You are my sunrise as are friends, family, birthdays, holiday celebrations, graduation festivities hot fragrant coffee smiles from passersby crescendos in concertos hugs and kisses toddlers stomping in puddles charitable donations springtime flowers random acts of kindness. Sunshine, a constant, even behind the clouds.
Written for Quadrille Monday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. I’m tending the pub and asking folks to include the word “sunrise” in their poem of exactly 44 words, sans title.
In all the chaos across our world, the sun still rises every day, even when it resides behind the darkest of clouds. For me, that is representative of hope – the idea that love and goodness are always present – even in the stormiest of times. Sunrise photo taken in Provincetown, MA – at the very tip of Cape Cod.
A new day, sun shining spreads its warmth. Rays of hope still glisten on foam capped waves. Steady tide still rhythmically constant beneath visible turbulent churning.
Autumnal brilliance shed. Trees bared to skeletal frames understand new seasons will arrive. Therefore, I choose to model hope, love and civility. Our next generations need us to believe.
Written on this day, after the 2024 election. Image from Pixabay.com
. . . 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!
I want to write an American sonnet today without writing the orange guy’s name. The pathological liar who mocked a disabled reporter, bragged he could grab a woman’s pussy at will, enabled and brags about the end of Roe vs Wade. The one who was impeached and is an accused felon. The guy who wants to axe the Affordable Care Act, ending health care coverage for 45 million people; hawks bibles and tee shirts and golden sneakers. The self-serving bastard who denigrates Gold Star families, and the war record of John McCain. Silences a porn star and makes deals with the tabloid press. The narcissist who incited an insurrection and turned the once proud GOP into a cult.
I want to write an American sonnet today but I can’t – because it’s too depressing. I want this orange man to rot, collapse, be tossed from the public’s eye. I want sanity and real truth and empathy. This is my addendum to the prompt, I want hope to prevail.
Written for NaPoWriMo, day 27 where the prompt is “to write an “American sonnet.…an American sonnet is shortish (generally 14 lines, but not necessarily!), discursive, and tends to end with a bang, but there’s no need to have a rhyme scheme or even a specific meter. “Image is from Pixabay.com at least six years ago.
What if every dawn illuminated hope? What if every house was a home? What if words had only positive meanings? What if gross only meant twelve dozen? What if thirst only happened to plants? What if everyone holding hands produced a circle of love? What if politicians had no power over a woman’s womb? What if simple soap and water could eliminate prejudice? What if war was only a card game? What if every dawn illuminated peace?
Written for NaPoWriMo day 14. The prompt is to write an anaphora: a poem of 10 lines where each line begins with the same word. Photo is from Cape Cod some years ago.
Her iridescent spirit carries her through the golden dust swirls of the Orion nebula. Fourteen hundred light years away from earth, she awaits the right moment. She is the Unique One. A star whose heart pulses in time with the ebb and flow of ocean tides. She is composed of compassion and love. Once a nova who flashed too close to the moon, she witnessed the inhumanity of humanity. She must find her way through constellations and galaxies, to find one human creature she can claim. And in that claiming will come illumination. A flame. Kindling for a paradigm shift. The only hope for earth to survive.
Photo image from the telescope of John McKaveney: The Orion Nebula.
Written in response to NaPoWriMo, prompt for day three: to write a surreal prose poem.
Recessed window’s wide ledge holds spirits for drinker’s escape. Time out desperately needed from hatred, tyranny, spewed vindictiveness, misogyny, racism, and lies. Broad brushstrokes have not, cannot hide, underlying malevolence.
Clean canvass craved, painted in meaningful hues. Foundation layer of iridescent justice. Calm cerulean waters governed by tides of crimsoned love. Emerald-kindness speckled shores of honesty. Sun-flowered happiness rollicking beneath cobalt cloudless skies.
Is there a bard to create this script? A Dali, Miro, or Kahlo to produce this surrealism? Who among us will ensure it becomes reality? Human dignity bathed in light, tinted with opalescent caring, glowing in a patina of hope.
Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today I’m hosting Open Link Night where folks are invited to post any one poem of their choice, no form, rhyme scheme etc. required OR use Van Gogh’s painting, Studio Window, to motivate their creative juices.
AND you are invited to join us LIVE (with audio and video), on Saturday, March 16th from 10 to 11 AM New York time. Simply click here, and then click on the link you’ll find for dVerse LIVE. You’re invited to read a poem of your choosing, or simply come sit in and listen. Drop in for a few minutes or come and stay the hour. Although we’re an international group, all readings and conversations are in English. We’ve had folks from Sweden, the UK, Trinidad Tobago, Finland, Pakistan, the US, Kenya, Australia, and India. I do hope you’ll join us – the more the merrier!
Create barrier islands to keep out hatred, people who lack empathy.
Envelop me in sea breezes that waft smiles.
Let a gentle sun warm and fan kindness among all.
Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today is Quadrille Monday! Melissa asks us to include the word “lagoon” in our poem of exactly 44 words, sans title. I chose to verbify the word. Photo take in Bermuda in 2018.
As the sun sets on this day may we pray to remember the good that surrounds us, the good that can be.
Help us to find our way to a kinder world. May each of us contemplate sameness.
Our sameness. Our humanity. May leaders from all countries all religions, all ethnicities, strive for gentle caring.
May we look in the mirror eyes and hearts open, and find each other.
Written today for Open Link Night at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. In today’s world, with so much strife, division, and warring factions, I thought it important to offer this prayer.
dVerse will go live today from 3 to 4 PM EST. Folks from around the globe are invited to post a poem and read it aloud or simply to come and listen. A link will be provided at 3 PM EST HERE to join us on video and audio for one hour. We will do the same on Saturday morning from 10 to 11 AM EST. Would love to have you join us. The more the merrier!
Photo from sunset in San Diego some years ago. The photo feels peaceful and serene to me….and somehow the sun and the rolling hills in the background remind me of hope for a new day.
lillian the home poet 