Author: lillian

Smoke Rings . . .

lillian20 Comments

The last of my generation. Savoring my cigarette, I sit blowing smoke rings. They dissipate into wispy nothingness, metaphorical for my existence these days. I’m not alone in this assisted living complex. But I am lonely. With my failing eyesight, I no longer escape on adventures with Agatha Christie or James Patterson.

I have so few pleasures. Sometimes I’ll listen to Duke Ellington records and I’ll bury my soul in a scrapbook with the photographs there. And the moss that I imagine in my dreams, always beneath my husband’s feet. I can see it when I bend over the pages with my magnifying glass, in the picture of John standing beside our first tent. Memories come alive on the pages. My children’s birthday celebrations, cheeks pooched out, blowing candles. I’ve been blessed. My life has been good. But oh Lord, it’s time. It’s time.


Written for Prosery Monday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today, Kim asks us to include the line “And I’ll bury my soul in a scrapbook, with the photographs there and the moss” in our piece of flash fiction that is 144 words in length, sans title. The line is from the poem Take This Waltz by Leonard Cohen. We may change the punctuation of the required line, but must use the words exactly, in the exact order as appears in Cohen’s poem.

Image created on Bing Create.

Color Me Dead

lillian29 Comments

Psyche jarred by uninvited suitors
lips forced upon hers.
Anger fired pistons,
burned her soul.
Robot hand slaps on lipstick.
Innocent coral-pink and sweet rose swipes
turned crude in thick crimson slashes.
Dead autumn brown beside and above
brackish burgundy smears.
She mouths defeat.


Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today is Quadrille Monday and De asks us to use the word (or a form of the word) “jar” within our poem of exactly 44 words, sans title.

I’m delighted to be back, writing again, after taking a month+ hiatus when we were traveling. Somehow I ended up writing a rather maudlin poem for today.

Today’s quadrille is motivated by Irving Penn’s photo entitled Mouth, taken/produced in New York in 1986. It’s one photo of many that we saw in the exhibit, Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Love Dances On

lillian29 Comments

Victrola plays Glen Miller’s Moonlight Serenade.
She sits dozing, blue-veined hands quiet,
elbows on doily-covered armrests.
Asleep, she was dancing with him.
Awakening to reality
she stares at his empty chair.
Only a figment in her dreams now,
she still misses him every day.

A quadrille written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. I’m hosting today, asking folks to include the word “figment” (or a form of the word) in their poem of exactly 44 words, sans title. Image created in Bing Create.

In the Magical World of Catrin Welz-Stein

lillian10 Comments

Come soar with me in my moon-balloon flying machine
over magical forests, gently crooning mountains
and islands planted within golden seas.

We shall stop at Wisest Woods
for I know you have questions,
as many children do.

Walk softly on Fiddlehead Fern Path
to the Tree of Life and Sanity.
Climb through its rustling verdant leaves.

Stand upon the highest left-fork branch.
Hum softly and she shall come,
the Elderness, Sagacious Owl.

Her talons sure footed on the tree,
her size, unimaginable to many,
her existence, known to but a few.

Open your journal
to yesterday’s dog-eared page.
Read to her your salient fears.

She shall listen, ponder,
provide wise counsel,
and then fly you back to us.

Under blue etched night skies
we shall rock you gently
until you awaken from your dreams.


Sharing this at dVerse Open Link Night……using two of Catrin Welz-Stein’s magical images from my Tuesday Poetics Prompt. Have been so busy reading posts to the prompt….and wanted to write to two more of her images.

Consumed by Gaze

lillian39 Comments

Beautiful but
eyes were always upon her.
Expectations lofty, demanding,
be they spoken or not.

To be plain
was her dream.
To walk in the everyday world
unnoticed, unknown.

She did not understand
fame’s fortune was its curse.
She never was on the inside
what the outside came to expect.

Demanding eyes
claimed rights to her body,
feasted on the outside
as her soul withered within.


Beautiful image/art created by Catrin Welz-Stein.

Created for Tuesday Poetics at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets across the globe. Today I’m tending the pub – meaning I’m the host for today’s prompt. I’ve provided folks with four beautiful images created by artist Catrin Welz-Stein and asked them to choose one for inspiration. They are to write an ekphrastic poem in the purest sense, describing the image OR use the image as motivation to create a poem somehow connected to the image. They are, of course, required to give credit to the artist. Go to dVerse, to see the four images available.

If you’d like to learn more about artist Catrin Welz-Stein and/or see more of her incredible artwork, go to https://catrinwelzstein.com

Detour

lillian22 Comments

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” Heraclitus

Some years back we found ourselves near the town I grew up in – Waukegan, Illinois. I’d not been there in decades. We decided to take a detour in our planned trip and drive by some of my old haunts.

Sadly, the house I lived in for my first nine years was in a state of disrepair. Rickety porch steps, missing shingles. My mother’s beloved lilac bushes were no more. The downtown where I’d “scooped the loop” in the front seat of an old Chevy was barely recognizable. Not one store name was the same. Most jarring was my walk through the Catholic church I grew up in. How could it be so small? I remembered lighting candles inside a hushed space – a side grotto/cavern made of dark rock. There I stood, inside the grotto, looking at battery operated candles and grey plastic simulated stone walls. After lighting a candle and saying a small prayer for my mother, I decided to end our nostalgic tour. I wanted to keep the rest of my memories intact.

stream rushes surely
rocks tumble and change their shape
nothing stays as is


Frank is hosting Haibun Monday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. His prompt for today is to “imbue our haibun with mono no aware. Write on any topic that you like as long as your haibun embodies that wistful sadness marking the beauty of transience.” A haibun combines prose and a haiku. Image is a photo I took some years back on one of our vacations.

Flowers’ Delight

lillian31 Comments

Place me amongst the flowers,
in the midst of petals glorious.

In my next life I shall be a bumble bee,
the queen, of course.

I shall meander regally
from one beautiful blossom to another –

savoring nature’s sweet nectar,
buzzing to my heart’s content.


Written for Quadrille Monday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today De asks us to include the word “place” in our poem of exactly 44 words, sans title.

Photos taken on Saturday, just outside the high-rise building we live in, in the heart of Boston.

Black Woman with Peonies

lillian35 Comments

Fresh peonies, sir? For the lady in your life?
Bouquet of crimson and gold tulips
for your table, ma’am?
She walks the market every morning,
flower basket in hand .

Cotton sweater wards off cool breeze.
Delicately notched white linen collar,
embroidered in tiny stitches,
frames her stoic sable face.
Modest madras head scarf
reveals pomegranate-red earrings
hanging below her earlobes.

She approaches early shoppers,
queries softly. Hides her anxiety.
These beautiful blooms
her livelihood.


Written for OLN at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. OLN is Open Link Night when writers can post any one poem of their choosing OR use the optional prompt given.

As host for OLN today, I’ve provided an optional ekphrastic prompt. An ekphrastic poem is one that is inspired by a piece of art so today, I’ve provided the painting, Black Woman with Peonies by French Impressionist painter, Frederic Bazille. Born in 1841, he created this beautiful painting in 1870, the last year of his life.

Consider this an INVITATION!
I’m also hosting dVerse LIVE on Saturday, May 11th from 10 to 11 AM Boston time.
Folks from across the globe participate as we meet with audio and video for an hour. Each attendee is welcome to read a poem of their choice OR they can simply come by to watch and listen. We’re a very friendly bunch! One of the last sessions I hosted had folks from across the US, Pakistan, the UK, Sweden, Kenya, Australia, Trinidad Tobago, India, and Finland! If you’d like to join us click on the link below on Saturday, May 11th – beginning at 10 AM.

https://meet.google.com/pxr-nobe-oir

Hope to see you Saturday morning!

PS: if the link above doesn’t work, click here which will take you directly to the dVerse page that includes a direct link to the LIVE session!

Pollyanna . . .

lillian14 Comments

. . . that’s not my name,
but it could be.
A Pollyanna is defined
as one who is optimistic,
always cheerful.
Looking toward the sun,
even in the rain.
For me, a rainy day is a
make-your-own-sunshine
kind of day.
In today’s divisive political climate,
our world fraught with horrific wars,
our earth struggling
as humans threaten its survival,
all the more important to remember
the sun is always there.
Even behind the darkest overcast skies.
I call it hope.


Lisa is hosting Tuesday Poetics at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. She asks us to consider the words pilgrimage, walkabout, and wandering, providing a poem for each of the words. One option within her prompt is to “take a line from one of the poems and expand on it.” I’ve used the line “looking toward the sun, even in the rain” from the poem Walkabout by Caren Krutsinger.

AND, consider this an INVITATION to all who read my poem to join us at dVerse LIVE on Saturday, May 11th from 10 to 11 AM New York time. A link will be provided at the dVerse site on Thursday, May 9th that will take you to the LIVE site, with audio and visual. You’re welcome to join us just to sit in and watch and listen; and/or to read aloud a poem of your choice. Last time I hosted our LIVE session we had folks from the US, UK, Sweden, Kenya, Finland, Trinidad Tobago, India, Pakistan, Australia and Israel! All participation is in English. Hope you drop by!