Relationships

Wannabe

lillian32 Comments

I am not Sarah Elizabeth!
Call me Izzie, please.
I hate these tedious tatting lessons.
My dresses always have dark dots in the lace
and my finger tips feel like pin cushions.
Thimbles are the silliest things
impossible to maneuver.
I’d rather be a Samuel.
Sammy in knickers and suspenders
rolling a hoop and playing catch.
And my chest.
I’m soon to be found out.
And mother shall issue those dreaded words,
“It’s corset time.”
I’d rather hang from the rafters,
ride bareback and swig spirits
than be straight laced
wearing one of those things.
I hate being a girl!

mary-shipman1

Word Count: 100   Written for Rochelle Wisoff- Fields’  Friday Fictioneers — prompt photo appears on Wednesday and posts can be early. Apologies to the purists as I “arranged” my lines in more poetic form today. It is after all, NaPoWriMo (national poetry writing month). Photo Credit: Mary Shipman

…and the bloom shall fade

lillian40 Comments

Her garden suffers from end-of-season neglect. Nutrients wane as days shorten. Young trees, now mature, cast their presence in shadows.  Flower petals and fronds wither to veined brittle frames of their former beauty. They bend closer day by day, to the earth from which they came. Winter’s cold reality approaches, as sure as the moon changes face. Life hovers on a thread.

She sits patiently
window blurred with veins of frost
waits for children gone.

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Susan Judd is hosting dVerse for Haibun Monday and provides us with her beautiful photography and the descriptive phrase “beauty in decay” as a prompt for writing today. If you’re not familiar with dVerse, stop in for a visit. It’s a great gathering place for those who enjoy poetry!  Also using for NaPoWriMo day 25.  30 poems in 30 days, that’s April – National Poetry Writing Month.

Psalm

lillian6 Comments

Sing
out
this psalm.
Faith is bold
in voiced melody,
a joyful noise unto the Lord.
For we are humble in means and raucous in belief,
sing praises now and forever.
We are one in prayer
one in voice.
We hope
trust
love.
We
believe
in power,
the healing divine.
In our hands the tools, the science
in yours the guidance, the wisdom, all spirit and love.
Your miracles walk among us
and we are grateful.
Sing boldly
unto
the
Lord.

IMG_6343

This is a Fibonacci Spiral Poem. Both the number of lines and the number of syllables for each line are dictated by the form. The poem is meant to be centered in presentation. Written for day 16 NaPoWriMo. Dedicated to Louise, Tom and Carol; and in thanksgiving for every day. The photo is from a beautiful church in Tallin – taken on our Baltic Cruise several years ago.

undone one

lillian25 Comments

Double bed
two crowded,
they shifted to a king.
Never to touch again.

She said double or nothing,
hoping to return
to their double standard
sheets and colorful duvet.

He walked out the door,
double helix done.
One line veered off the path
unraveled, broken, gone.

Double-paned glass installed
shut out shout outs.
Final jeopardy achieved
immunity from pain.

Doubles life, double downed.
Left alone she was.
No one else.
None, no one but one.

IMG_1275

NaPoWriMo Day 15: a poem that incorporates the idea of doubles.

Life on the Wall

lillian41 Comments

Can the rough stuff on the wall.
Spray it rough, slingin’ words. Crap tough graffiti.
It’s me sprawled here. My stuff. My hustle.
Sling the crap y’all. This ain’t no conference call.
Life sucks, no shit. And you’re no prize, sweetie.
That paint’s my soul. Hands rough from slingin’ shit.
Are ya listnin’? I can scrap the words and shift to muscle.
Shit happens and guess what? I’m still here takin’ the hit.

mexican-graffiti-1442507

Photo Credit: Audrey Johnson. A San San (means three three in Chinese) written for Day 14, NaPoWriMo.  A San San is a seven line poem, ABCABDCD rhyme scheme with three “terms”  repeated three times. Also written for dVerse Open Link Night!

Forecast Error

lillian12 Comments

Once delicately balanced
upturned to the sun,
finely veined plumeria petals
lie strewn across the path.

Last eve’s maelstrom winds
unexpected. Wreaked havoc.
Battering, felling
these blushing blooms.

Perfumed scent mingles
with rotting leaves.
They shall decay
and disappear.

I trusted you,
until you became another.

plumeria-flower-2-1543659

National Poetry Writing Month continues with day eleven’s prompt: write a poem in which you closely describe an object or place, and then end with a much more abstract line that doesn’t seemingly have anything to do with that object or place, but which, of course, really does. Photo Credit: Bert Grantges.

Glass Jar World

lillian9 Comments

I am afloat
no eyes, no touch
in this senseless world.

This cadaver cavernous world
dreams dissipated, despair afloat
you see me, but do not touch.

Ignored. Here, not. Not for touch.
Gasping in your fragile world,
I am no one, simply afloat,

afloat, a glass shard, in your no-touch world.

IMG_4099

Tritina written for Day 7, NaPoWriMo. The Tritina: three, three line stanzas and a final concluding line. Three “end words” are used to conclude the lines of each stanza, in a set pattern of ABC, CAB, BCA and all three words must appear in the final line. Another poetry sudoku! Photo Credit: Pickled 2, 2009 by Antoine A. R. Hunt, Bermudian, 1967: in the Collection of the Bermuda National Gallery.

Solidarity

lillian32 Comments

Gaggle me group think
wisps of snipers
brooding, hence their evil
festers in murmuration.

Starlings not, cowards yes,
they prey on innocence
maim, murder,
crow hatred as they kill.

Life and exhaltation, a lark to them,
bombs strapped on chests
with heaven their goal,
wing straight to hell.

Let us become congregations
like plovers in flight with doves.
For they are small as one
but pure of heart,

powerful as they soar
symbols, nay beings
of peace and love.

white-dove-spirit-of-peace-1244811

Written for dVerse. De asks us to write a poem using the names given to gatherings of birds. She thoughtfully provided a wonderful list from which I’ve chosen the following: flight of doves, brood of hens, congregation of plovers, exhaltation of larks, gaggle of geese, murmuration of starlings, murder of crows, and wisp of snipe.  Photo credit: Nevit Dilmen.

 

What Fury We Hath Wrought

lillian32 Comments

Moon sliver fades in and out through shards of clouds in pitch black sky. I peer from my window, wrapped in warm flannel, pane thrown open. Tree frogs mute with wailing winds. And I know, though I cannot see, ocean currents are whipped in fury, hurling themselves upon eroded shore.

Mother beats her breast
mea culpa my children
peace I cannot bring.

moon-vi-1189221

Written for dVerse Poet’s Pub, Haibun Monday #9. Hosted by Rajani who asks that our subject include the moon. Photo by Lucretia.