dVerse

Ode To My High School Gym

lillian19 Comments

 

Home to . . .

blue onesied teenage girls
delicately batting badmintons,
and pimpled boys man-upping
in raucous dodge-ball games.

Crew cuts and ratted Aqua Net dos.

School assemblies.
Seats assigned by homeroom,
alphabetical misery.

Six-foot hoopsters.
Full-skirted
ball gown under-frames
and the tall gangly ball-shooting kind.

Hand-wringing game-ending cacophony,
and teenage clutching
Johnny-Mathis-crooning
sock-hop last chance
he-has-to-be-the-one dance.

Crepe paper.
Gathered in strips,
duct tape hand grips
bouncing in pompom cheers.
Stretched————————–
transformed to ceiling
with hanging mirrored ball
above parading bouffant heads.

Embarrassed girls
side-lined on folding chairs
watching nervous girls
lined up in pretended calm,
waiting to learn
if they would be the one
adorned in prom queen crown.

Fifty years later,
we stand on your creaking boards.
Is it possible? Is this the space?
Old age does not become you,
our once hallowed place.

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Frank hosts dVerse today, the virtual pub for poets, asking us to write an ode (poem of praise). No required form, meter or content. Photo: from my 1965 senior year high school annual, Waukegan Township High School in Waukegan, Illinois. Prom court….I was on a folding chair 🙂 And yes, there’s a metal hoop skirt under that second gown. You had to be really careful when you sat down! In the actual photo, you can see the basketball court lines on the gym floor. Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time.

Death Be Eternity

lillian62 Comments

I stand
feet solid upon this earth.
What then
when ashes float
upon ocean’s tide?

What of my spirit
my energy
my soul,
clamoring for release
from embers’ dust?

Shall my essence
melt amongst the stars?
Dissolve into tincture of dawn?
Swirl within some galaxy
unknown to earthly man?

Mingle through generations,
welcome those yet to come?
Somewhere beyond this realm,
somewhere
out there beyond?

Perhaps this earthen home
is but a way station
weighed down by skin and bone,
awaiting release into a dominion
of absolute timelessness.

An otherworldly universe,
glimpsed only by the dreamers,
those who peer
beyond this spatial dwelling place.

A perfect storm of turbulent gases

Photo Credit: ESA/Hubble;  European Space Agency, NASA, and J. Hester (Arizona State University)

Posted for dVerse where I’m delighted to host Tuesday Poetics, asking everyone to look up!  Write a poem inspired by one of four photos, taken and released by the Hubble telescope, included in the prompt. Jump into the photo, imagine its world; write about space or not. Simply be inspired by the image and see where it takes you!

dVerse, the virtual pub for poets, opens at 3 PM Boston time. Come join us!

NOTE:  I emailed the Hubble site from which the four available images come. Permission was given for this prompt, providing each poet includes the exact photo credit as listed on the site and thus copied to my prompt. 

 

Film Noir, Final Act

lillian52 Comments

Cue dream journey.
Breeze flickers, curls, skips, dances.
Creaking ghosts kick clouds,
grin, giggle, twist, shimmer.
Whispered sounds spring free,
echo, bubble, balloon.
Still lull spills open,
sparks storm, jars bliss.
Drizzled rose-red blood-shadows
pepper dawn, scar green leaves.
Fear spices breath.
Hope melts.

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De hosts dVerse today. We must include the word “kick” in a Quadrille: poem of exactly 44 words, sans title.  Quadrille Mondays occur every other week. Each quadrille series includes 44 Mondays: a different prompt each Monday. We need only include that week’s prompt in our poem. WE ARE NOW AT THE END OF THIS SERIES, MONDAY #44!  This post includes all 44 words given in the series thus far: kick, creak, hope, spice, free, bliss, dream, fear, flicker, pepper, dance, bubble, grin, lull, melt, shimmer, twist, skip, green, breeze, spill, rose, journey, jar, leaves, open, shadow, cloud, spark, cue, breath, scar, curl, whisper, dawn, ghost, giggle, drizzle, still, echo, sound, storm, spring, and balloon.  ‘Tis the final act of the Film Noir series. Bar opens at 3 PM Boston time.  Come join us!

Thursday’s Prayer

lillian60 Comments

What shall I write this early morn,
when night has barely turned to dawn?

Of hope within my soul,
to see the gull soar past
beyond my window’s pale,
toward ocean’s rhythmic shore.

Of wind chimes’ sound,
their echoes from afar.
Harmonious song
kissed aloft by breezes soft.

Drifting from mind to mouth,
‘tis a prayer upon my lips.
Tears but dew upon my cheek,
I whisper joy-stained words

thankful for every day.

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It’s Open Link Thursday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poetry writers. That means you can post a poem of your choosing — no prompt today. Grace is tending the pub and invites all to stop by!

 

Velveteen Love

lillian16 Comments

Magic is very strange and wonderful.
The moon had risen,
the fronds of the bracken
shone like frosted silver.

The windows stood wide open.
The loveliest fairy
went swooping about like a great wind
amongst the flowers and the butterflies.

At Last! At Last!
When all the house was silent,
love stirred.
To be loved
forever and ever.

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Victoria is tending bar at dVerse today, the virtual pub for poets. She asks us to do some Erasure Poetry. A new form for me. We choose a book or text and by “erasing words” from it (or an alternative way to say it is by choosing words from it), make up a poem of our own. We may only use words as they appear in the book/text. We cannot add any of our own words.  Each line in Velveteen Love is an exact phrase from Margery Williams The Velveteen Rabbit. Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time. Come join us!

Thank You, Elizabeth

lillian18 Comments

I recognized it.
A little pocket of silence.
I was hiding,
feeling sad and brittle
and about seven thousand years old.

A cause for revolution,
all this swinging.
You wanna see pretty colors?
More razzle dazzle?
Be happy?

Just sit down,
find the balance.
Shut the door.
Cease your relentless participation.
Accept the best I can do.

Just
be.

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Victoria is tending bar at dVerse today, the virtual pub for poets. She asks us to do some Erasure Poetry. A new form for me. We choose a book or text and by “erasing words” from it (or an alternative way to say it is by choosing words from it), make up a poem of our own. We cannot add our own words…all words must be from the book or text. Each line in Thank You, Elizabeth is an exact phrase from Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. Punctuation is mine. Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time. Come join us!

Lost

lillian38 Comments

She lurched through life
masked as some kind of bandit
hoping to steal affection,

waiting impatiently
for the mardi gras of life
to throw beads her way.

She stumbled on embankments
peripheral vision hampered,
mask drawn too close to her soul.

Glancing downward,
sun blinding, glare too harsh,
she saw the rat staring from gutter’s grate.

Tomorrow would be yesterday.
No map to guide her.
she finally gave up hope.

wanderratte, rattus norvegicus, common rat, brown rat, norway rat

Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets where today Mish is asking us to write a poem that somehow deals with the word “mask.”

Film Noir, Take 43

lillian46 Comments

Blissful dream deteriorates.
Breeze flickers, curls, skips, dances.
Spice jar creaks, spills open.
Greenish ghosts spring free,
grinning, shimmering, twisting.
Breathless whisper sounds echo.
Clouds balloon, bubble, spark storm.
Drizzled rose-red blood-shadows
pepper dawn. Hope melts.
Journeyman giggling fearfully,
leaves scarred.
Cue still lull.

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Grace hosts dVerse today. We must include the word “creak” in a Quadrille: poem of exactly 44 words, sans title.  Quadrille Mondays occur every other week. Each quadrille series includes 44 Mondays: a different prompt each time. We need only include that week’s prompt in our poem. This post includes all 43 words given in the series thus far: creak, hope, spice, free, bliss, dream, fear, flicker, pepper, dance, bubble, grin, lull, melt, shimmer, twist, skip, green, breeze, spill, rose, journey, jar, leaves, open, shadow, cloud, spark, cue, breath, scar, curl, whisper, dawn, ghost, giggle, drizzle, still, echo, sound, storm, spring, and balloon.  Bar opens at 3 PM Boston time.  Come join us!

Haibun for Geiranger

lillian46 Comments

Floating on a massive cruise ship, some days with ocean on every side as far as the eye can see, I am reminded that about seventy-one percent of the Earth’s surface is water-covered. The ocean makes up about ninety-six percent of that. I am one person among two-thousand-plus, traversing just a portion of these waters on this day, in this place.

Docked in Geiranger, Norway, the fjord rises up around us. We rest at the feet of Mother Earth. Her shawl of earthen tones and greenery spills out from the sea. Her pearlescent snow capped peaks rise far into the sky. Off ship, we feel very very small. A motor coach takes us up a winding road; so steep the bus seems angled in a partial recline position. We stop where snow makes further progress impossible. Spring melt has just begun. Stepping out into fresh, clear, crisp air, we look out and down. Our ship is dwarfed by the mountains. While the ocean occupies more surface space, landmass leads in terms of relief, colors, and grandeur. I stand, a speck amongst generations who have lived before me and those who will live after me, absolutely mesmerized.

winter’s snow-capped peaks
deter footsteps upon the pristine
Seven Sisters wait patiently

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Bjorn hosts Haibun Monday at dVerse today, asking us to write about water. In homage to Bjorn’s Scandinavian roots,  I’m writing about our cruise through the Norwegian fjords. The Seven Sisters are magnificent famous falls in the UNESCO-protected Geiranger fjord. Alas, since the spring melt was just beginning when we were there, five were dry and two were quite small in output. They need the full spring melt to achieve their grandeur.  Photos taken in this magnificent place. The sun was shifting as we were there. Just a gorgeous day!

Limited Shelf-Life

lillian15 Comments

Glass blown unicorn
stored on dusty shelf,
grimy and forlorn.
Mocked by pewter elf,
steals its love of self.
Always within sight,
craving touch its plight.

Hear my cries, it warns.
Save me, save yourself.
Magic turns to mocking scorn,
powers drained from self
locked upon on a shelf.
Give me freedom’s light
for only then shall I have might.

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Written for dVerse where Frank hosts today, asking us to write a Chaucerian Stanza / Rhyme Royal poem. 7 metrical lines per stanza with ababbcc rhyme scheme . . . can be up to 3 stanzas. I attempted Trochee Meter: first syllable accented, second syllable not, with 5 syllables per line (well, a couple lines have more than 5).  I am ALWAYS challenged by anything with rhyme and anything with meter. For me, it’s very hard to have the sense/meaning of the poem front and center when I’m consumed with trying to get the rhyme and rhythm right. Always learning at dVerse!  Muse here is a glass menagerie collection my mother used to have on a glassed-in knick-knack shelf.