Prompted Poetry

Calendars           (#Ragtag Daily Prompt)

 

Placed like weirs

square against the wall, gridded

girding against thieves of time

Yet the days slip by

our great nets dragging

weighting our passage

 

Start at the corners, cut

let the net loosen, unravel

let the days swim free, escape

unstrained upon the tide

atop the surf.

 

The Ragtag Daily Prompt for this Sunday, is “calendar”. Thank you ChristineGoodnough and the Ragtag community.

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                                 September

summer’s air conditioner

hangs in fall’s window

tinny windswept glockenspiel

percussive raindrops

ringing gray belled tunes

 

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trifoliate flags

red spangled summer sparklings

wild strawberry lawn

This is my response to MindLoveMisery’s Menagerie’s Heeding Haiku with Chèvrefeuille prompt. The theme is Summer Love. Well, I love that it’s summer and that the wild strawberries that make up part of my “lawn” are in fruit. 

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Still.
Yellow
crocuses
ghosting the lawn.
Perennial memorials. Still gone.

Inspired by Kat Myrman’s  May 30th tetractys. A tetractys is a five line poem with 1, 2, 3,4, and 10 syllables in those lines. Kat posts a poem every day! and is a great one for providing great examples of interesting and sometimes unique forms of poetry. She also hosts a weekly writing prompt for 280 character flash fiction, Twittering Tales. Check her out.

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Centered

I am the Moon that orbits the Earth

I am the Earth; I am her Oceans that gather Moon’s beams

 

I am the woman who gathers water

I am the woman whose water breaks

 

I am the woman who carries water

Who nourishes, who cleanses, who sustains the child

 

I am the child who swings the bucket in play

Denying gravity with centripetal force

 

I am the child who gathers gifts from oceans

Who collects moonbeams in the bucket

 

I am the Child become the Woman who gathers water

Becomes the Oceans becomes the Moon becomes a centered force

 

Written for Carrot Ranch.

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Spring reigns triumphant

winter trembles in retreat

licking icy wounds

#hangtenstories 846 #haiku

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Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt # 95: the challenge write a poem or prose with exactly 25 words and to include the prompt, “Devotion”.

A perpetual dance of devotion

Attraction that moves mighty oceans

They spin and they swoon

The Earth and the moon

Held aloft through orbital motions.

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For Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt # 48: a poem in five lines, where each lines is no longer than 10 words, inspired by the word prompt, “Glimpse”. A tanka, then. 

 

uncertain future

unrecognized Familiar

glimpsed while passing by

this one quickly looks away

Why won’t this one meet my eye?

***

These two haiku are in response to the challenge at  Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #26 Revise That Haiku . They are not so much revisions, but prompted by the originals, which are included.

nonchalantly pissing
off the side of the road
soaking the young weeds
© Santoka Taneda (1882-1940)

writing these poems

I’m squatting in the open

pissing in the wind

 

the summer moon
there are a lot of paper lanterns
on the street
© Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)

Easter’s eve, moon full

shining hopes of agape

cracked egg in plain view

***

 

Sammi Cox, in her Weekend Writing Prompt # 46, would have us write either a fable or a haiku about patience. 

enduring patience

of both  water and mountain

the valley knows well

 

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RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #189 Zen&Noise

 

syllables the cymbals

wondrous manifestation

silent symbols clapped

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Haiku Horizons week 208 prompt for this week is “vanish“. 

Wild imaginings!

Envisioned. Understood. Seen.

Voila! Vanished. Gone.

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Written in response to: Colleen’s Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 65: “Ambition & Change” (#SynonymsOnly)

Unfolding purpose

complete metamorphosis

of dreams and yearnings

insatiate hungering

cast away from hollow husks.

 

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Thin Cover

Merely singed, not burned

Shallow scrapes, not deeply cut

Crusty words, that’s all.

 

In response to: RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #182 Singe&Deep Posted on January 1, 2018 by Ronovan

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Time

Time keeps itself keeps

on marching takes off flying

stands still Time watches

all winding down coming up

running out in the end Time

will remain Time keeps itself

ticking Time keeps its own beat.

 

 

Written in response to Sammi Cox’s weekend writing prompt #33; Poetry Challenge – Write a poem of no more than 20 lines where the first line starts with the word “Time” and is repeated at least twice.

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Solstice Pantoum

 A perfect Christmas morning

Snow has fallen like forgiveness in the night

The day dawns bright and clear, sparkles with promise

Winter has just begun

 

Snow has fallen like forgiveness in the night

Light returning, the darkest day is past

Winter has just begun

Turning our faces to the light, we recognize a gift

 

Light returning, the darkest day is past

The day dawns bright and clear, sparkles with promise

Turning our faces to the light, we recognize a gift

A perfect Christmas morning

 

Written in response to ‘Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie’, ‘Saturday Mix’,#LuckyDip; a pantoum about the holidays. 

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first snow soft falling

in voluminous whispers

poems unwritten

 

In response to heeding-haiku-with-chevrefeuille “First Snow” #mindlovemiserysmenagerie

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Breezes don’t portend

Breezes stir the heart, bring peace

Sweep away ill winds.

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breezes whisper soft

muted messages on leaves

change is in the air

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Two haiku in response to “Breeze” prompted by Haiku Horizons. 

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Untracked snow, blank page

a slight depression erupts

explosion of partridges

and a poem roosts

in the frost dusted hemlock.

The Real Toads at Imaginary Gardens wanted a poem for their Tuesday Platform.

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To distant lands by seasons drawn

Penning map lines against the sky

I wingless watch until they’ve gone

To distant lands by seasons drawn.

 Silence echoes in the wake of song

Mere memories ghost my eyes

To distant lands by seasons drawn

Penning map lines against the sky.

 

A triolet about a journey for Sammi Cox’s weekend writing prompt # 30

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     PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

A hoarder of emptiness

Just amasses more of less

Has so little, more and more

All that nothing to stock and store.

Lots of nothing hunted and gathered

Unable to see that none of it matters

Blinded by what has been amassed

Distracted by all that is gone and past.

Hiding behind collections of stuff

Never having nearly enough

All that nothing, more and more

So much, so little, to stock and store

For Friday Fictioneers at https://rochellewisoff.com.

 

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unbroken anthem

until her song was over

she would play the tune

Twofer: written in response to Twittering Tales #59 and  RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #176 Broken&Over.

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A tanka  incorporating the words mystery & dream , prompted by Kiwinana. 

 

another message

crows

ink upon autumn sky

calling to be read

enciphered mysteries writ

decoded in wakeful dreams

***

 

Check out Mick Talbot‘s work, using epanalepsis as a poetic form. This is something I wrote for the kids as we messed about with math and poetry at school. 

 

Hi kid
Did
You know
I was too
Once a kid
Like you?

I’m so glad you asked
For a poem today
Now we’re both unmasked
two kids both with something to say
You might, might you
as well be bold
for you
will too
Once be old.

You like, kid?
A once too
Was I.
Know you?
Did, kid.
Bye.

 

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I offer a cinquain in response to Colleen Chesebro’s challenge #53.  (mist & shape)

 

Autumn’s

shape shifting hues…

leaves fall, extinguished flames

chill morning mists linger; summer’s

gray shade.

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I offer a tanka in response to Colleen Chesebro’s challenge #52.  (joy & spirit)

 

winds of wonder lift

fledgling song bravely winging

gifting us its flight

spiriting aloft our hopes

in chorused hearts joy alights

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Carpe Diem’s Vision Quest revived #1 deep silence, three days of writing haiku (only haiku), within 24 hours. The Vision Quest takes three days so you have to create three haiku, every day one haiku.

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8/30/17

listen underneath

bird whistling insect thrumming

sunlight shouts blue skies

***

8/29/17

peppered horizon

clamoring crows mustering

at dusk pines darkened

***

8/28/17

uncertain passage

sounding the depths of silence

surfacing at last

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with every gust of wind

we are shaken to our roots

resilience tested

 

 with every gust of wind

twisting tearing our resolve

branches beseech sky

 

we are shaken to our roots

faithful embracings hold fast

bending not breaking

 

resilience tested

another storm to weather

gatherings of strength

 

Written in response to Chèvrefeuille’s Gift #6 gust of wind, the challenge being to write a troiku beginning with “with every gust of wind”.

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intricate problem

chaos and order entwined

two headed serpent

admitting and denying

living and dying

 

Written in response to: T.J.’s Household Haiku, prompt words “chaos and order”and Sammi Cox’s “intricate problem” weekend writing prompt #15.

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storehouse and stronghold

roots contain distillations

of summer’s sunlight

pondering winter’s deep dreams

renewed wisdom holding fast

Written for Kwinana’s weekly tanka prompt # 53; roots, wisdom

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Dancing across night

Unseen daydreams in day’s light

Fireflies, sparks of bliss

A response to T.J.”s weekly Haiku challenge, cue words “dream, dance”.

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Thought of this for the June 22nd Carrot Ranch prompt, Dreams. It is from For the Girls.

Now

Now I see you

sometimes in dreams.

The last time, you were a tree

or were trapped in a tree,

that was trapped in a pot.

A stunted, potted balsam fir you were

in that dream.

I wish I’d slept longer.

To be with you was good

to free you would have been better.

I wish that you could

have told me

what to do.

Before awaking I had thought

to bring you to Vermont

maybe plant you there.

Now I think you needed more

more than transplanting

in that dream.

No, if I could sleep on this

I’d not commit you

to any geography, nor to the time

it takes to be a tree.

You wanted to be free;

your breath caught on every needle;

cellular rooms you wandered

through root and stem

incessantly.

I wish I’d slept longer.

I should pull you from that pot

I would give up selfish thoughts;

No transplanting;

Transformation!

I’d release you through fire.

Oh, how balsam crackles and sparks!

Brightly, briefly flashes

vibrant stars then ashen

flutters dark.

And how it breaks my heart

that I awakened too early from that dream

when you appeared to me

as a tree.

*****

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only Dawn, sly fox

can steal the full of moon’s light

golden cloud-nests stripped.

*****

Written in response to TJ’s Household Haiku; using the words full and only, and for Haiku Horizons, prompt word steal, with a nod to the flash prompt at Carrot Ranch, prompt word dawn.

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adrift in dark sleep

bird sounds recall dawn’s fresh air

lift me into light

******

Written in response to TJ’s Household Haiku; using the words air and drift.

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Sparkling water flows

smoothing boulders, whispering

secrets of rivers.

Universal wisdom swirls

ungrasped by our clenching hands.

******

#weeklytankachallenge -47  “water & universe” Tanks for the tanka prompts Kiwinana.

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Just found this in my files. I wrote it in response to the election.

Enumeration  (electorate math)

I am

one three millionth

as a number

very small.

I am one

of three million.

You are too?

That’s two.

And also she?

That’s three.

Actually

there’s three million

ones

like us

three million who

were discounted.

Three million three millionths.

That’s one

big number

whose common denomination

is that we

did not count

in this our own

great nation.

Three million three millionths

rise as one

indivisible

for any number

divided by one

is that number.

It would not be improper

for all us ones

to rise,

to converge, raise

our voices surge

in our own

enumeration.

And it would not be improbable

to estimate

the discounted

to be innumerable

within this our own great nation.

Rise as one

make whole

the fractures

heal the divisions.

Cancel out hate

in this our own

one world.

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Concentric circles

Remembrances recorded

Cellular annals

Growth beheld by rooted seed

Wisdom ringing from center.

******

Back at Kiwinana’s site, Ramblings of a Writer  for weeklytankachallenge-46.   Take the words “growth & wisdom” and write a tanka poem. 

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Oscillating tides

keeping time; moon magic draws

unmoored dreams aloft

adrift afloat approaching

serenity, harmony.

*****

Found #weeklytankachallenge over at Kiwinana’s site, Ramblings of a Writer.  This is for weeklytankachallenge-45.   “dreams & achieved” 

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