dVerse

Flight

lillian29 Comments

Surrounding reality melts as I seek the comfort of sleep. In that half-aura, lying with eyes closed, weight of quilt on chest, I work to release tense shoulders, facial muscles. Within my mind’s eye, weightless arms rise, outstretched. I float above my body, cares released, and soar into the night.

heron, tense, alert
dives hungry into dark sea
soars with silver fish


Björn hosts haibun Monday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets. Photo credit:  Bird Sirin by artist Sergey Solomko. We’re asked today to find artwork that does not illustrate our haibun, rather compliments its meaning. Haibun: short prose, not fiction, followed by haiku. Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time. 

Imaginary Friend

lillian14 Comments

My Namrah, fantastical beast,
is always waiting near.
When fear accompanies darkness,
I know he will be here.

He flies me to the shining stars,
appears within my dreams.
Lifts me up on widespread wings
and soars through sequined streams.

pegasus-695830_1280

Frank is our guest host at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets, and asks us to write a poem in common meter. This is one of the most difficult types of poetry for me to master. Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time.

Ode to an Anniversary

lillian41 Comments

We’ve travelled together
through all these years
hand in hand, even apart,
exploring each twist and turn.

So much of our story behind us now,
turned down corners on favorite pages.
Still, we walk on, more slowly perhaps,
wizened bodies and fuller hearts.

Listen my love
as we choose our next path,
to these words I quietly say.
Thank you time, thank you you,
for this and every day.


Today Mish hosts dVerse, the virtual pub for poets. She interviews Ally R Saunders, a talented artist who spent most of her life in Nanaimo, includes some of her paintings and leads us to her website. I chose her painting Many Paths as the muse for today’s post. (My 47th anniversary is February 7 and Kim at dVerse just celebrated her anniversary)  dVerse opens with this prompt at 3 PM Boston time.

Quadrille Me a Dawn

lillian50 Comments

We are immersed.
Polar night
darkness unseamed.

Evil dawns as sun does not.
Erodes hope,
essence of democracy.

Revels in abysmal decrees
hurled again and again,
narcissistic plague.

Scepter spews clues
to personality disorder,
alternative reality.

We know however,
the midnight sun
shall rise.


Quadrille (poem consisting of exactly 44 words – not including title) posted for dVerse, virtual pub for poets. Today Björn asks us to use the word “dawn.” Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time. Come join us! Photo from 2015 Alaska cruise. 

Sunshine the world . . .

lillian28 Comments

unfurl hope
march, sing
stand resolute and tall.

Answer the call
to freedom this world,
compassion for all.



A second verbification poem for http://dversepoets.com dVerse today. Using nouns as verbs — sunshine and freedom. Saturday, January 21, 2017. First day of a global movement that has the potential for immense power. Photos from Boston’s Women’ Walk for America which included 100,000+ women, men and children. dVerse, the virtual pub for poets. Come join us!

One Night

lillian44 Comments

My eyes cannot see my face
and yet, in this room
this darkened place,

I see me in your love
your soft whisper breath
your fingertips across my skin.

You are my looking glass
image me into our dreams
light my heart, my soul,

light stars within my eyes
explode my senses,
nova me this night.

And then, as passions fade,
we shall sleep entwined
until the morrow’s dawn.

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I’m hosting Poetics at dVerse today – that wonderful virtual pub for poets. I’m asking folks to write a poem that includes a unique verbification – a noun or adjective used as a verb.  Think Google — originally a proper noun, the name of a company. People started to say “google that” and through repetition, it became a verb. How about “ganache me” — wouldn’t that be delectable?  My post, One Night, verbifies nova – a star that suddenly flares and then fades slowly. Come join us at dVerse to read and enjoy; and maybe, also, to post your own verbification! Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time. Photo: in public domain.

Haibun Delight

lillian41 Comments

I sit waiting. Orchestral music building. Gilded theatrical surroundings. Audience hushed. Clara, in white flimsy floating gown, on pointe. Drosselmeyer’s back to us. His arms outstretched dramatically. I know what is coming. The audience knows what is coming. And yet we gasp as the tree begins to increase in size, taller and taller. And our applause grows louder and louder and spirits soar higher and higher.

darkness waits for dawn
sliver grows to orb of light
always gifts the morn

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Today we have a surprise guest host at dVerse.  Bar opens at 3 PM Boston time for haibun Monday.  A haibun is prose, which cannot be fiction, followed by a haiku. My prose refers to that most magical scene in the Nutcracker when the Christmas tree grows before our eyes. Photo: best sunrise photo I’ve ever taken in Provincetown!

My Choice

lillian37 Comments

Crimson me
solitary vibrant leaf
bright among the detritus of fall

Crimson me
rising sun ‘neath lone streak of cloud
splashing daylight into roiling ocean’s blue

Crimson me
hand-tied twisted rambling tail
flying high with diamond kite in sky

Crimson me
red rose beribboned bright
silent love song from stoic gone rogue

Palette of smudged pastels and oils
color me in life’s brightest hue
more than a blush, a sheen

I choose patina
to shine, to soar, to sing
I choose to live in love

Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets. Victoria is tending bar today and reminds us how important the role of repetition is in our lives. As it can be in poetry. So today we write using repetition – a phrase, a line; a sound or a syllable within a line or stanza.
Photos are from Bermuda and Cape Cod, except for the rose which is in public domain. B

Defarge She is Not

lillian20 Comments

She be a knitter and weaver of love,
needles held surely in confident hands.
Magical work with rainbows of color
wee dresses, wool caps, and warmest afghans.

Strands of affection twist patterns supreme,
yarn disappearing at quickening pace.
Fingers so agile, loop thread over thread
artist sans easel, her lap as her base.

She smiles at her world and when she does err
pauses, examines and looks to assess.
What has been done? Rewind. Amend. Restart.
Good pattern for all, for life of success.

purple-yarn-1424788

Late for dVerse Tuesday’s Poetics. Kim asks us to write a poem about an artisan, using the form/style of the famous Irish poet, Seamus Heaney. I chose to emulate Heaney’s poem Follower: written in stanzas of 4 lines, each 10 syllables in length. Also, two of the lines in each stanza rhyme — most often ABCB.  This was a real challenge for me. Which is why I’m posting on Wednesday for Tuesday’s Poetics! I do enjoy a challenge…and always learn when I’m dealing with rhyme which I find the most difficult aspect of poetry. You’ve probably noticed that I mainly write in free verse. The title refers to Madame Defarge, the villainous woman in Tale of Two Cities who sits and knits, seemingly innocuously. In reality, she is knitting into the garment, the names of those to be executed.

. . . and their spirits shall descend

lillian68 Comments

like tears gathered in veiled mist.
No loud incendiary words
nor rattling of chains.
Whisper soft,
they cling to mountains
obscure city views,
tall buildings topless
windows moist with deeds past.
They await a new awakening
renewed warmth of will,
a dawn of hope.

Quadrille (44 words) written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets. Today’s word is “whisper.”  Photos: left, taken on our trip to Alaska; right by Jesse Miksic.
May the spirit and hope of Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Barrack Obama, and John Lewis infuse our land.