This was inspired by September 1 Picture Prompts photo on Twitter.
Alight
the heart is a red lamp, fist-sized, fragile
and glowing among the rocks
a beacon to the dark-wandering
mind and a source of warmth
for the soul at home
Posted in Poetry
Tagged 30 in 30, @pictureprompts, Picture Prompts, poetry practice, prompted poetry, writing challenge
This resulted from a prompt in The Daily Poet by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano of Two Sylvias Press. The Kindle version comes in handy, especially on a smart phone.
Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.
Unresolved
The dream starts with tornadoes,
dozens of them descending
at the same time, all around,
from a sky the color of a faded
black eye. It always begins
like this, a shifting landscape
of rage without refuge or
escape that doesn’t end
until I wake up.
This is another poem that congealed from the list of prompts I made for the month. I can’t decide if it’s creepy or comforting. (Probably depends on what time of day/night you read it.)
Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.
Presence
just because
they’re dead
doesn’t mean
they’re not
here
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Lexington Poetry Month, LexPoMo, poetry practice, prompted poetry
June is Lexington Poetry Month, and once again I’ve signed up for the LexPoMo challenge: to write a poem each day and post at least five. As part of my preparation, I compiled a list of prompts from various places, and the list itself took on the shape of a poem in places. So here is a kind of found poem, cobbled together from a bone pile of prompts.
Bone pile
it’s just hard
to know what to do
with her
booze like water
chugs and weeps
a broken faucet
I once knew
how to celebrate
humdrum: cook
with these old men
smother them
with kindness
I understood
this before
we traded places
Posted in Poetry
Tagged found poetry, Lexington Poetry Month, LexPoMo, poetry practice, prompted poetry
I can always count on tarot to spark my imagination. This is from the Fairy Tale Tarot (Lisa Hunt, 2009), a gorgeous deck that is out of print but digitally available thanks to The Fool’s Dog. This image came from their Tarot Sampler IV.
Look deeper
A woman may swallow a seed
that is not a seed and bear
a child that is not a child.
A selfish old man may indulge
himself by pretending
to indulge his grandson.
A child that wants to play
with a box may be a raven
who steals back the sun.
A child may be a raven.
A box may hold the sun.
A thief may be a hero.
Things are not always what they seem.
You may notice that I posted a poem last year using the same prompt. That’s because it comes from essentially the same source: the seasonal social media event known as #blogElul.
We are not quite the same people when we pass the same date on the calendar each year, and I am thankful for spiritual practices that help me contemplate and celebrate that. (And yes, I am posting this a few days behind. I’m glad you noticed!)
Road improvements
Prepare the royal highway!
Raise up the low and bring down
the high-and-mighty. Soften
curves and widen the shoulders
so no one goes off into a ditch.
Clear boulders and fence posts
from the right-of-way and plant
wildflowers and lithe
grasses to gladden the eye
and sweeten the air. Let the way
be wide, the arms of the Holy One
outstretched to receive us all.
For some reason, I completely forgot to post yesterday’s poem. The prompt was “synchronized.”
Reblogged from the Lexington Poetry Month blog.
Synchronized
like clockwork, the orange
mackerel tabby leaps on the bed,
walks on my head, and I know
it is six a.m., sure as if she’d been
wound and set the night before
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Lexington Poetry Month, LexPoMo, poetry practice, prompted poetry, writing practice
