as we face even more catastrophe on our southern shores. We remind ourselves of our incredible resilience in the wake of all of life’s storms, be they nature-driven or human fabricated. Life goes on…sometimes, and sometimes it does not…

I feel helpless in the eye of the storms that rage around me. There is nowhere to run…nowhere to hide. We can try to prepare. We can hope for the best. But ultimately we must wait.

I’m tempted to wrap myself in my woobie and sleep long and hard until it’s over…until it’s time to gather what is left; until it’s time to make something of the rubble. What if nothing remains? It’s useless to worry about it. What do we do with time when it’s not time to move on, not just yet?

Moments count most right now. I light a candle for us all as I embrace the frail excruciating weight of this single moment. I breathe in deeply, exhale slowly. I gaze at my surroundings; the people, pets and things that give me comfort, that I love, and last but certainly not least, I eat the damn cake, savoring its sweetness. As moments go it is enough. I’ll leave the moving on until it’s time.

Be safe, be kind, love one another…peace.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 10 September 2017

soft the gloaming hush descends
breath of withering blossoms dying
there’s a cool snap in the air
a coffee, please
excruciating, the wait,
oh…I had a secret invisibility cloak once
pretending to be impressed with his strip shuffle
sinful indulgence
falsehoods fade slowly
dusty nooks, cluttered,
for nuggets of gold
treasure ‘midst rubble
so easily crushed
late summer storms swell
sleep in if you like
whisper me lies
they never rest
they know my heart best
eat the damn cake…do it

~kat

A shi sai or ReVerse poem is a summary poem with a single line lifted from each entry of a collection of work over a particular timeframe and re-penned in chronological order as a new poem. Unlike a collaborative poem, the shi sai features the words of one writer, providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week.


Magnetic Poetry Saturday

eat the damn

cake…do it

dance naked

drink champagne

you are here

to celebrate

i listen to the

little voices in

my head

they know my

heart best

some say peace comes

before the storm

but watchers follow

its path and see

its wild nature

they never rest

whisper me lies

fill my head with

sweet nothings

i need peachy pink

drivel when

things wax ugly

~kat

Magnetic Poetry. Play online HERE.